Mumbai - Ratnagiri - Goa - Badami - Hampi _ Shimoga - Belur - Mysore - Tholpetty - Ooty - Valparai - Kochi - Varkala

To Mumbai - respectively to Pius's cousin Wilfried's great hospitality - it is hard to say good bye. An ideal way for cyclists out of the chaos of Mumbai is the Ferry to Mandwa. After one week of cycling through colourful villages on small roads and peaceful camping along the beautiful Konkan Coast, we reach Goa. A tropical paradise with many tourist, but good to relax.

Cycling in South India is great. The people are very helpful and friendly, the drivers care. Side roads have little traffic and landscape varies from jungle (where we see many droppings of wild elephants) to corn-, rice-, sugarcane-, peanut-, sunflower- fields, rubber-, coconut-, banana- and at higher altitudes tee- and coffee-plantations. On mainroads and in cities it gets very noisy and chaotic with cars and bikes honking their horns too often, and people and all the thinkable animals everywhere.

India is rich in cultural highlights, many temples, ruins and palasts can be seen and exciting temple festivals experienced. Sliding through the backwaters of Kerala is legendary and very enjoyable. Of course India shows not only positiv ascpects, there is also poverty, corruption, dirt and pollution, just to name a few. But South India is a fascinating place for us with a mindblowing culture and last but not least - fantastic tasty food.