Day 6: Across the mountains
15 Dec 2013 | Ayanur to Honavar - 127km
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Today I'm late, the sun is out before me. The road starts quite flat in the middle of the cereal fields, but soon enough it becomes mountainous. It gets quite steep, and more, and more, and more again! My endless energy is starting to show its limits, my right knee is getting quite painful without giving much of an explanation. Even if I fight against the mountains, I would definitely hand back my dotted jersey. But anyway, my thought is that I started at sea level in Auroville, and I will end up at sea level in Goa, so everything that is going up will also go down eventually. Well, if I had a good bike it could be that, but the stumps of shoes I use as brakes -and I didn't dare checking the cable- don't give me much confidence in the steep downs.
I do a five kilometers detour on the way to stop at the Jog falls, the second highest falls in India. They don't look to be used to have people coming cycling over there... After avoiding the 5Rs entrance fee (no small profit), I can enjoy the view. Well, it is very nice but it would be better to bath in it, which is apparently not in the plan. After taking a few pictures, I meet Shabaz and his family, from Hubli, who invite me to share their picnic lunch, super nice!
I then make my way across the mountain, getting out of that jungle before dawn as I don't really want to sleep with monkeys around. Scoring 127km that day.