110 km from Goa to Gokarna

At about the middle-point of Thursday's long ride, I quietly thought to myself what a perverse undertaking this is: why should we force ourselves to bicycle these distances when we can easily afford to pay for busses and trains and taxis to take us? Granted, these doubting thoughts were spawned in part due the noon heat. I was swerving to dodge cows and busses, and the truck horns had by then completely destroyed my right ear drum. I had also not really eaten enough for breakfast so that we could make the most of the early morning hours---which are lovely, by the way.

But at the end of the day I was reminded why we are doing this by bicycle---so that we can go slowly; so that we can be most free to choose our daily path; so that we can get a feel for the countryside and the shapes of the land; and so that we can wave to everybody and send out hundreds of "hello" calls along our way. The following image is one of a pretty river flowing near Gokarna.

There is another, more particular form of freedom that having your own vehicle brings to an Indian journey. We do not have to constantly feel as though all of the taxi drivers and rickshaw operators and tourbus companies and scooter rentals are trying to hassle us and twist every last rupee from our pockets at each and every turn. Many travelers get the sense that they are walking dollar signs in this impoverished land, which can be quite alienating and also draining. Being on a bicycle puts us above that melee

Mr. pumpy has written a rather humorous analysis of the "on-flow" experience of taking a bicycle tour of India versus the (more common) backpacker-style journey.

Of course, you could do this trip by motorcycle, and if you did it would clearly need to be on a Royal Enfield motorbike. We have thought of this many times while white tourists cruise past us going uphill five times faster than our crawl. And we have decided that on our next Indian adventure we will indeed go by motorbike. But that is not to say that we regret our present lot.

At the end of Thursday's ride we were dirty and tired but very happy. We brought ourselves from the laid-back beaches of Goa to this sacred Hindu pilgrimage spot in the span of one day. We have crossed from one state and language region to another completely different one. We have enjoyed fantastic scenery and animal life, and we did it all by pedal power. This is part of the genius of travel by bicycle. Here's a big wave from the two of us to our friends and family!