Wednesday 13th February

The best day yet. An amzing ride through some beautiful landscapes. A
long windy stretch early in the day took up to Jog Falls, the highest
falls in India.0it was a truly stunning place where the monkeys
gambolled around and the boys went sound the bikes eating the strings
of flowers that they were decorated with at the start. After viat
the roads straightened out a bit giving long sweeping bends, allogog
up to take in the view a bit more. A couple of things stick with me
from the day. One is that the Indian people are touchingly interested
in who we are and what re are doing. Every time we stop, either as a
liarid group or even just a couple of us, we gather a crowd. It
usually starts with the children but the adults room come too. And it
is a welcoming curiosity that is in no way threatening. Rather than
stare from a distance as we might do in Scotland, they will gather
round, talk to us, touch the bike. The second thing is a curiosity on
my part as to how government operates. I am fascinated to know more
about how their economy works, and how national programmes filter down
in this vast country. we passed miles and miles of roadworks
yesterday, a lot of which seemed to involve women weilding pick axes
and i just wondered who was organising them and paying them.

I had a few hairy moments yesterday...every corner you go around
brings a whole bucket load of potential hazards...cows, pot holes,
tarmac running out sudenly giving way to single track rubble, which
you share with the lasrge trucks and buses that threaten your life
constantly. Coming into Shimoga was frightening. It's a large city
and we pitched up at what seemed lie the rush hour, but actually was
just the way it is all the time. It's the first place we've been that
i've heard the Muslim call to prayer. We passed some Christian burial
places yesterday, but far fewwer than in Goa. Tomorrow is a shorter
distance but lots of off road apparently...plus ca change!