Cycle India 2010

Friday 4 January

The choices the next morning were to be ready to leave at 6:30 or, if you wanted to do a trip to the nearby temple, be ready at 5:30. At this time, we thought 6:30 was an early start (little did we know) and decided to miss the temple in favour of beauty sleep, only to receive an early call in any event in case we wanted to change our minds about the temple trip!

Having gathered in reception for the off at 6:30, we got our first taste of how long it takes to get such a big group of people together (working against a background of Indian timekeeping) and how many frustrating hours we would spend ‘gathering’, waiting for things to happen.
The wait did, however, give us the opportunity to read our ‘reviews’ in the newspapers. The Hindu Times, under the heading of “They ride bicycles for a noble cause”, wrote “Their smiling face belie the tiredness of their bodies. Criss-crossing the rural hinterland on bicycles and braving the heat and dust of the coastal region can be a daunting task…..”. Language almost from another era, like so much of the India that we experienced.

Our coach finally left at around 8am, familiarly behind schedule. We were never short of things to squeeze into our schedule, and made a brief visit to a school before leaving Bhadrachalam.

Off into the countryside and we soon made an unplanned stop to take photos when we saw a few locals doing some harvesting on the outskirts of their tiny village.

This lead to us being invited into the village to be shown around one of the brick and mud huts with its straw roof and no electricity, and its small shrine with ever burning incense in one corner.

This hospitality and friendliness from people who had so little seemed, at first, incredible, although we were soon to come to realise that this was the attitude we could expect wherever we went.

After a couple of hours, we reached the Godavari River where we boarded the first of two boats that we were to travel on that day. Under a canopy on an otherwise open upper deck, the group were able to mix properly for the first time, taking it in turns to grab a mike and introduce themselves and tell a joke or do a party piece. On the second boat, the magnificent Godavari began to widen and the fantastic scenery opened up.

When another excellent meal was served up on board, it began to strike me that the serving staff looked familiar. I soon learnt that we had brought with us our own Indian chef and eight or nine kitchen staff. These guys travelled with us or ahead of us throughout the trip to ensure that we ate the highest quality freshly prepared and cooked meals, setting up the kitchen and temporary dining areas in the most unlikely of places. The food was always fantastic although, by the end of the trip, after ten days of Indian food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, most of us were ready for a good steak!

A group of young Indian dancers had been brought in to perform on a small stage on the boat during the afternoon. Their extremely upbeat
performance was something to behold and, when they invited/forced us up onto the stage to perform with them, the ice was well and truly broken.

After witnessing an incredible sunset across the Godavari, we disembarked and picked up a fresh coach to take us to our hotel in the busy town of Rajahmundry.

There, we were introduced to our bicycles. What a moment!

A few weeks prior to leaving home, we were told that the bikes would be brand new ones built in India, with no gears. The lack of gears was initially a concern to us, although we were assured that the area was predominantly flat and that it wouldn’t be a problem. Apparently, they just don’t do gears in India and, as the bikes were going to be donated to the HEAL Children’s Village once we’d finished, it seemed churlish to do anything other than get on with it.

Even so, seeing the bikes for the first time was still a shock. They had old-fashioned turned round handlebars, big heavy frames, and a seat the size of an armchair. Having said all that, even though we looked like a fleet of grannies cycling down to the shops in the 1950’s, they performed brilliantly. They were comfortable and reliable and there was only the odd occasion that your legs told you that they wanted an extra gear.
Grub and in bed by 11pm.