Friends,
The
late night arrival into the KRCL GH resulted in relatively late departure from
Margao. When I set out at 6.30 am I had every intention of covering the backlog
and reaching Kanyakumari for the night. The original schedule was only 750 kms
from Mangalore to Kanyakumari – add to that another 270 and it looked doable. I
left Karwar at 8 am after a short break in the KRCL GH for attestation – did
not realize it was Sankranthi till I was given ‘pershad’ by the KRCL officials.
The 275 km drive from Karwar to Mangalore took me 5 hours. The NH17 thereafter
became very crowded and the drive was treacherous in North Kerala. I reached
Mahe at 6 pm after many narrow escapes and knew that Kanyakumari would not be
possible. The alternatives were Trivandrum and Cochin. I decided to keep the
decision for later as accommodation in the two places would not be a problem.
The
near misses that saw guardian angels at work grew with every passing kilometer.
By the time I reached Calicut and was met by staff of Deepika, I was mentally
exhausted. When posing for photographs in the City a person who had downed a
few pegs more than he could respectably carry caused interruptions. He wanted
to be part of the shoot!
I
finally decided on halting at Cochin, at home. I arrived close to midnight into
Cochin and the backlog had grown to 305 kms. The unscheduled halt at Cochin
helped me jettison used clothes and pick up some fresh ones. The mental fatigue
far outweighed the physical. It is such a stressful experience driving in
Kerala – narrow roads and arrogant road users. 800 kms in 19 hours behind the
wheel.
By
now, I should have covered the west coast and completed more than half the
expedition – that is, done 3670 kms of the 6600 kms of the expedition.
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