250k to Mysore

I had a surprisingly good nights sleep under canvas thanks to ear plugs not man eating Tigers. My room mate is off the road for 2 days after getting too friendly with a hedge on a hair pin bend and may have a broken wrist.
After a hearty breakfast of grey hard boiled eggs and curried eggs with rice we had a beautiful windy ride down through the coffee and tea plantations. The smells lilies in the country and incence inthe villages were almost hypnotic.
After a roadside chai break, where Suzie buys 4 of us bright yellow garlands for our bikes so that we can spot each other easier, we head onto the busier roads, driving through the Deccan plateau where the temperature is now reaching 34. These roads were something else. As the luxury of smooth tarmac builds your confidence and speed you suddenly hit half a mile of dirt track littered with pot holes the size of a hot tub forcing you over to the wrong side of the road. Some roads offering head to head challenges as everyone aims for a central piece of smooth tarmac to claim as their own, avoiding the empty hot tubs either side.
Your eyes are in a constant state of REM as you try to watch for these craters and still marvel at people washing elephants, naked monks taking a morning strol on the roadside, women carrying half of their home on their heads and suicidal cows.
As we headed into the sunset we reached the regal city of Mysore(arse). Mysore(knees) is an amazing city where the Brits had a government in the days of the Raj. However even in a big city like Mysore(eyes) a couple of bulls will just be standing on a dual carriage way just because they can.... Its mental.
Checked into a proper hotel thank God with beds, water and sheets but no luggage yet the truck is lost. I couldn't face going on the organised bus to see the palace. There was just no competition. Do I get in a bus with 80 smelly bikers with a driver that should be in court for attempted genocide to see the palace lit up?....m or do I have a bath?!
After a delicious lentil curry in the garden we had a presentation from UNICEF which just hammered home exactly why we are going through all this. It was quite emmotional for eveyone, to see children that we are actually helping, in a country where 2 in 10 children under the age of 12 have AIDS.
Shorter day riding tomorrow giving us a chance to explore Mysore(arse) in the morning.
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