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Wednesday 22 April 2009

Madikeri

21st – 22nd April

Leg 18 – Gokarna to Madikeri
Distance – 410kms
Time – 10.5 hours
Average Speed – 39.5km/h
Road – 2 lane highway until Mangalore, then road under construction, followed by country lane winding up to Madikeri

What was supposed to be a short journey turned into a bit of an epic! We planned to only travel as far as Mangalore in this leg before heading to Mysore the following day. The bike was getting a little noisy from the tappets and Ady wanted to get it checked out. The garage in Mangalore would need a couple of days to fix it as they were busy with other jobs, so they advised us to push on to Madikeri and overnight there before heading to Mysore the following day. The road from Mangalore to Madikeri varied greatly, with the usual combination of brand new surface, and road under construction. We are used to this now though and it came as no surprise. The last hour was along a delightful twisty back road with little traffic. We climbed to Madikeri where the freshness of the air hinted at the altitude we were now at.

An unplanned stopover, Madikeri is the main market town of the Coorg region. Perched atop a ridge, the views were marred by the low cloud that was present when we were there. We checked into a hotel on the recommendation of Lonely Planet and set out to explore. After such a long ride, neither of us has much energy (!) and the hilliness of the town kerbed our exploration to the vicinity of our hotel. A visit to a discount supermarket, the purchase of some homemade crisps, and a very average meal is all we can say about the place really. We are finding that in many Indian towns, there is little to differentiate them from each other. They all have similar features, it’s often the geographical location alone that sets them apart. After a decent nights sleep we hit the road again and took in the scenery.

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