Day 63 - Pedal to the Metal

Jeremy wants to see Varanessi as his final destination, which is a lot of ks away, and I'm very keen to keep an unbroken cycling line, so the solution is to cycle some tourist and slower days all together and then for me to do a few bigger days solo while Emma and Jeremy use a car to catch up. Today was the first big day and after a slow delivery on breakfast I was on the road solo a little later than planned at 8:45. I had carefully planned the route to be as fast as possible as I was a little trepidatious about cycling on my own in India, so was very keen to not be in the dark, and had 170km to cover.

I put my headphones and mask on (it was another full day of mask wearing while cycling 😶‍🌫️) and got in the groove. I actually really enjoyed the time solo, just worrying about me, my audiobook and my speed, except for two things. 1) There is noone to share the hassling and 2) there's noone to focus on the bikes when you stop and get swarmed.

Re 1) it wasn't too bad except for one area. I had one guy trap me against a curve while moving and asking for money, I had one weird pair of older guys videoing me for 10mins who wouldn't b***** off and I had a group of teenagers who actually turned out to be very sweet when they caught me stopped and just wanted photos, among many others. Some people took no for an answer which is nice, some filmed and followed me anyway and some gave up when I ignored them or didn't understand.

Re 2) I ended up doing a fast, long ride on minimal food and water, relying on energy stores from the massive breakfast and dinners, not how I usually cycle high intensity rides. This is a problem in India anyway as there's not much packable food, but it was more so today as I kept my stops to a minumum in the very, very busy towns. I had nice encounter with a stall keeper when I did stop (good choice) but then a nightmare afterwards trying to get peace and quiet to put stuff away, you win and lose! Thanks to a miscommunication I ended up with 15 bananas not 3, so that made up about 50% of the calorie intake today!

Otherwise I just missed the 6 hour elapsed century (a milestone representing a very fast and focused ride) thanks to a train crossing doubling my stopped time and got through the massive cities without too much delay, to arrive at the fancy hotel nice and early and with plenty of time to spare - an encouraging sign for tomorrow! That left plenty of time for a core workout and long relaxing shower!

Thanks to the good standard of English of the staff this evening has been a pleasure and everything very smooth, although there was still one funny communication. I arrived at the restaurant starving, and while ordering a big dinner knowing I'm in a serious calorie deficit today and have a bigger day tomorrow with the same food restraints:

Waiter: "You've only got a starter, main and breads, if you're hungry you should take a curry too."
Me: "Ah cool thanks, a Paneer Butter Masala then please."
Waiter: "You've got a lot of food now, are you sure you want to order everything?"
Last night we joked the waiter was playing with Jeremy because he kept clearing away the fork he was using and asking if he would like ice cream while the poor man was tucking into his main course - clearly I need him back today! 😅

Now it's some bike work and bed. The others don't arrive until late - their car takes nearly as long to get here as I did and is doing less distance! Obviously I miss my companions dearly, but it is very peaceful in this hotel room by myself...and there's so much counter (and floor and bed) space! 😉😅

So while Ben is non-stop cycling, Jeremy and I are off on our own adventure...note, this next bit is interchangeably written by Emma and Jeremy, don't mind the lack of flow and change of perspective 😅!

Main activity for the day was a safari this morning... I'd tried to book in a safari the day before, but it was totally unclear how it was going to work, how to book, what times, etc, and after speaking to them on the phone it was even less clear... all I knew for sure was that it opened at 9 (and that there was a safari at 9... 9 exactly?  9:30 more likely? could book? dunno) so if we were there at 9, that was our best chance of getting on a bus. 

Running out of the hotel, we quickly mention to the guy on the way out that there are rats in the room, "Ah yeah, they come in from the fields, that's how it is" 🤣

So were racing the 6km down the road  to get to the safari before the bus left... we get there, there's no one around except a few staff, we find out the buses go all day,  and we can get a private jeep that can leave any time. OK, well at least were warmed up for the day!

We go for the private jeep, and what a vehicle it was! We cruise around the 5 different mini safaris: 

- leopards, most of which were rescue leopards, getting raised by hand and slowly soft-released back into the main leopard safari 

-  blackbucks - of which they had truckloads! their breeding programme for them was working outstanding, I had half assumed that they were breading them for lion game.... turns out not. Turns out they are endangered and they will start giving them to other zoos / parks soon. 

-  deer safari - spotted dear are pretty cool!

-  sloth bears - these guys were funny, small, super shaggy and sloth claws 

-  lion safari - cool looking things, smaller than african lions with a "longitudinal skin flap" down the belly and a fuzzy tuft at the end of the tail, the "swift"

We were on our way out when we were ushered into an office. It turns out that the Director of the safari park, Dr Anil Patel, wanted to have a sit down. Tea and snacks later, we had taken good advantage of his English to understand all the nuances of the park we had missed on the tour. He was also very interested in our feedback and how he could improve the park, clearly there is ambition to make it more of an international attraction.

We were on our way out when we were shouted down for some parking fee. Moments later one of the Director's staff were sending us on our way, no fee needed. A brief rat-race later and Emma had her eye caught by some tuk tuk decorations to further adorn her bike. If only the shopping had stopped there, but there were gifts to buy. It wasn't long before we were sitting in a sari shop with acres of brightly coloured cloth layed out in front of us. Let me explain. To buy a sari, you shuffle into this shop and wait for a seat on a bench in front of a stage along every wall of the shop. There are half a dozen men on stage, rapidly pulling saris from the shelves and laying them in front of each shopper. As a dozen saris a minute flutter onto the stage, the piles of cloth get shuffled down the stage until the reach the poor bloke at the end who is busy refolding them back into their packets. This process ignited Emma's inner fasionista and she was locked in, revolutionising the system by iterating on colour, pattern, texture and tassle fluffyness.

While Emma was engrossed in this, I stood up to check on the bikes and before I know it, I was shuffled off to meet the market President and have tea in the doctors shop next door. He was all to proud to introduce his son, the Doctor. And additionally pleased to have the region's vice-president drop in for a doctor's visit whilst a foreigner was gracing his shop.

A couple hours and several partially consented product promotional shoots later we were back into the rat-race through the back streets of Etawah. Food markets and following some locals through a closed rail crossing, we were back on a highway. The next 40kms passed easily with lower smog levels, some lovely smooth roads and a long stretch along a canal. There was a breif stop for selecting green vs orange oranges where I seemed to be a local celebrity, with crowds backing up traffic.

Arriving at our rendévouz cafe, we were ushered in by a portly gentleman. We hustled upstairs to get a seat away from people with a view of the bikes, only to be joined at our table by this mysterious man. To our surprise, we didn't place our order for momos and cold-drinks with him, but with a young chap running the cafe. It transpires our dinner guest is an aspiring local politician and with great insistence we compromise to visiting his house after we eat. At the same time this encounter is going on, theres a local kid videoing the whole 10 minute conversation, and a few kids have appeared to take photos.  

As the guy brings our drinks, he rapidly notices what's going on, he tells the kids to stop filming right in Jeremy's face, and explains to the mysterious man that we would like to be left to have some peace and quiet.  He also explains to us that were possibly the first tourists that have ever come to this town and that everyone is pretty excited. So we agree that he lets us finish our food, and we'll come past his home before leaving. We have an enormous photoshoot with all the different kids on the roof, and then were left in peace... for 10 minutes, till the mysterious man is back reminding us to come past his shop and that his daughter and wife are waiting. 

During this time our taxis arrived, so we head down to start what turns out to be a 1h argument with the taxi driver about the pre-agreed price of 3000rs for 2 bikes and 2 people .... he's insisting on an extra 1000 for the bikes, and will not budge.  We've got it in writing from his boss; the cafe owner is on the phone to the company, shouting at the driver as well, half of the village are involved, and the aspiring politician is still trying to pull us aside to visit his family.  I mean, I've go no problem paying extra for the bikes, but we had agreed on a price for bikes and people so at this point I was just enjoying the carnage we'd started.  

OK, we finally agree with the company on 3500rs, the bikes are strapped on the roof and we're off... via the politicians house for a quick few photos and house tour. 

3h later for a 100km trip, we've made it to the hotel, just before the restaurant closes....we rush upstairs hoping we can still order some dinner. No stress there...it's India, of course there's a celebration going on!

Food spend today: 21 euros