After breakfast, I went out of the hotel to get some fresh air. Immediately out of the hotel I was lost in a mass of hustle, bustle and friendly people. It was a glorious morning and so there were a few other drivers out doing the same thing, and so great to say hello and catch up.

On my way back to the hotel Steve came passed the other way in a tuc-tuc and asked if I wanted a lift into the main town. I was planning on coming back to my room to write up an load up our blogs, but it seemed to good an opportunity to miss and so we travelled into town listening to Indian music from the tuc-tuc’s stereo system!

The town was like a huge market and the air alive with so many different scents and smells. I don’t normally do shops, but this was an experience not to be missed. My only purchase however was a net of 6 footballs to hand out to children on our next stage.

The morning’s briefing confirmed a short 120km hop to our next destination, which was great news after such a long run the day before. We were encouraged to take our time, travel at our own pace and take in the sights and photo opportunities as we drove through the extensive team plantations. We could have never imagined that tea plantations could be so large or so beautiful.

Could this be the first time that we will actually be left to our won devices, without a series of all too frequent and very lengthy re-grouping stops? Absolutely not – as proven with a 50 minute wait on a roadside after just 10kms! The only saving grace was the beauty of the landscape as that we drove through of high altitude tea plantations – which was simply stunning!

In an attempt to continue our theme of lunchtime thalis in local restaurants, we stopped at an extremely ‘local one’ that had a very limited menu, but seemed both friendly and open that we ordered a mutton dish that was prepared fresh. It was extremely tasty, although Roy’s insides still continue to flush with worrying regularity and consistency. Once again, we fast became the attraction as the only ‘white faces in town’ and a chance to practice broken English. Still – their broken English was far outweighed our mastery of Hindi and so we were only too happy to oblige. An expensive one this time at £1.50 per head with drinks!

Surprisingly, even after a lunch stop we were still not at the back of the pack, and so we chose to amble! This gave us more opportunity than usual to stop and interact with the children and parents en-route.

The funniest of these interactions came when we spotted a small boy who was quite scruffily dressed. We stopped and gave him a large orange football, which was almost his size. He seized it and ran off, just in case we took it back off him! Eventually he cam back passed whilst Roy was taking some pictures with a grin still running from ear to ear! At this point three men emerged from a house that we had parked\abandoned our car outside. With my UK head on I prepared for confrontation. This is India, and so instead they wanted to know all about us (where we were from? where we were going? how did we like India? what did we think of Kerala? etc.) Next came the killer question that completely caught me off guard half way up a mountain side – did we want to come in for a coffee?

‘Of course, yes please!’ I replied and so off we went. I think Roy thought I was mad, but bless him – he went along with it and we enjoyed one of the best cups of fresh coffee I have ever tasted! We covered a huge amount of ground in pigeon English and were having a ball as the last of the Karma cars drove passed. Next thing we knew was that Karma Enduro’s ambulance pulled up behind our car. It’s crew’s job is to stay behind the last car and bring up the rear. As this was such an unusual place for us to be that we had not even seen the ambulance before, never mind be followed by it! To make amends for holding them up whilst we were finishing up our coffee, we invited the crew to join us, which they gratefully did! We in the meantime finished up and set back on our way after 10 minutes of heart-felt goodbyes.

Loving this country and its people!!

Despite the inaccuracies and vagueness of the directions we made it to Thekaddy, our final destination for the day, in last place. Without realising it, by arriving last we had inadvertently put ourselves into pole position for the next and final driving day!

A nice resort, but a huge climb up many, many steps to our room!

We took a wander into town before dinner to check out purchasing some gifts for home and to see what was going on. I discovered an Ayurvedic massage specialist (a system of traditional medicine native to the Indian Subcontinent) and booked in for later that evening. Whilst invigorating and energising, it proved to be a very naked experience in the company of two male masseurs! Fortunately, my ‘oh shit’ reaction was not justified and I was not treated to any unscheduled ‘extras!’

I gratefully rejoined our group for dinner and drinks on outdoor roof terrace. This was the evening before our final drive and a great opportunity to reflect upon the colour and diversity of the people, countryside and driving styles of India.

Even within our group it has also been a genuine pleasure to meet such great group of people. Again such a mixture, but in essence kindred spirits who enjoy adventure and genuinely want to contribute to making the world a better place – so thank you to all of the wonderful people we have met this trip – you have helped make the experience fun and special

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Global Children's Trust, Karma Enduro - November 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.