Illness and A big Volcano...

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Hello All,

Once again I apologise for the lack of contact with you all but this time I have a solid reason... I have been ill!

Upon arrival in Mamallapuram I pretty much straight away came down with some sort of flu (possibly of the swine variety... who knows). This therefore left me bed bound for 3 days; subsequently meaning I don't have a lot to write about!... but I shall do my best.

So I was meeting an American bloke by the name of Damien that I met in Varkala in Mamallapuram as our paths were going to be crossing so on the last day we were supposed to be spending there (after I got over the flu) we decided to hit some sights. In order to maximise how much we could see in a day we decided to rent out mopeds for the day and when I say mopeds I really mean an old knackered piece of junk that looked like a bicycle with an engine.

We first decided to hit the famous shore temple and 5 rathas which were pretty ancient temples... to cut a story short I have seen a lot of temples in my time in India and personally am a little sick of them! but these did have some nice stone carvings and if you want to know more google them! sorry to be a poor reporter but my flu kind of took the magic out of any temple amazement! The one place we did go that was pretty good was the crocodile bank where they have bred and kept lots of different crocs and there were a lot of them including a 6 metre long behemoth of a think that would have had Mick Dundee himself quaking in his desert boots.

Following Mamallapuram we decided to hit up Tiruvannamalai because I fancied climbing the bloody huge extinct volcano there. Following 3 separate bus journey's (the place isn't really that touristy so there was no direct bus) we arrived in the bust town dwarfed by the large looming hill behind it.

With a hearty breakfast of Masala Dosa's inside us we tackled the hill. Initially I was a bit blase at the size of the hill and vastly underestimated it's height. In reality it's actually 800m above sea level so it was quite a climb in the midday sun. This wasn't helped by the fact that Indian path construction consisted of making the path vertical up the side of the hill. I was actually a bit ashamed of myself because my post flu condition made my pace a bit slower and I did in fact hold Damien up a bit. But a while of huffing and puffing the summit was reached with the vast views of the plains below greeting us.

Anywho that's all I really have to write about; I'm currently in Hampi which is turning out to be a magical place so I will keep you posted soon.

Hope you are all well!

Jack x

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Photos

On top of the Volcano
Myself and Damien after a tough climb up...

Shiva's Butter Ball
A precariously placed boulder at Mamallapuram