After a hearty breakfast (since we may not have lunch today) we loaded the bikes and hit the road before 9:00. Our plan for today was to ride to Raichur, which is about halfway to our actual destination of Hyderabad. Raichur is not listed in the guidebook, and a check of Wikitravel last night didn't reveal much information.

Just outside of Hampi, the GPS instructed us to turn down a narrow, country road, and cryptically said “Road to Ferry.” The road eventually dead-ended short of the river at a series of metal bars sticking up from the road. I could see motorbike tracks running in the sand between the metal bars and decided to see where they led. Sure enough, about 500 feet further, the sand road turned into a narrow cement ramp that twisted down to the water's edge. The river here was only about 500 yards wide, and we could see a small boat on the other shore loading passengers and bikes on board. It shortly arrived on our side of the river, and the fare collector asked us if we wished to cross. We said yes, and he informed us that it would be 100 rupees (two bucks) each. I was pretty sure that this was the foreigner price, but I really have wanted our bikes to ride on a small boat some time on this trip, so we agreed. The boat itself was maybe 22 feet long, 5 feet wide, and we had to back our bikes onto the boat.



Two of the crew helped each of us get our bikes safely on board, where we sat on our new seats for the short journey across. A couple minutes later, we were riding the bikes back up a steep concrete ramp to the road. I was happy to be able to cross off one more experience from the list, and Re was happy to have made it safely (thank you, Nandi!).

The ride to Raichur was uneventful and wound through rural countryside for the entire way. The seats were very much better over the occasionally rough pavement and frequent speedbumps. If the ride to Hampi felt like fall, today's ride felt like spring. The weather was still cool, but everywhere, farmers were planting new crops of rice. New rice is a remarkably vivid green, and to me, seems to be the color of fresh. The other good news of the day was that my bike is running the best it has since we left the US. The newly installed jet has made for crisp throttle response and much better fuel mileage. When Re and I were running different jets, she was getting approximately 15 percent better fuel economy than I was, but now I am matching her mileage.

We made it to Raichur by about 1:00 pm and were underwhelmed to say the least. It was a dusty, sprawling town, with the remains of a fort up on a hill. Since we were making good time and Raichur looked like a bust, we decided to press on to Hyderabad, a further 120 miles up the road. We reached the outskirts of Hyderabad around 5:00 pm, and I immediately steered us onto the wrong road. Instead of staying on the Nh 7 into the center of town, I somehow managed to get us onto an elevated highway with few exits and nowhere to turn around. The GPS quickly recalculated our route, and I was glad to see the detour would only add about 4 miles. After 6 miles or so on the elevated road, we exited into the parking lot that is Hyderabad's surface streets during rush hour. We spent about 45 minutes riding the last 4 miles to the hotel and were relieved to finally get off the bikes around 6:00 pm. This has been another marathon day, and both Re and I are mentally fried and physically sore from the trip.

We checked into a big, lovely room and went out walking in search of dinner. We are not staying in the tourist ghetto and one big drawback is a lack of recommended restaurants in the area. About half a mile along the road from the hotel, I spied a young man walking toward us with a McDonald's cup. Re and I have both been jonesing for a beef hamburger (which we will probably never find in India) and were suddenly on the lookout for the golden arches. Sure enough, a few hundred yards up the road, we saw the McDonald's. Of course they have no beef, so I settled for a McSpicy Chicken and Re tried the Chicken Maharaja Mac (think spicy, pink chicken Big Mac). They both tasted good, and in our tired state, we didn't have the interest in looking any further. We went back to the hotel and collapsed into bed.

240 miles in nearly 9 hours. New seats are a huge improvement and my bike is running much better and using less fuel.