I woke up feeling better today, but apparently my bowels didn't get the memo, since they had already booked a couple of appointments in the “reading room” for this morning. After taking another Azithromycin, we loaded up the bikes and added a little air to the tires. We were greeted by the best roads in India so far and actually enjoyed the ride for most of the day. There were some torn up areas but only for ten miles or so. The scenery was similar to that of the previous several days, with rivers, and green and coconut palms everywhere. It did sprinkle on and off throughout the day, but never enough to actually wash our filthy, filthy, filthy riding gear.

Before we left Africa, our Dariens were in need of a washing. Now after two weeks in India, they are turning gray. The amount of dust and diesel being belched all over us has made washing our gear a priority.



Re has taken to riding with a bandana across her face to at least cut down on the amount of grime that gets stuck to her face every day, but I kind of like the Captain Jack Sparrow look. Some nights we are amazed that hotels will even let us in the front door with as grubby as we are. All kidding aside, I have found that I have developed an occasional cough since we arrived in India.

Around lunchtime we stopped in a small town for some lunch and had a nice time chatting with our fruit vendor and the rest of the usual crowd that gathered. We made it to Ernakulam around 4:30 pm and found a good guesthouse run by a friendly Royal Enfield rider. While he was looking over our bikes, Re had the brilliant idea to ask if he knew of a local welder who could fix her rack. She rightly figured that Royal Enfield riders would know all the repair shops, and John said he knew of one to send us to tomorrow. After another dinner of too freakin' hot food, we returned to the room to have some Pepto Bismol tablets for dessert and watch Spider Man 3 on the tv.

131 miles in 6.5 hours. Riding through the multitude of small towns is killing our average speed.