We woke up early – 4:30am. It’s become a habit by now! Our plan was to make Bhatkal (38km) the afternoon halt. But an incredibly smooth highway and the partly clouded sky made for good speed. I stopped a few minutes at Shiruru to encash a Travellers Cheque and moved on again, making the most literal use of a TC! Reaching Bhatkal by 10am, we decided to make Baindur our afternoon halt, thus cycling a record 57km in the morning session.
We had OK grub at Baindur. Instead of sleeping the afternoon away as usual, we caught a bus for Kollur, about an hour’s journey. There is a Mookambikeshwara temple here. Kollur town is set amongst green hills. We reached at two, but had to wait until three for the temple gates to open.After viewing the temple, we waited till 4:30pm for the return bus. Plenty of buses to Kundapura - Udupi - Mangalore and even Kerala(!), but few to Baindur. Sitting in the bus, I enjoyed what I'd missed by sleeping on the forward journey – an evergreen forest through which the rough hill road twists and turns.
From Baindur, the highway quality deteriorates but we fought for speed to watch the sunset at Maravanthe, halfway to Kundapura.
Kundapura was our night halt. Good home-flavoured dinner - I can feel Udupi’s proximity!. As usual, the police were very helpful but they could not do anything about the water shortage. We were forced to sleep without a bath.Today we contacted three police stations – or rather four if we count Honnavara.
• Bhatkal – for information about the area in general and Baindur in particular.
• Baindur – for permission to leave our cycles as we bused to Kollur.
• Kundapura – for night halt.
What surprised me was that each police station seemed to have contacted the next (over the wireless possibly), so that the police seemed well informed and ready for us as we arrived. This kind of concern was totally unexpected from a force that is projected in the mass media as lethargic and aloof from the people. Earlier too, there were vague signs that a police station knew of us beforehand but this was the first time it hit us so directly. As soon as I entered the PS at Baindur, the on-duty officer said, “Oh! The cycle tourists. What can I do for you?” I was touched.
Estimate of distance covered today: 90km
2 comments:
this is truly getting better.can barely wait for more . :)
wish there were more pics of the waterfall post .
I too am surprised by the PS reception that you describe. Actually pleasantly surprised. I'm glad to hear about the positive aspect portrayed here. Just offers a perspective of life outside of big cities where its hard to trust PSI. - Vikram
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