journeytothepoint

Panaji-Benaulim-Palolem

Jason | September 30th, 2009

Picking up from where Chris left of I finally joined him in Panaji in mid afternoon on Sunday. The lack of sleep on the plane didn’t deter me to start setting up the bike (which arrived safely). I started to set it up outside the guest house in Fontainhas and immediately the boy helper from the guest house insisted on taking off all the packaging and putting on the brakes / seat post / and anything else. He was watched and sometimes helped by the local mechanic across the road whom himself was 2nd in a bike race in the early 60’s in Goa, everyone has a story to tell!!  We were to set of the next day after lunch with only a 40km ride to cover. Our first problem was through my lack of sleep and carelessness I mislaid my passport, of course I found this out at near midnight, had to run to the restaurant that we ate at in the evening to find it not there. It finally turned up in my camera bag at about 1:30am, we had just been watching england v south africa in the cricket, glad to see we won….finally.

We needed to get some cash the next day and found all the banks not accepting either of our cards, it happened to be a Hindu festival so they were all shut. We were set to leave  at 3pm and unluckily Chris had a slow puncture (caused by a faulty valve, the tyre was forced back onto the bike by a bike shop the previous day). 1 hour later and with lots of interested onlookers we set of on the smooth highway NH17 out of Panaji which would take us south through Goa and over Mormugao Bay. We stopped for a pit stop and drunk some massala tea, just the ticket to get you up again.

As soon as we could we ventured onto the coastal road, this wasn’t signposted very well but as always with a little local help we were given directions and of course different estimates of distance, Indians seem to lack the care for those things!! We cycled through some picturesque coastal lanes taking in little villages, one bus Chris had to give the horn to, all 120 db of it, suffice to say the bus let him pass. We arrived in Benaulim 45 mins after dark, the journey was a little tricky in the dark as we were both wearing glasses which had some rain on, this kindly helped blind our vision to the oncoming road whenever a car drove towards us. Very strange feeling cycling into nothingness. We got a large room at the Pinto Inn, lots of locals were watching the cricket, India v Australia, of course we wanted India to win.. We grabbed some food at about 10pm and headed to bed for about 5 hours sleep.

An early start out of Benaulim was helped along by some raspberry porridge, thanks to debs for getting this for us at the last minute in london. Our progress was good for the first hour even taking in our little unexpected side trip down a penninsular, we had to back track for the ferry. We had five minutes before it left and I could see Chris’ eyes drop at this news as he wanted another chai, he is definitely addicted to them. We stopped at roadside cafe for a spot of brekkie, a cow decided to arrive and wait at the entrance expecting some treat from the owner, it got one but only after it had urinated on his entrance step, now that is one impatient cow..

The day took a slight turn for the worse thereon in as we took a detour to cabo de rama fort, this was about 6km down winding and hilly roads, the map indicated a road near the fort which we could take onwrads, it just didn’t exist, we had to backtrack, not a fun feeling as it was starting to creep towards midday, not a cold time of day to be cycling in India. We got back on track some 15-20 mins later only to be faced with a series of hills, one in particular almost did for me. The pace up the hill was so slow, about 6-7km that I wanted to disengage from my pedals and take a break or two, only to find i didn’t have the strength, this forced me to carry on to the top, i now know how it feels to push yourself beyond your limits..

This had taken the steam out of both of us and we arrived in near silence to Palolem at about 1pm, we had some drizzle to contend with but once in Palolem the heavens opened, no onward progress for us as it was monsoon style rain. It continued all day Tuesday and for all of today, we’ve got to get a move on tomorrow as we’ve used our rest day today, that means cycling in potentially bad rain. I’ve checked the weather today and it’s with us to the weekend Unluckily it’s a weather system working it’s way across south west India and in particular Goa state and the surrounding area, the cycle gods aren’t smiling on us yet! Fingers and toes crossed someone starts smiling on us….