Day 5: An unexpected encounter
14 Dec 2013 | Tiptur to Ayanur - 143km
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The day starts early as usual, I feel like my energy is endless. I stop at the first village, Arsikere, to buy new flowers to my lady, when an old man sees me and start talking like crazy, saying he is a cyclist blablabla and wants to take me for a drink. I first think he is the local madman, and people inviting me for a drink or a meal are plenty everyday, but they usually means that I am the one inviting them.
Still I go with him and he orders a breakfast for me, saying it's on him. And then he starts to show me newspaper articles with pictures of him, and also letters, and photos. So yes, he is actually a crazy man, but in a good way ;) . So Umapathi Mudaliyar is a 68 years old man, who has been cycling more than 22000km in 23 Indian states, and going on. And also a runner with several gold medals in various disciplines, such an energetic man! And now he is trying to force-feed me to make sure I eat enough for my trip, and I have to stop him from ordering more food!
The rest of the day is spent seeing various doctors for my baby, at first some of the spokes of the back wheel break. The guy take them out for free, hammering with a flat screwdriver, but has nothing to replace them, it will work for a while like that. Then another one fully repairs the back wheel but he is a crook making that three time the normal price. And finally that same wheel experience a puncture, the guy who repairs it tells me that I should change the wheel at the next city as it is in a very bad conditions. He tells me it costs 300Rs. Well, maybe.
In the evening, after all these adventures, I find myself in a quite inhabited area, the few empty spaces are full of big power lines which I refuse to sleep under, and also I dream of a shower (usually I use the public water tanks/wells but didn't see any today) so after asking around I end up having the local government's guesthouse opened for me for the night.