Time to blog again.... Like I said in the previous blog, we had a flat tyre that was not repaired because it was sunday. So we woke up early morning but could not leave because of the flat tyre. Neeraj went in search of some place to fix the tyre at around 8 am but did not find any shops open till 9 30. Mean while I was editing the website. Its most frustrating when the net does not work. Thankfully at Thiruvananthapuram, which happens to be our pitstop for day 4 Tata Indicom works fine. Here we would like to thank the KSEB Engineers Association officials for giving accommodation at their guest house at Kollam.
Of all the days till now, today had been the worst.
Of all the days till now, today had been the worst.
1 - we had to travel a total distance of 75 kms to get to Thiruvananthapuram- the highest so far.. day 1 we covered 66.5 kms, day 2 and day 3 around 45 Kms each.
2 - unlike the other days we could not start early when the sun was not too high in the sky. We started at 11 am for god sake, when the sun at its glory :). got the cycle repaired by 10 30 and then had lunch.. Left kollam by 11am.
3 -e - For the last 3 days we bearly experiaced any climbs or decents. Kollam- Thiruvananthapuram has infinite climbs and decents to offer... long and steep ones ... heres one raw footage of one of the downhill slopes.
And immediately after the downhill slope gets over, there is an uphill slope. Curse who ever comes to the mind and started attacking the slopes. The altitudes of Trivandrum and Kollam are the same . Both are sea cities. Imaging if there is a steep downhill like in the video, there has to be an equalent uphill. Maybe we would have climbed atleast 1 km vertical distance. It was a test of endurance, and it was all in the mind. The heat of the sun, the constant steep uphill climbs, and the thought about the rest of the distance to be covered was heavily wearing us down. What did we do? Took out our mobiles and turned on the radio. Radio Mango 91.9 - "Natillengum pattayi " and Club FM 93.5 - "I donno remember what their caption was " came to our rescue. Seriously, we were expecting to travel some 50 kms and then catch an auto or something. no we did not have to.... We covered the whole 75km stretch in 5 hours flat. Average speed of 15kms per hour. We cycled continiously for an hour and then took a 5 mins break. After 2 hours of cycling we stopped in front of an closed shop and crashed on the varandhah for an hour- from - 1pm to 2pm ( cycled from 11am to 1pm). We woke up at 2pm and set out again. By then we had coved 30 kms. By 4 30 pm we were only 15 kms from the city.
We then went to visit Balu, our classmate at Udyogamandal School, doing his final year at CET. Was supposed to meet kanju and blucky as well, but like usual, blucky should have kept his mobile somewhere and must have gone out to play. So he was not picking up the phone late in the afternoon. I did call him earlier... Lets see maybe will meet him tomorrow.
Thiruvananthapuram marks the end of phase 1- the plains. Now we are heading to the hills. We are taking a break for a day at Thiruvananthapuram for various reasons. We have not been around much at Thiruvanathapuram, have not seen blucky, kanju ... ,the cycles need servicing... Wheels are slightly miss alligned after the 230 km trip.
Next destination Thenmala. Tomorrow we might go to kanyakumari on train.. maybe... until next post...tata...
Alex
We then went to visit Balu, our classmate at Udyogamandal School, doing his final year at CET. Was supposed to meet kanju and blucky as well, but like usual, blucky should have kept his mobile somewhere and must have gone out to play. So he was not picking up the phone late in the afternoon. I did call him earlier... Lets see maybe will meet him tomorrow.
Thiruvananthapuram marks the end of phase 1- the plains. Now we are heading to the hills. We are taking a break for a day at Thiruvananthapuram for various reasons. We have not been around much at Thiruvanathapuram, have not seen blucky, kanju ... ,the cycles need servicing... Wheels are slightly miss alligned after the 230 km trip.
Next destination Thenmala. Tomorrow we might go to kanyakumari on train.. maybe... until next post...tata...
Alex
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