Sunday 17th February

An amazing experience this morning. Bill, Kip, Kirsten and myself, driven by a Tamil driver called Gerald Kennedy, went to a temple at the top of a hill. This small temple has a holy man, Mugam Mugarum, who walks up to the temple every day from his house at the foot of the hill, performs he pooja, sweeps the temple, and mainly sits looking out on a panorama across three states - Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.

We were invited into the temple one by one, to have a prayer and a blessing. I felt really touched by his being so welcoming and by the serenity of the place. Outside the temple, which was the usual bright colours and decorated with Siva and peacocks, there were smaller statues of Siva, Ganesh and Paraviti. All were adorned with bright silk cloaks and fresh flowers.

The holy man told told Gerald that the sound of a hundred or so Bullets arriving had shaken his peace yesterday, so we warned him thatit would be shatered again tomorrow when we left. His peace had been disturbed before by Bullets, when three guys rode theirs up the hill to the temple. He didn't seem to mind though and a laughed a lot, making Bullet noises.

Everyone is totally chilled out today...recovering from hangovers mainly having taken advantage of the fact that we're not riding today. It's back on the bikes tomorrow though, with a 5am start. It's a 300k plus journey, which starts with the climb to 2,500m up 36 hairpin bneds. If my hairpin bend technique is dodgy just now, i think it will be much improved by tomorrow night.