Arrived at Bengaluru at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning. After a couple of hours sleep at my sister's we went off to change some money and got out of dusty, noisy, smoky and polluted capital of the state
Arrived in Mysooru, met a few friends and checked into a hotel....
Arrived at Bengaluru at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning. After a couple of hours sleep at my sister's we went off to change some money and got out of dusty, noisy, smoky and polluted capital of the state
Arrived in Mysooru, met a few friends and checked into a hotel

Days 2, 3 and 4Day 2
Next morning we collected our bikes (very pleased with them) and paid the rental upfront. Approximately £250 for the month.

Then on to Ganesh temple at Mysooru palace gates to have the bikes blessed and rode up Chamundi hills. When I used to live in India I used to do hill training on my push bike every Tuesday and Friday mornings so it was nice to remember all of those things.

Ron P seemed to be gobsmacked at the chaos that is road traffic in India but I must say he has taken to it like a duck to water and rides like a local now.

On the way back down we stopped at Nandi - bull temple - where the statue of this humungous bull is carved from a single piece of granite.
On we went to Mysooru palace grounds (didn't fancy looking inside) but luckily saw some elephants tethered way off in the distance. We had to go and check them out. The mahout was obliging and let us get close to the ellies and one of them blessed Ron P with its slippery, snotty snout!

We were keen to get our tour started so we checked out of the hotel knowing we only had an hour's daylight. As it started to get dark, we stopped by a transport cafe where a few locals had gathered. As I was born and brought up around here chatting to them wasn't an issue. We identified one gentleman who owned the fields next door and he kindly let us camp on his land. Pitching the tent in pitch darkness was a challenge for me but we got there.
We sat and had a few drinks in the dark and chatted about the trip so far and what we would do next.

Day 3

I didn't sleep very well but managed to rest up enough to carry on. We were up early around 6 ish and pinched some petrol from one of the bikes and fired up the stove for a nice coffee. The land owner turned up and stayed with us looking at everything we were doing and then told us there was a big new empty house with beds and running water just down the lane where we could've stayed. Thanks!

Oh yeah, the ground was so hard I bent every one of my pegs so bought a dozen 8 inch nails on the way for all of 30p

I wanted to visit my village - Harave - and also show Ron P as rural an Indian life as possible.

We went see what once used to be my ancestors' land and the current owners took us there. One of them shimmied up a coconut tree with nothing more than a bit of string tied to his ankles which was his climbing gear. Coconut water was sweet and quenching. We also visited the house of a boy I used to play with as a kid and had a glass of sweet milk there and off we went on our way.

Riding through very rural mostly unpaved roads we arrived in Shravanabelagola - by about 4 p.m. The ride was slow but enjoyable.
We booked into a hotel, sorry lodgings (hotels in India are cafes and restaurants!) and went up 600 odd steps to see the monolith granite statue of Gomateshwar. Knackered by the time we reached the top.

So when we came down we treated ourselves to a couple of well earned drinks and a meal (curry in case you hadn't guessed) in a Dhaba (transport cafe) which had a bizarre setting - there were about half a dozen or so individual shed like structures made of concrete with a few plastic tables and chairs in each. I guess you could call them booths? Anyway, it was weird and the electrickery in this place was so dodgy we kept losing light due to lack of voltage. God knows what they had rigged up!

Room in lodging was basic but had running water (too much cos the flush leaked) and a couple of beds but at a fiver a night its hard to complain really.

Day 4

We wanted to hit the road pretty early so didn't stop for breakfast. Our next destination would be Belur and checked into another lodging dumped our gear and rode to Halebidu where there are some fantastic stone carved temples. Ron P as was everyone else there were fascinated at the amount of work it would've taken stone masons to complete this project back in 12th century. After an arduous ride back to Belur (my backside is well and truly sore now) we chilled out for a bit and went looking for an internet cafe to update you folks.