Day 5 - Thrills, Spills but no Seaside

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Blogging from Alex's UgliFruit again but I'll try to be less grumpy than yesterday.
I will add today's photos when we get to Ooty but today there will only be text.
The plan for today was to quickly ride down to Kozikohde have a bit of as splash around in the Arabian Sea then tour the coastline for as bit then blast back. None of that happened. We set off for the coast and headed up the mountain road to cross the Western Ghats. I'd imagined something like Wales but it was more like riding through the Alps, the views were breathtaking and the road pretty treacherouas. If it were only the potholes that could swallow a small cow, or pea gravel spread for some reason on the trickiest bends, or the road surface disappearing or changing to cobbles without warning, or the huge drops on the other side of the two foot barriers, then it wouldn't be too bad, but the wagons and buses coming towards you on the wrong side of the road at breakneck speeds were what makes Kerala's mountain roads life threatening. Both Alex and me have had to alter our riding style to avoid being wiped out by these maniacs, so instead of taking the correct line when cornering you have to get as near to the kerb as possible to avoid any possible oncoming traffic, at least this has the benefit of not leaving any room for an Indian biker to undertake as they will if you leave anything more than a fag paper's width.
You get used to the crappy driving after a while, and you realise that the Indian's aren't hate crazed lunatics, when something goes wrong. Whilst descending the mountain road and taking it very easy around a tight left hand bend, my front wheel lost traction on some well placed gravel and the bike and me slid over onto the road, Alex was close behind and taking avoiding action, his front wheel slid away from him. Luckily there wasn't a bus close behind or we'd be mince. Neither of was hurt and the damage to the bikes was minimal and cosmetic, there'd have been less damage if Alexs bike had'nt slid into mine and bent the rear mudguard and cracked an indicator lens. Anyway tere we were lying in the road and all of a sudden we wre surrounded by at least 8 Indian guys who stopped to help, picked up the bikes and made sure we were ok. One of them even escorted us to a garage he knew would be open for some running repairs and metal manipulation with a long bar and a hammer.
Itks been a great day, unforgettable. Pictures will be added asap and they will bring this dull tale to life.

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