Day 22: Kanhangad – Vadakara

I had a good night’s sleep, despite the railway line right beside the ashram. I woke at five to the sounds of recorded bhajans and prayers. A volunteer showed us the artificial caves there. The story goes that around 1900, Bhagavan Nityananda constructed these caves here and the local people filed a petition against him claiming that he was stealing money. A British official came to investigate and Bhagavan Nityananda jumped into a nearby water tank and pulled out a bag of gold coins saying “I get money from here whenever I want." The official was so pleased that he just gave all that land to Bhagavan Nityananda for his use!

We were also served morning tea. Partly to help these guys carry on the good work and partly to soothe Shyam’s guilt feelings about the free food and accomodation here, we donated some money into the hundi.

We left at 6:30am along a great NH17. We reached Payannur (28km) at 8:45am and had our fill of pineapple and cashew juice. 5km further on, we left NH17 to take a shorter state highway to Kannur, saving 7-8km over the national highway route.

The state highway had a few climbs initially, but it was in good shape. The Kanhangad - Kannur distance reduced to 62km by using this route. It rejoined the NH 7km before Kannur, from where it was one hot, sweaty trek across the city of Kannur to Thottada, some 6km beyond it, where we had arbitrary grub at some arbitrary canteen. We walked a little further on where a housekeeper allowed us to rest in his orchard. We had fresh pineapple slices & grape juice for dessert and relaxed.

In the evening, we followed a highway that often crossed the rail tracks and kissed the sea at times. Through the narrow, twisting lanes of Telichery (Thalassery) (27km), up a climb and descend, cross a creek to enter...


...Mahe (37km). The road guide says Mahe has "sea-skirting roads and unique French flavour", but they forgot the trees. The surprising greenery that comes out of any nook and cranny, even in these hot summer days. The highway in Mahe is just a 1-2km stretch and lined prominently by booze bars. Pondicherry was thus the shortest and easiest state to pass through in our journey.

We continued a little beyond Pondicherry for Vadakara (Badagara), but it was getting dark. Shyam fell while trying to mount the highway from the shoulder. No serious injuries, but his pedal got bent to hit the cycle. Some rudimentary repairs later, we continued in darkness – there was a power cut in the entire area.

We reached Vadakara at 8:30pm, which was too late for dinner. Settled for some parathas and went and had a bath in the police station.

Today we must have broken the distance record for the trip by cycling 105km, but there's not much exhaustion to show for it, save for a slight hint of undie bite. In fact, my ankle stopped hurting once I removed the anklet that I was wearing to protect it. Maybe the roads are getting better and better – or are we just getting “studder”?

Lightning on the horizon tonight. I wonder...?