In Anakapalle, heading Araku.

11/1/13
  Headed out early round to Barry's to say Happy birthday to Hannah. Once across on the ferry I Headed up to Amboli, then through to Belgaum. Lots of trucks on the road. The road through to Yargatti was in a bad way, but then it got a lot worse for the last bit. Nice views up through the hills though. Got to Badami well before dark.

1: Leaving Mangunath Hotel Arumbol
2: The piece of wood in the middle is a chopping board for a road side stall. how old do you think?

12/1/13

   Headed up to the Badami Caves and a walk around the hills. The caves where great, one even had an excellent example of the colour mixing holes. Lovely views of the town. I missed the canyon walk up but found it on the way down. The room they put me in on the first night did not have a working shower so I moved into another room, cheaper and nicer, but smaller.

1: Ceiling work
2: Paint mixing grooves
3: Please stop playing with my penis...
4: Badami from above
5: I squeezed through that gap... Sideways.

13/1/13

  Headed out to Aihole and Pattakal. Went the wrong way there and back, but hey it means I saw stuff not marked in the tourist books. Aihole is a ruins that has a village in it lol. I did not think Pattakal was as good but still interesting to see.

1: Aihole
2: She really wanted me to take a photo.
3: Yes the lady is guiding the penis inside. On a temple at the side of the road between Aihole and Pattakal
4 Pattakal
5: Pattakal

14/1/13

  Rode up to Bijapur, only 150km so got there early. Went to the Mosque first and experienced Indian Whispers. You know Chinese whispers is when it slowly changes the story. Well Indian whispers is where you go to the second biggest free standing dome in the world, which has acoustics that are so good if you whisper on one side you can hear it on the other side of the dome, and then you yell and scream and whistle as loud as you can... And of course if a whitey walks in you have to be the loudest while near him... The Mausoleum at the other end of town was cool, and you can definitely see a bit of the Taj there.

 

1: Look at how high that water mark is.many meters above the present level of the lake/river.
2: I went up there. That's where the shouting chamber is.
3: Look familiar
4: Up close.

15/1/13

  Road up to Bidar reasonable long day, but very easy ride. Long straight roads, mostly empty so no real traffic issues, also was in pretty good condition. Once I found a hotel I went looking for some batteries for my mouse, I then did one of my normal shopping trips. I got some sandpaper, little oil bottle so I can do the chain. Did think about buying a shirt.

16/1/13

  Went for a ride around the Fort. Then a walk, pretty impressive fort. Loved the triple moat system on the flat side.

1: A cow market on the side of the road to Bidar
2: Brand new Cow carts
3: Bidar fort
4: Cannon ball?
5: Interest fortification method for the flat approach.

1: Classic murder holes
2: that's actually reasonably high up.

17/1/13

  Rode down to Hyderabad. Saw the lake and the Buddha. Got KFC Curry Crunch, which was nice. Had trouble finding a place below INR1,000($20US) so as it was only 14:00 ish I decided to head out of town a ways and see what appeared. Well finding the NH9 I stopped to ask directions and there was a sign for lodge. So went in and got a nice room for INR400 ($8US). Went for a walk about 19:00 for dinner....turns out rush hour was still going and the street I was on was a main one. Luckily the hotel was back a bit so not too noisy. I walk up the road for about half and hour fighting traffic all the way and found nothing appealing for dinner. So started walking back thinking I would try the other way. Found a family restaurant (so a bit more expensive) the building before my hotel. Oops walked straight past it heading out.

The Big Buddha statue in Hyderabad

18/1/13

Bigger day today so left early for Bhadrachalam 350 odd kilometers. Main road wasn't too bad once out of Hyderabad as it did not have so much traffic. The last 30km was harsh though had to get off the road 3 times for buses

When you have a hard ride, a lovely rest stop can make the day...

19/1/13

  Decided to spend the day so went for a walk along the river by the temple. Then went for a rider over the other side of the river and down to as close to the water as I could get. I decided I should take the bike onto the sand for a photo and the back dug in as soon as I left the track. I realised that the bike would stand on it's own so got off and took a photo, thinking “Look ma, no stand”. Once I had the shot I decided one more and as I was about to push the button Faith toppled over... No damage so never mind.

1: Yes that pole has 79 ft on it, for when it fills up.
2: Where the bathing takes place
3: Look ma, no stand

20/1/13

  Alarm went off a bit after 06:00 so got up, went to the loo, lay down and fell asleep lol. Wake up around 09:30 packed and realised I probably would not be able to make it to Araku before dark so decided to stay another day.

21/1/13

  Headed out early on the NH221 to Chintur. Got the turn to Lakkavaram. About 20km along the road came to a fork in the road. Very few people around lovely forested road with gentle twists and turns. I waited till a man came by on a motorbike and asked him which road went where. The signs where all to places not marked on my map, or so I thought. After a while chatting to the guy I decided I had to go down the right fork. The road was lovely, twisting up into the Eastern Ghats. It got narrow for a while but almost always had a smooth piece of tar, somewhere. After 50km odd I came into a village and decided to have a chi. I asked the man how far to Chitrakonda which was near where I had to turn. He said I was going the wrong way, I had to go back through the ghats and take the other fork. Turns out I was on a road to Rajahmundry that was not marked on the map. If you get the chance when coming over to Orissa mark I do recommend it.
   After looking at the map for a bit I decided I did not have to go back, which would mean getting into Araku after dark (most likely). So plotted a new path down to Gokavaram and out to the NH5. I was hoping to find a hotel at Tuni but the hotels where bad and over priced. Some religious thing on in town. So carried on until Narispafnam in the hopes of getting something near a back road up to Araku. Unfortunately nothing so carried on till Anakapalle where I found a nice place.

1: Maybe not that road.
2: This turned on and off as i sat there studying the map and deciding where i was going to stay for the night.
3: another pleasant place to stop

Arhh it's fun to get lost and change plan on the fly again...

22/1/13

  In the reception of the Hotel I'm in is a big picture of a Buddhist temple about 4km from here. So I decided to go take a look. At first I rode out about 4km past the second turning. Then rode back and got the right turn, there was even a sign. And rode past the third turn by about 3km (knowing that the temple was 4km from the hotel and was less than a kilometer before the second turn). Then rode back to the second turn to get told no back the other way, this time I found the turn and the temple.
  From the top of that area I could see another temple on a hill on the other side of town. Mmm. So I went for a ride to find that one, a few wrong turns and a school march/protest down the main street meant I didn't get back to the hotel till after 12:00. So decided to stay another day.

1: Bojana Konda
2: The stairs i could see, turned out there where 2 temples.

Off to Araku tomorrow and on towards Darjeerling.

Enjoy your life.