July 07 Onwards

As a quick update for you, I ended up leaving the city of Madurai the day after I spoke to you last, and after a few days worth of travelling I reached the Land's End of India on Sunday (which is where I am writing this now).

Actually, here are the final Merc-o-meter readings for you to look at if you like:

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Total number of towns I visited since leaving Chennai: 11
Total number of kilometres I cycled: 870ish
Overall Heat Rating: Like being in a sauna that never switched off.
Total number of times I had to get off the road pronto because of double/triple overtaking manoeuvres: More than 20, less than 25.

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Oh, and for those of you who are interested, here are 3 facts about the Indian Land's End as well:

1) It's proper name is Cape Comorin/Kanyakumari, and it is a small town that is situated in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

2) It makes up the southernmost tip of the mass of land that was an island in the sea before it crashed into the continent above all those years back (this is how the Himalayas were formed by the way).

3) The rough triangular shape of it down here means that you are able to see where 3 different masses of water (the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea) all join up and meet each other.

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Well anyway... back to my travels, and you wanted to check out the state of this strange goodnight John-Boy establishment I had to sleep in the other night!

I mean, I know it only cost me a quid or something and that you get what you pay for, but even so, the bare-bones room I was given was so basic and weird, that all it had in it was a small bed, a red lightbulb and not a lot else!

In fact, it was that far out in there, it was like I was stepping onto the set of a Quentin Tarantino film or something when I walked into the place at first!

Oh, and because I couldn't find any food I could recognise when I was out and about at the local shops a bit later on, it soon became a case of me having to tuck into the single melted toffee I had on me for dinner as well, which ended up adding to the comedy value of things of course!

Ha ha!

The joys of being out in the middle of nowhere, eh?!

Needless to say though, despite me having to put up with all this randomness for a while, it all made sense again when I was pedalling alongside the foothills of the Ghat Mountains a couple of days later...

And when I finally did make it down to this Land's End place I am at now (and I saw sea, sea and sea pop up on 3 sides of me at the end of my journey)... well that was something pretty special too as it goes.

In fact on the subject of which, take a quick look at these if you like (don't worry, there's only 4 of them!)...

Thinking about it actually, it is quite a nice part of the world for me to be visiting when I look at it really (the old Land's End I mean).

I must say it's a shame that the clouds have been blocking the morning sunrise I've been after since I got here though...

But hey... at least this overcast weather has been providing me with a good enough excuse to ignore the Ray-Ban men who have been trying to sell me their fakes every five minutes or so...

Because all I need to do when they come up to me is point up to the sky and walk off... ;o)

Well anyway, sorry to keep it short this week, but I'd better go and put this latest tour of mine to bed now I suppose, as the 4 days I spent with this bug in Madurai recently has in turn meant that I'm a bit behind schedule at the moment I'm afraid!

The thing is you see, I have to be up in Delhi in just under 20 days time in order to meet a partner in crime of mine (this being my Dad!), and there are still loads of things out there for me to see in the meantime, as you could probably well imagine!

I tell you what though... if there are any of you reading this who do fancy doing a similar thing to what I have just done in the future, I must highly recommend the old coconut string they have out here to you actually... as it ended up coming in quite handy as I was travelling around.

Ha ha!

As did my compass for when I was trying to work out which way to exit a couple of the bigger towns funnily enough!...

Hmmm...

As for the local bicycle I was using out here however??...

Well maybe I got myself one that was made on a Friday afternoon or something, so unfortunately I will have to pass judgement on that one for now!

But having said this, it did end up being quite funny when I went and sold it to a waiter at the hotel I was staying at yesterday...

Because first there was the official handshake as the deal was being struck at lunchtime...

Then there was the wife having to suffer a one-and-a-half hour bus journey in order to come and deliver the dosh...

Erm, that in turn was followed by a weird sweaty-brow incident and the whole going back on the handshake attempt of course...

And then at the end of it all, there was also the impromptu handing-over ceremony in a car park that was witnessed by the world and his wife as well!

Ha ha!

All in a day's work, eh?!

Speak soon ;o)