Day 40 Velankanni to Puducherry

Despite a breakfast of just biscuits, I set off in a good mood, aiming for an early finish.  I had a decent hotel lined up, courtesy of my parents and was eager to get there as soon as possible.

There was little wind to start with and I made very good progress.  I ate on the bike (more biscuits and crisps) and cycled through instead of stopping as normal.  I hit some bad traffic at one point, but other than that, the first 2 hours went by easily.  I was aiming to stop at 60 kilometres for the first break but a brother and sister on a motorbike were most interested in me and I ended up going past that distance whilst talking to them.   By the time they headed onwards I was approaching 65 km and I thought that I might as well cycle until 70 km as I was still feeling good.   The two were very friendly although I have noticed that a lot of Indians seem to have great difficulty pronouncing my name… Seriously?  I don’t think it could be any more simple but the most common one I get is “Som”.

The ride was fairly similar all day.  The wind kept changing but was more or less in my favour.  I only stopped twice and pedalled quickly making today my earliest finish and a very good ride.  The only downsides were leaving my credit card at last night’s hotel and the fact that a rash has formed where my gym shorts overlap my cycling shorts.  It’s not painful but it is something I could do without!

Since arriving at the hotel I have had a brilliant and extremely relaxing afternoon, although as per usual I have left it too late to write this and I am absolutely knackered.  To put this into context, I actually just turned down an offer to go for a drink with two Indian girls.  Probably not my smartest move but I am genuinely about to pass out.

Quick summary of this afternoon: showered, explored Puducherry a bit which is quite nice, saw an elephant, had a pizza, went for a swim, had dinner…and that’s pretty much it!

Oh and for dinner I had beef. I was more than a bit surprised to see it on the menu and thought that it would be insane to miss the opportunity.  A cow nearly ran into me today and almost caused some very dirty cycling shorts, so I just see it as revenge.

Today has been a very good day…

Speedy:

Distance: 100.13 miles / 161.1 km

Riding time: 6:19:13

Av. Speed: 15.8mph / 25.4 km/h