The Kalahari

Posted on October 13, 2013 by kenmyhre

Oct 5 Tsodilio Hills

We left Kasane about 7:30, through a neck of ChobePark and into Nambia.  The border crossing was very easy, with no vehicle or visa charges.  The drive west through the Caprivi Strip was uneventful.  Namibian villages and people on the street seemed a little less affluent than in Botswana, although we did not stop to deal with anyone.  It took us about four hours to drive to our turnoff south, which took us back into Botswana again.  Our plans were loose, and we never did find a place to get Namibian currency.  And now we had decided to head back down into Botswana, heading towards Tsodilo, as we had always planned on doing, but then to keep going south into the Kalahari, and so the need for Namibian currency will be put off for a while.  Crossing back into Botswana it cost us 40 Pula, as we had kept our receipt from the first crossing.  We found the turnoff into the Tsodilo Hills after a few questions and some mis-information from our maps.  The drive, about 45 min on a moderate gravel road, soon revealed the hills rising in the Western Sky.

The Tsodilo Hills is one of the important San (Bushman) sites.  It has been named a World Heritage site, and is famous for its 4000 San paintings dating back 50,000 years.  Our arrival at the gate to the site was met by a san looking lady who charged us for entry and for camping and sent us into the community trust lands adjacent to the park.  None of this was as described in our guide book, but we went along with it.  The shower and facility block was completely out of order and so it was rough camping, but we had another nice night.  The nights are still pleasantly warm while we are sitting and cool enough to sleep.  As with the other community trust land the flies were bad here.

Oct 6, 7 Dqae Qare Game Reserve

We drove the few kms through the community trust fence to the park headquarters, arriving at about 7:30 am.  There were campers there, the absolution blocks were nice and so we were taken a bit.  Still lots of flies everywhere, so maybe it would not have been too much better.  We arranged for a guide to take us on the short (2 hr) Rhino walk.  We left at about 8:00, and it was already a bit hot for us.  We walked a bit through deep scrub forest and at our first of 16 interest stops were told a bit about the paintings.  One of the paintings in this first group was of a Rhino.  After that we climbed up steeply using our hands on the granite boulders we had to scramble over.  We are both a bit out of shape and I had my big camera on the front of me that I didn’t really use and worried about each time I had to scramble, but it felt good to be out on our feet.  Rich made the observation that it would make a nice hike even without the paintings.  Our guide was a young San boy, probably early 20s and fairly knowledgeable.  It was a very nice way to spend the morning, we saw a small number of the many sites and painting here, but it was still enjoyable.  It was be very hard to look at a significant percentage, with the heat making it fairly intolerable to walk much later than we were out.

Our map had indicated that the road would take us back to the highway a bit further south, and as we were heading south we continued on the down the road.  It was closing in on noon now, and so my normal use of the sun to help with my direction was curtailed, but I did not feel right about the way we were going.  Rich was snoozing a bit, so I woke him and we used our compasses and some guesswork and figured that the road had turned gradually and was now heading west, not south-east as we had expected.  This was about 45 minutes into our drive and we had not seen a car in either direction.  So we turned around and headed back, still not sure we were correct.  There were two boys on the side of the road and we stopped to ask them, and when we did a man stepped out of the woods and in good English showed us where on the map we were heading and how to get to where we wanted.  Our map was completely wrong.

We were now a good hour and a half behind where we had hoped to be, as we had about 400 km to get to our next stop.  But the road was good and we pushed on.  By about 5:00 we saw the sign into Dqae Qare and decided to give it a go.  It is a small game reserve, run in part by San people.  We had 7 km of 4×4 road which got us to a nice white building and we booked into the Game Farm, opting to spend the night in the lodge, supper and breakfast included.  It was a good Gemsbok stew supper; our sleep was not that good though as it was hot and we had mosquitoes.

The next morning we sat in the eating hut for some time watching birds after having a full English breakfast, and then we headed out to do a game drive in our own vehicle through the Game Reserve.  The roads were not bad, compared to Chobe and so we had an enjoyable time and saw a few animals.  We then hung around our room, reading and snoozing until about 3:00, and then headed back out in the reserve to camp and spent the night under the Kalahari skies.  We had another nice self sustained camping night.

Oct 8 Ghanzi

In the morning as we were driving out of the reserve we had our first site of a Gemsbok, sitting in the grass with its long straight horns sticking in the air.  Not great pictures but a nice setting.  We made our way back a few kms to Dkar, a San village.  In the village we went to an art gallery and each bought some things, in part to support their efforts here.  There is also a nice museum explaining aspects of their history.  Not many, if any San live in the old way and probably not many would go back to the old ways, although unemployment must be high, amongst those living in these remote villages.

A few kms south brought us to Ghanzi, the major town providing access to the Kalahari.  We got another 115 l of diesel, and made reservations or two nights in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.  This will involve driving back the way we have come about 150 km, and then into the desert for another 3-400 km.  Our two nights will be at different places and we will spend much of the next three days driving in the desert.  We are hopeful that the roads will be better than in Moremi/Chobe as there will be far fewer vehicles to help in case of troubles.  We are now checked into the Kalahari Arms, a nice hotel, but without internet access.

Oct 9,10 Central Kalahari Game Reserve

We were away from Ghanzi about 7:15 and were onto the sandy track leading into the reserve about 8:30.  We saw another Gemsbok as we entered the reserve and got all excited.  For the next two days and two nights we drove about 500 km on pretty good game trails.  We had two very quiet campsites; all campsites in the CKGR are quiet.  The campsites are about 40 km from each other, and occupied by only one party.  Although our second night we shared ours with a German couple, no doubt due to the complicated booking procedures.  The game here is spread throughout the reserve, but somewhat concentrated near small waterholes and pans, which may be salt or mud flats where water at one time stood.  They say that centuries ago the rivers here ran, but as the climate dried, so did the rivers.  Now no mater how much it rains the rivers never run.  The vegetation is scrub brush, with occasional trees with dry tall yellow grass that grows in tufts in most places.  And of course sand is the basis for everything.  The Kalahari has more sand than any other desert, in part because of its size and in part the depth, up to 300 m deep.  It is the quietness that is so special here.  In two and a half days we saw three other parties.

But the wildlife is also wonderful.  We soon quit giving Gemsbok more than a passing glance, as we saw 100s them.  We had a number of other firsts as well.  Springbok, Steenbok, a few other tiny species.  We had repeats of the wildebeest and Kudu.  A special sight was the rare black-back Jackal.  We even saw a Giraffe, seemingly out of place here.  We were very rarely out of sight of birds; many Ostriches, Secretary birds. Kori Bustards, Chanting Goshaw, were birds we had seen before but now had many good viewings of.  Among firsts for us was the Tawny Eagle, the black Khorhaan, another very goofy bird, the very big and powerful Lapettfaced Vulture, and a very pretty sparrow like camp bird that kept us entertained with his singing and antics.

Our Kalahari sojourn will always be very special for us.  We didn’t see the large black-maned Lion that is a capstone for this reserve, but it was fun looking.

Oct 11 – Ghanzi

We had 150 km to get out of the reserve on this day, and on it we had our best viewings of the Khorhaan, and the small antelopes, like the Steenbok we have come to love.  And we saw the largest grouping of animals as Motopi Pan.  We also followed for a long time cat tracks in the sandy tire tracks, obviously from the night before.  A privilege you get from being first out in the morning.

We are now back in Ghanzi, camped in the hotel grounds we stayed in three nights ago.  A nice feature of hotels here is that often nice hotels have campsites and we have taken advantage of this in the past and hope to in the future.  Our truck is all deiseled up again and tomorrow we will be heading to Windhoek to begin our Namibian adventures.

Oct 12 Windhoek

We had and easy 530 km drive, crossing the border into Namibia, to Windhoek the capital.  It is a nice city of about 350,000.  Our entry into the hilly city showed many jacaranda trees in full purple blossom.  It was late Saturday afternoon when we entered and the Wildlife office was closed, it is only open Mon-Fri.  We checked into the lovely Tamboni, the guesthouse we had reserved, now facing two full days wait in order to get our bookings made.  We will be trying to get campground bookings here for Etoshe Pan, our next main objective.  Oh well, it is a nice city and a nice place to wait.

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Moremi/Chobe Parks

Posted on October 4, 2013 by kenmyhre

Sept 28, 29 Xakanzxa, in Moremi GR

We left Maun early and ran out of pavement after 30 km.  After another 20 km of loose sand created by construction we entered Moremi GR through the South Gate.  This is the major reserve in the Okavango Delta, and where we will spend the next three days.  The official at the gate gave us great direction on where to find wildlife as we made our way to our campground at Xakanzxa.

The road through the day was very bad, bordering on impassable, as it surely would be for non 4×4.  We were often in high range 4×4, and when it was tough we had to stop and shift into low range.  What made the road so bad was that it is loose sand, and when a lot has been chewed up it is easy to bog down if you do not keep your speed up.  At one point we came upon two vehicles, where the first was stuck.  They were trying to dig it out, basically an unlikely solution.  The fellow who knew what he was doing had  us drive around, back up and we attached a long web strap and we were able to pull the stuck vehicle out.  We also drove around or over some very suspect bridges getting to our campsite.

This all took us about nine hours, and all the while we were able to see much wildlife.  No end of birds, a number of ungulates, elephants and giraffes.  Our campsite was along one of the lagoons with long pampas grass somewhat blocking the view of the water.  But we had beer and showers so all was great.  Our truck worked wonderfully on the bad roads.

Camping is very good, with the showers and big lots with hardly any view of other campers.  There are also only ten sites in a campground.  We cook simply, have a beer when we stop, wine with our one pot meal and watch the sunsets.  My canvas socks that Lilly made for me are great, as there is a lot of sand and dirt everywhere.  I don’t wear socks very often, usually either just sandals or sandals over my canvas booties.  Sleeping is good, as it is not too hot, and in the wee hours of the morning I might finally pull a sleeping bag over.  After a few nights in the rooftop tent, we are now using the ground tent.  More roomy and we can use our truck during the day.

The next day, we carried out tent down the row of camp sites to the one assigned for our second night, and then we went our for a short game drive, that though was only about 10 km, lasted us about three hours.  We saw more new birds, and got good photos of some we had seen before.  A highlight for me was getting in behind a herd of elephants as the wandered along grazing and dipping in the water.

Rich and my birding interests have begun to settle out. Rich is building his birding lists and seeing and properly identifying the bird, with the help of our bird books is his objective.  I am more interested in taking photographs, especially with the new lens that I acquired before the trip.  Some of my photos are to help Rich with his identification, but my main objective is to see if I can get some good photos of some of the birds we see.  The second night we went on a two hour boat ride and saw more new birds yet, and had some nice sunset views.

Sept 30 Mogotho in Khwai Community Trust

We left around 8:00 am, late for us, as we only had about 60 km and all day to bump along watching for birds and wildlife.  Soon after leaving we entered Paradise Pools area and had a number of new birds, including a highlight for me the Crimson Bee-eater that I had been unable to capture on film successfully in the past.  Over the next days we will see many, but the first siting is always special. We spent much of the day wandering off of the prescribed route, at times purposefully, often inadvertently.  We had a brief stop at the Hippo Pools, which had a hide, the first we have encountered.  Most importantly on this day we did see a number of ungulates we had not seen in the past.  We arrived at the campsite around 2:00, and so had an enforced quiet time, each working on our notes.  The driving was shorter and not so challenging today, and hopefully tomorrow as we enter ChobePark, for our long driving day, distance wise, the road will stay reasonable.

Oct 1,2, Ihaha Campground, Chobe Park

We left early and entered Chobe about an hour later.  For a while it looked like the road might be better, but as we entered Savuti, a sub-region of Chobe, the road reverted to the loose sand we have been struggling with.  We saw animals all day, and as usual, added a few new birds.  Just before leaving Savuti we hit a long stretch of very loose deep sand, and this happens we just power along, not able to stop for anything.  For a while the road left Chobe and entered a Community Trust land.  Along this stretch we caught and passed a family pulling a trailer with Alberta plates.  We carried on and after a bit hit a stretch of lovely pavement that lasted 40 km until we hit Chobe again.

From here we hit some deep sand and then I let my speed off at the wrong time and we bogged down.  We spent half an hour digging and fretting and then the Albertans came along.  Jason and Kelly Porter and their 4 year old son Leith are on a year trip in Eastern and Southern Africa (www.superterram.ca)  They shipped their 25 yr old, very hopped up, Toyota Land Cruiser to Cape Town and have bought and modified an off-road trailer in SA.  They are real off-roaders or overlanders as they are sometimes called.  Jason started by getting all the right 4×4 buttons pushed in our vehicle and then let air out of our tires down to about 15 psi, down from 45.  We still couldn’t get out and so he pulled us out.  We carried on going very slow because of the air pressure.  Along the way we saw three lions lying in the dirt.  Not a very good photo opportunity, but still it was exciting.

The final 20 km or so was along the ChobeRiver.  The river is set in a broad valley, mostly grasslands with bands of tree.  We had a continuous animal display in the lovely late afternoon light, as we drove to the campsite at Ihaha.  Our campsite is on the river from which we have animals to watch and birds to identify.  The Porters are next to us and we had a nice evening visit after supper.

We had a lazy morning, in part waiting for the Porter’s son to wake up.  Jason, with his built in air compressor brought our tires up to about 30 psi.  As we are spending a second night at Ihaha we headed out for a short game drive of about three hours.  I guess it is pretty revealing when we can drive by Elephants, Giraffes, Water Buffalo, numerous kinds of antelope and many birds now common to us without pulling our cameras out.

Back at the camp we sat in the shade, in our lawn chairs, looking out at the show.  Over the next few hours we began to discover that we were missing Ryvita, margarine, granola, and we do not know what else.  The baboons, who we know have raided our garbage, very cleverly stole these things without disrupting anything else, even though we thought they were shut up or we were watching.  We have had wonderful sunsets along the way but our last night here at Ihaha may have topped them all.  We watched about 40 elephants kicking up dust and playing in the dirt while the sun settled into the horizon.

Oct 3,4 Kasane

With only 30 km to Kasane we did some meandering, chalking up about 60 km, before entering the town at the NE corner of Botswana, bordering Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia.  We have now left the major game reserves in Botwana.  They proved to be everything we could have hoped for.  The roads were more challenging, even as dry as they were.  Our truck did wonderfully and our food planning for the five days out, even with the burglaries, did us just fine.  The evenings cooled down to the pleasant sitting out level and mosquitoes did not bother us overly.

In Kasane, Rich will do a boat ride and then a trip to VicFalls.   When we have gassed up and filled the larder again, we will head into Namiba and the Caprivi Stip.  We have finally figured out a dilemma with our gas (or should I say diesel).  After Johannesburg, we have filled up twice, each time putting in between 60 and 70 l, which gets us just over 700 km.  The gas gauge had never budged from over the F mark.  On the close to 700 km we did through the Parks, always grinding away in the sand, often in 4×4, we finally had the gauge drop slightly under the F mark.  We put in 85 l.  There is an extra 80 l tank, on top of the 80 l tank that comes with the truck, and we finally dipped into the normal tank.  The good news is that we now know we can do about 1400 km on good roads and 1200 km on bad roads if we need, and that the gas gauge will tell us how much we have when we dip into the second tank.

Posted in Birds and Animals, General statements, Southern Africa | 4 Comments

Into (Southern) Africa

Posted on September 27, 2013 by kenmyhre

Sept 20, 2013 –Johannesburg, SA

We arrived, after about 20 hours in the air and 10 hours in airports at 7:00 am.  Our requested pickup was connected and took us and NW of the city to Buffalo Campers, where we were picking up our Toyota Hilux 4×4 and spending the night.  The place is close to being in the country, a few years back it was.  We spent the rest of the day finalizing our financial matters, learning how to put up the roof top tent and buying food and supplies for camping.  Back at the guest house, we were rewarded with a nice bonus of some pretty good birding in the 2 acre lot.  By 9:00 pm, having spent the previous two nights catching a few hours sleep on planes we were sleeping deeply.  We were very happy with the truck, our purchases, the birding and our accommodation.

Sept 21 – Hartebeest

We had a breakfast in the room about 6:00 am, having slept until 5:00.  It was too cold and windy to see many birds and so after some final organizing and a talk with Vaughn, our Buffalo contact, we headed out at about 9:30.  We don’t have firm plans, but will spend at least part of the day in Pretoria and see what happens.

We wandered a bit, and after getting a feeling for the street parking attendants, ended up in FreedomPark, a new park/museum, commemorating, in a sophisticated and beautiful way, the people of South Africa’s march towards freedom.  The message can be partially captured by the Khoi proverb displayed as you enter the museum…”hapo ge, hapo tama….(a dream is not a dream until it is shared by the entire community).  In other words, all peoples, and it could be extended to all life, must share equally in all aspects of the community.  The museum shows the struggle that has taken place to bring SA to this point.  I think the message is that they are now closer but must continually work towards the goal.  The park has a  kms of paths on which we saw more birds and some big student groups.

Having now spent most of the day we had a further visit to the VoortrekkerMonument, commemorating the grand trek from South to North over 200 years ago by the Afrikaans people looking to rid themselves of domination by the British.

Finally we headed west on the road towards Botswana and found ourselves in a cabin type unit near Hartebeeest dam, still not attempting to set up camp.

Sept 22 – Mokolodi Game Reserve, Botswana

Two hours into our morning drive brought us to the Botswana border and a fairly painless crossing.  We got a 3 month visa and paid 200 Rand for the car. Apparently we will be able to leave and re-enter Bots by paying only a further 50 Pula. One potential problem occurred when I tried to take out 8000 Pula ($800+) from an atm and it seemed to process it, but did not give me any money.  I was then unable to access my bank from any of three other kinds of bank.  Rich was able to get 2500 Pula.  We drove on towards Gabarone, the capital, but stopped just short of the city at a small game reserve called Mokolodi.   We hired a campsite and then went on a game drive into the park, on a circuitous route that took us past a large lake.  At the lake and along the way we saw a few antelope species, yellow billed hornbill, grey lourie, African Spoonbill, Egyptian Goose, Sacred Ibis.  We didn’t see Rhinos or giraffes which are in the park.  Our first night in the tent on top of the truck went well.  We didn’t cook anything yet, but feel the rig is pretty good.

Sept 23 – Mahalapye

In the morning we did another game drive and then made our way into Gabarone, where we bought a few more provisions, including a cell chip for my phone, and then had a visit with the Wildlife and National Park office where we got some phone numbers of offices we can phone to make tent reservations.  We drove another 150 km or so to Mahalapye where we stayed at Moko Motel, owned by a MMa Ramotswe type (traditional shaped) mosada (female).  We have been eating at the places we stay and at the Moko we had chicken in the morning and a full English breakfast in the morning.  The Botswana people (Setswana) seem very friendly and if the Gabarone is an indication they are pretty well off.

Sept 24 – Nata

On again in the morning, heading towards Francistown we here turned west heading to Nata, where our first destination is the Nata Bird Sanctuary.  We camped at the Nata Lodge, which also has nice mid-range chalets.  We did eat at the restaurant, three meals in all, and then went out on a three hour drive down into the Soma Pan.  A Pan is a salt flat area produced by evaporating water.  In the rainy season many pans are partially covered by water, but we were able to drive across many.  Along the way we saw Wildebeest, a small brown backed jackal.  We saw a Secretary Bird, many Pelicans, a Pied Avocet, among others.  On the drive we were with a group of six, four of which were Canadian retired people who had been in many places and so we were able to trade travel stories.

Sept 25 – Gweta

A short way down the road towards Maun we stopped at Gweta Lodge where we negotiated an overnight trip onto the pans, where we will see another sunset and, hopefully, Meerkats.  Also on the trip are seven British Medical students who have just finished a residency here in Botwana, and a German couple who are photograph enthusiasts with a small fortune in equipment.

I made my first wifi connection and used it to check my bank account, which showed $1000 from the faulty atm transaction and then was able to Skype TD and was able to put in process an investigation which hopefully will restore the money.

Our tour group loaded into a truck and headed off across the countryside out onto another of the pans that are part of  Makgadikgadi pans.  We arrived at our camp location, after being given the opportunity to walk the last couple of kms across the pans just before sunset.  We sat around talking; having drinks until supper and then enjoyed a large fire until it was time to crawl into the sleeping rolls that were set out under the southern night sky.  We all slept soundly waking briefly to notice the bright moon when it rose in the sky.  In the morning after coffee and scones we played the Makgadikgadi Game.  We each were blindfolded and asked to walk 200 steps towards a chair set well out on the pan.  When we reached our 200 steps we removed our blindfolds and looked about.  I was shocked to see I was only about 50 m from the trucks.  Rich was even closer.  The 11 of us were spread all over, only two being close to on line with our target.  Unconsciously we must take a slightly longer step on one side, taking us in a circle.  Great game.

Finally we headed for the Meerkats.  Our guides have habituated a den of 12 to allow us very close and we each proceeded to take 1000 pictures of the lovely little creatures.

Sept 26,27 Maun

Back on the road, we continued on into Maun, where we spent some hours attempting to book camping places in Moremi and ChobeNatPark.  Without much progess, we found a spot for the night at Island Safari lodge and will continue tomorrow.

The next day, we were into offices visited yesterday, and within a couple of hours we had booked four more nights, paid our  Park fees, bought fuel for the truck, food for us for five days, and were back at the Safari Lodge to get ready to head into Moremi and Chobe Parks for the next five days.  There will be no food or fuel in the Parks and we will be on unsealed roads for 400-600 kms depending upon how much meandering we do.  Finally it feels like we will be doing what we have come to do.

Sorry no pictures yet

Posted in Southern Africa | 1 Comment

Trip followup

Posted on May 20, 2013 by kenmyhre

May 18,Foothills Hospital, Calgary

Each trip has its own ending. Hopefully not many will end quite like my Pacific Coast bike trip.

My last post was from Shelby, arriving by Amtrak from Pasco Washington. The weather was dreadful (cold, north wind) when I arrived, but I wanted to try to get home from there. I left Shelby on a bright- 8C morning, cold but fairly windless and I had the right clothing on when I left.

The 35 miles to the border went well, almost anyway. A pedal fell off. I remove the pedals for packing and had not put one on well. For years I have just been finger tightening my pedals so they are easier to remove. Luckily I had my little vice-grips, with which I could force the thread. This will require a future replacement.

At the border I was told the only hotel before Lethbridge was at Milk River, too close but the wind was now up, and so I stopped early. I had been talking to Doug Mirtle about possibly needing a ride and so I was in communication with him and Lilly since Shelby, but felt things were not so bad.

The next morning I was off early but the wind was  strong again and I was struggling. By 10:00, about half was to Lethbridge, I crawled into a ditch, out of the wind and called Lil and Doug. We met a couple of hours later in Lethbridge where my cycle trip came to and end; but there is an epilog.

Over the next 10 days I struggled with fatigue and lethargy, attributing it to exhaustion. I began shuffling around like an old man, and finally I went for a walk in Nosehill Park determined to begin building up my strength. This is a hill walk that I have done countless times and surprisingly for the way I felt the up hill went very well; my leg strength was very good. But as soon as I started coming down I could not control myself well enough to keep from running. To stop I had to fall into a bush, stumbled around a bit more and then headed up one more hill. Coming down from that my falling was even worse. I caught up to a female dog-walker and fell into another bush beside her, and the proceeded to stumble from bush to bush. By the time I got off the hill she was long-gone. You don’t fool with drunken old men no matter where you encounter them.

I got in to a doctor but it was two days later as I was waiting again for my sister to take me to my eye doctor, that I gave up. I had decided that driving probably wasn’t smart. I had taken an hour that morning to get some clothes on, I was falling all over the place, my house was a disaster with unwashed dishes and clothes strewn everywhere. I called an ambulance. Thankfully, Tara, my niece had been after me to do this.

Five minutes later I was in the ambulance and the paramedics were gathering information. In the Foohills Hosptal it took another two hours to get into a Cat scan It was going to take a couple weeks in the non-emergency world to get in. I had a large pool of blood on each side of my brain, a subdural hemotoma, and they were going to drain them. Lilly helped get me through admissions. By now I had no control of my feet and I think only a little control of my thinking, although I still seemed able to answer questions satisfactorily.

The next afternoon they drilled two one-cm holes in my head and began the draining process, which went on for about 30 hours, but mostly happened immediately which returned much of what I had lost.

I hope to be released tomorrow, three days, four nights after arriving, most of that observation and recovery. I have encountered probably 40 people here, and have nothing but the highest marks to give everyone. I know some people criticize our health system, but to me when you really need help it is second to none.

There are a few lessons for me here. Firstly, I need to trust my recuperative powers. I was feeling pretty punk on my whole bike trip and after the trip when I still wasn’t recovering.  When that happensI need to look for help, which is the second lesson. Our system is so good and the earlier they catch some of our aliments the better they can be treated. My family and friends are also now coming forward indicating they also saw some deterioration and rationalized it away as well.

I don’t know definitively what caused the hemotomas. Likely a fall cross-country skiing in March. I guess I will start wearing a helmet there, at least when conditions are poor. But 20% of this sort of problem may not be caused by a trauma.

The go-forward advice is mixed. Be careful, but don’t lie down and die. I could end back up in here for a repeat performance regardless of what I do. 25% who have had this operation will need another at some time. While this was a scary experience for me, and I had many thoughts of what I will be able to do in the future, as I suffered through it and have begun to get better. But even now, before leaving the hospital, I know that I will find an adventure soon.

At the moment. I have no plans, but am thinking of Africa, Eastern Europe or maybe it is time to take a long sojourn in Australia, which I have been saving for some time.

So, until next time…

 

Posted in West Coast Cycle | 5 Comments

Wind and Amtrack

Posted on April 30, 2013 by kenmyhre

Apr 30, Shelby, Mt

A lot of kms in the four days since I left Portland. I got away from Portland quite well. It was Saturday and early there was not much traffic. My guess on which road to take worked out well,even though I had my doubts. Finally after about 8 miles and a couple of questions I hit a bike way along side of I 84, the freeway that follows the Columbia river. The bike way petered out after about 20 miles and I stopped for a breakfast and to figure out which road I would take. I-84, the secondary on the Washington side of the river or the old historic highway, each with attractive features. In order to get down the road away, I started with I-84.

The wind was starting to pick up by late morning and so I was flying, up river and down wind. But the big wide shoulder was fairly littered with debris and so I was worried about flats. At one point I moved over onto a bike path that was enjoyable, until I hit a four-flight staircase that I had to wrestle my bike down. Back onto the freeway, and now I was often up over 20 mph and trying to get to the Dalles for the night. Within 400 m of the exit I flatted. I walked off the highway and fixed the tire at a service station, with access  to a good pump. I had done 90 miles,

The next day I was back out onto the freeway and the wind, still worried about flats, in part because my little bike pump is not very good and I am now worried that my rear tire is showing more wear than I had expected, but it is hard to give up the speed. Now often close to 25 mph, on the flat and up to 37mph on long downhills where I hold my breath that my skimpy tire holds up. It is weird to be flying down the road, with no apparent wind, as the wind is going at the same speed as I am. As I passed a small town at about 60 miles, I felt a softness and pulled in to fix yet another wire flat. The reinforcing wire is penetrating my rear tire very easily now. I need to get to Kennewick and find a new tire and tubes. I left the freeway about 20 miles before Umatilla, my target for the night. I was thankful to be away from the debris and the wind was still driving me. I did 105 miles on this day, and tomorrow I would leave the Columbia gorge and start to go north.

It was only about 30 miles to Pasco, where the Amtrak touches my route. The wind is stronger than ever and I just want out, so I will try to connect with a train to go north, possibly into Montana. In the morning I headed out and was in dire straights a few times. Part of the time the wind was helping and so I made reasonable time, but much of the time it was across me, and I was being pulled into the traffic on the busy freeway whenever a big truck passed. I was very glad to get into Kennewick, off of the freeway and where I found a replacement tire. I am still carrying a marginal spare, but felt it was too far out to go without a spare.

I had hoped that the Amtrak I would take had a wheel-on car for bikes, but was told not, I would have to box my bike. I found an old box and duct-taped together something that they accepted. My train left at 9:00 pm and I was expected to ride it through Spokane to East Glacier, getting off at about 9:00 am the next morning, hoping for a 3-4 day ride to Calgary. This morning as we approached East glacier it was snowing and so I extended onto Shelby, not sure what to expect. It was -1C in Shelby and very windy, so I checked into a motel, hoping for better conditions tomorrow. If conditions are too bad, I may end up calling for help from Calgary. Hopefully I will be able to at least get the 35 miles to Canada.

And so, I have cut a lot of cycling out of this trip, but the wind, even on the two days it was with me, just took too much fun away.

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Portland

Posted on April 27, 2013 by kenmyhre

Apr 26, Portland

I have just spent a tourist day in Portland. Nice city.

I decided, a few days ago, while in Coos Bay, that I had had enough of the coast winds. My internet perusing indicated the weather in Eugene was more conducive to cycling north. Still a north wind, but less that on the coast and generally warmer as well. The route between Eugene and Portland is also much flatter, so even if I get wind less hills would make it easier to make some headway. I had wanted to make the jaunt into Eugene to go to Bike Friday, and so I hopped on the 7:00 am bus on Coos Bay and was in Eugene by 9:00.

The guys at Bike Friday tuned up my bike, I bought some hard to get parts, they did the show and tell around the place and showed me some nice opportunities for cycling to Portland. I am again impressed by how friendly and supportive they are here. I walked in unannounced and they immediately got people working on my needs.

It was cold the next morning as I headed north, but soon I was on a quiet country road, completely flat for a change and now rural agricultural in nature. It was quiet enough that the birds were out, and the wind that began around 9:30, was only about 3mph. (For me a 3mph wind is a wind that slows me down by about 3mph on the flat. It is probably more like about 7 or 8mph.) My Oregon bike map that Rick Wolcott gave me, proved to be most useful in finding my way initially into Albany, where I had lunch and then to Salem. I had a small ferry crossing of the Willamette River and then finally some significant hills as I entered Salem for the night. I rode 80 miles, and finally felt satisfied that I was getting somewhere.

The next day, I was still on back roads leaving Salem, but had to join the freeways and more hills as I got to within 20 miles of Portland. On this day I had almost no headwind, but then I was in Portland a bit after noon. It took me 55 miles from Salem to find my way into the hostel in NW Portland. Out of the 130 miles from Eugene to Portland, only 20 were on busy roads and I finished each day with just my light cycling gear. What a nice route change this has been for me.

On mt day here in Portland I headed out on my bike but didn’t get far. I spent the morning in Washington Park, first in the rose garden, although they weren’t in blossom. Bill Mcmanus recommended this to me, and he knows roses. Most of the morning was spent in the Japanese Garden. I believe this to be an exceptional one, and I always leave Japanese gardens with a peaceful feeling.

Even though I am not looking to buy books on the road, I spent much of the afternoon in Powell’s book store, simply one of the best i have ever been in. The weather is hot and sunny and I will leave Portland with a good feeling. What a nice place.

I will head out eastward up the Columbia river tomorrow with no real idea of where I will get to.  I expect if all goes well it will take three days to get out of the gorge to Pasco, Wa and then possibly I will be shopping for a train ride.

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Into Oregon

Posted on April 22, 2013 by kenmyhre

Apr 15 – Olema, Pt Reyes

I took three days off after arriving in Monterey. On my day in Monterey, I visited the aquarium, washed clothes and got a new odometer for my bike. The next day I took a bus/train ride the 140 miles into San Francisco. I did not relish facing the wind while struggling with the complications of getting into the big city, or at least that is the rationale I used. Taking my bike on both the bus and the train could not have been easier, and gaining a bit of distance in this way will allow me relief from the worrying about how slow I have been going. Using this thinking I booked into a hostel in SF for two nights, which meant that I had a Sunday free in town. I enjoy biking around new cities, and Sunday is usually the best day to do this. I cycled down through Chinatown to Fisherman’s Wharf and then out to the Golden Gate Bridge, returning through the Presidio, the military area that is quite park-like.

I stopped in Japan town and spent most of the afternoon enjoying their Cherry Blossom Festival. I ate some Japanese noodles in a beer garden, washed down with a Kirin, watched a beauty pageant, drum groups and martial arts demonstrations. There were many people out on the cold windy day. In many ways the weather reminds me of my cherry blossom trip to Japan. It was mostly cold there as well. When ever I see cherry blossoms I am sure to feel the chill of a cold damp wind.

The SF hostel I stayed in, like the one in Monterey, made quite an effort to provide some entertainment. We had a vegan Indian dinner on Sunday, free of charge, while a bollywood movie played silently in the background. There won’t be any other hostels until Portland, and I will miss them.

I got away from the hostel at about 8:30, and found my way over the hills to the Golden Gate Bridge in just about half an hour, thanks to having scoped my route out the day before. The wind was already up, but it didn’t bother me early in the day getting through SF, then through Sausalito, and up the first significant climb into the Marin Headlands. Once up, the wind began to throw me around on the down hills, but climbing wasn’t too bad, because then I was in the wind shadow of the hill. This section had some very significant climbs. I had lunch early and then stopped at Pt Reyes Sta to ask about accommodation down the road, and was sent back a couple of miles where I have ended up in a B&B, as there was nothing ahead for close to 40 miles. I only got in about 40 miles net, because of this. I will have to work harder on planning the days. The wind means that on the road the best I can average is about 10 mph. Ahead, I think I will always have hills to deal with. So I just can’t make some of the big jumps that I am used to doing. The B&B is nice, and they are bike people so gave me a 15% discount.

Apr 20, Crescent City, Ca.

Since San Francisco I have had continuous hills, mostly very steep and tiring. Mostly on Highway 1, which is a narrow two lane with mostly no shoulders. It is in good shape, but there has been no engineering, in that the road is just rolled out over the hills, with no effort to fill in dips or cut corners. As such the speed limit often drops to 20 mph, which means that there is very little traffic at this time of year. Never far from the ocean the views are incredible, all of which means that this is an incredible cycle road, provided of course that you like hills and that you are heading south.

But of course I am heading north, and so some time after 10:00 am I am hit with severe winds, which has sapped much of the enjoyment from me. My distance gained each of the five riding days since SF ranged between 40 and 70 miles. It would have been possible to squeeze out a few more at times, but I had also to watch where the next accommodations were because I was going so slow I just could not push on to a distant place.

In those five days, I once caught a shuttle bus for 25 miles to get over some long hills and to get to the next place where I found a hotel,. I probably would have taken more, but they don’t run very often and not always along the whole road.

My best day, of these five, was the fourth. I headed inland a bit, climbing over two mountains, one of which at 2000 ft is the highest climb on the whole coastal route. The road was even narrower with a multitude of switchbacks and almost the only traffic was the odd lumber truck to add spice when it caught me on one of the switchbacks. What made the day, was the complete absence of wind, in part due to the deep red-wood forest that I was in. At the end of this day I camped, again in a redwood grove. All other days I have been in motels as it is just too cold and windy to sit out in my tent. At the campsite, I had a nice evening with a woman who was out getting her cycle gear and legs ready for an Adventure Cycle outing.

My fifth of these days, included a 32 mile stretch of highway, off of Hwy 101, that the route now follows, called the Avenue of the Giants. Along this stretch are numerous groves of Old Growth redwoods, that have escaped logging. I stopped many time along this stretch, walked in the groves and even watched a movie in one of the Information Centers. Unfortunately my smelling the redwoods meant that it was late in the day by the time I had to get the final 15 of this 70 mile day into the next town. And the wind was now back up again. But still it was also a good day.

Today, April 20, I awoke very tired after my many days of hill and wind bashing. It was also raining. So, I found a bus, and spent the day making my way to Crescent City. Along the way I spent much of the day at a small town called Arcata. It was a bus transfer spot, and I went to a birding area and a community centre where they had a birding show. Unfortunately it was too windy to actually see many interesting birds. I completed my day off of the bike, by busing the rest of the way to Crescent City. This bus day gained me about 100 miles, and put me close to Oregon.

Apr 22, Coos Bay, Or.

Over the last two days I cycled from Crescent City to Brookings in Oregon and then on to Gold Beach. I had found a bus schedule for today, and at Gold Beach I had time to have a late breakfast and then catch the afternoon bus to Coos Bay. The wind was quite stiff each of the last two mornings and yesterday I just quit riding at noon, today I was lucky in getting a bus for a couple of hours. Ideally, rather than killing myself of just quitting, I will ride for a few hours in the morning and then catch a bus in the afternoon when the wind picks up. Unfortunately these little bus services are not connected. Each road section is a new service and I have no way of finding the schedules in advance. So, it is a day by day thing.

It also probably means that I will not be riding all the way to Calgary, but that issue is still some days away. In California while I cycled about 80% of the 1000 miles, it looks like I might be riding more like 50% from here on. I had been getting quite despondent about the riding and with this new approach I am less so. We will see how it goes in Oregon.

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Southern & Central California

Posted on April 12, 2013 by kenmyhre

(I guess I will beg off adding pictures as this time….sorry)

Apr 6 – Ventura, Ca. (After three days ~350 km)

Three days out and things are pretty good. Day 1, to San Clemente and day 2 to LA, were both about 110 km. Both days I had heavy head wind for my final three hours which pretty well drained what energy I had left at that point. Day 3, today, I did closer to 130 km. A little less headwind late in the day and fewer stop signs and red lights to contend with. My bike is running very well, my body struggling a bit, after a winter with less than ideal preparation,.  it took about 3-4 hours to make my way out of the endless communities that make up San Diego. The rough map I made from the Adventure Cycle maps was essential, as was the equivalent one I made for LA. Once out of extended SD, I entered Camp Pendleton, which was followed by a state park, and had me fighting headwind with no stores where I could fuel up. I did sit down on the bike path to have one of my emergency bars, but I was still drained as I dragged my way on down the road. I had a nice camp site at San Clemente State Beach, with beer and a restaurant not far away.

Day 2, I started out with a light drizzle as I made way on the intricate bike route through San Clemente. I got to Mission San Juan Capistrano an hour before opening, but as I had ridden 3.5 miles off course to see it, I waited it out for a visit. I struggled a bit finding my down the road from there, but hit my first significant dedicated bike trail along Huntington Beach. There is an 8 mph limit, but as it was near the end of the day I wasn’t too energetic anyway. I had lost my odometer earlier in the day, but I probably did about 12 mph as the path wasn’t busy. Entering greater LA, with the benefit of my map I had another bike path along a river near Long Beach and then a long painful ride into the wind into Torrance, where my gps found a cheap hotel.

Today, Saturday, I had more street riding before hitting the bike trails at Redondo Beach, which I followed for a couple of hours more or less all the way to Santa Monica, past a number of other beaches. These paths were good in that they were mostly dedicated bike trails with lots of riders faster than me. I saw thousands of bikers, runners, walkers, volleyball players, and a few muscle builders at Venice Beach, which was also where the street people hung out. The main people in the water are surfers with full body wet suits, and there are a lot of fishermen as well. I am quite impressed by the activity I see. With the benefit of my map, getting through LA was quite enjoyable. When I got out on the Pacific Coast Highway, things continued well. A big shoulder and lots of other road riders meant that the traffic was used to cyclists and by noon I had done my 100 km target, even with the hills that began to come at me. I continued on, without eating and like day 1, hit another military base, which took two hours to get through. My targeted camp ground, on the beach was flooded, so I am in a hotel in Ventura.

So far, the ride has been more scenic, hillier, about 50/50 flat and hills, and much easier traffic-wise that I had expected for this section.

Apr 7 – Lake Cachuma (San Ynes valley) – (80 km/3000 ft)

I was a little late leaving my hotel as they were serving waffles. Heading down the road to Santa Barbara went quickly, but once in town I really lost time. I rode around, up and down hills and finally found the Mission, which I was not looking for. I was looking for the side road to the San Ynes valley, which took me a long time and much up and down to find. Once on the road it climbed another 2225 ft. I began to regret the steep climb as soon as it began, because I had not found a place to get some food, and it was going to take a long time to get over the pass. At the pass the wind really began to kick up and the steep run down was scary as I was buffeted around a lot, and the traffic was quite heavy. When I came to the campground at the lake, situated in the valley, a long way from the coast I pulled in to find food and to get out of the wind. I have now been here for close to four hours and the wind has not let up. I only hope that tomorrow will be better, or I will be a long time climbing back out of here.

Apr 10, Pfeiffer St Park, Big Sur (After 7 days ~750 km)

The last three days have been the worst and the best of cycling times. The road out of Santa Ynes Valley was not too bad, passing through the little Danish town Solvang. It seems as though towns like Solvang are more danish than anything I have seen in Denmark.

The wind continued unabated and so it would continue through the day and the next as well. I continued on into Lompoc, now back on the Pacific Coast route, but the wind was still howling. People in Lompoc claimed never to seen anything so bad. It was only noon, but I was not going to tackle the big Vandenberg air-base, which would be another 30 miles of open fields, with nothing to cut the wind. I was directed to take a little shuttle bus, with carriers for bikes on the front. For $1.00 I got to the next town across the base. What a bargain, even if there was no wind. From there I made my way on to San Luis Obispo, where I got a nice hotel to watch the Final College basketball game.

I was away early the next morning on a modest freeway getting across to Morro Bay before the worst of the wind hit. Now I was planning for the next few days ahead, and rightly or wrongly decided I needed to get to a place called Ragged Point, about thirty more miles. It was not overly hilly and I had much of the day left, not too much of a task. Luckily I stopped for a late morning breakfast, which had me well stoked as I went by San Simeon and the Hearst Castle, still 14 miles to my destination. As is now the case on each windy day, these last miles into the wind killed me. I got to Ragged Point around 3:00, but was completely empty yet again. The accommodation is high-end and well beyond my budget, but I couldn’t even fake that I might move on. There was no place to move on to. I did enjoy the grounds and the bed was the best of the trip so far. With my afternoon pick me up and a lovely meal, it was about a $200 stop.

So why did I push so hard to get to Ragged Point? From Ragged Point to Big Sur  I needed to ride 50 miles, and what turned out to be 1100 m of accumulated climbing and possibly into the wind.. At about 7:00 I hit the road into this most hilly part of the trip. The road winds up and down and in and out of the bays, often with speed limits of 20 mph, and there is rarely a shoulder.  The morning was wonderful, only a little mist rising from the water and not a breath of wind. I rode for probably half an hour, all the way up the first big hill, without a car passing in either direction. I had a late breakfast a bit before 9:00 and a power bar around noon, where I was able to spot a whale with my binoculars. The traffic built up a little by noon, but at no time was there much of an issue. Most significantly, the wind never appeared. What could have been a horror, turned out to be one of my nicest riding days ever. I was quite strong all day, thanks in part to my good sleep, but mostly because I was not fighting the wind. Right now I feel I made a good call yesterday. The campground is set deep in a redwood forest and it feels a bit warmer, without the wind.

Apr 11, Monterey (70 km)

The wind was up as soon as I pulled out of the campground, and it gathered steam as the day progressed. I guess I am being charged extra for the good day yesterday.  The hills were not as long as yesterday, but with wind, and still poor shoulders I was weaving around a bit too much to be safe. I also missed the turn into Monterey and did an extra hour and a bit of riding. I checked into a hostel here and had a nice walk along Cannery Row..  The forecast is for more wind, and so I am contemplating taking a bus tomorrow to get closer to San Fran and to have a mental break from the wind.

Posted in West Coast Cycle | 3 Comments

West Coast Cycle

Posted on April 4, 2013 by kenmyhre

West Coast Cycle – 2013
April 3, 2013 – San Diego
Tomorrow morning, all going well, I will head out to begin my coast ride with a ride out of San Diego.
Initially I had hoped to do this ride with Rich King, and another friend Louie. They have been trying to do the coast ride for a few years, and it looks like they will make it this year, but they will be starting later than I was able to fit into my schedule. When it became apparent that I would not be able to ride with them, a few options opened for me:
My Bike Friday had needed some factory repairs for a few years, and so I sent it to Eugene Or., and arranged for it to be forwarded to San Diego. So I will do the ride in reverse order. Most do it north to south, taking advantage of the prevailing winds. Hopefully I will not spend too many days regretting this decision. I did enjoy the simplicity of flying down without my bike.
I have also modified the cycle route somewhat. I will ride north along the coast through California and Oregon. Then, rather than continuing on to Vancouver, I will head east up the Columbia river to the east side of Washington State, then north, through a bit of Idaho, into BC, through the Crowsnest Pass and onto Calgary. I had been interested in doing the Columbia River Gorge for a while and I also like the idea of finishing a long bike trip by riding up to my house in Calgary.
So … that’s the tentative plan. It will be 3600-4000 km, and I have a bit less that six weeks to get it done. Not enough time to linger much, and if I have troubles there may be some train or bus lifts, but hopefully not. The simplicity of a “long

in San Diego

in San Diego

ride home” really appeals to me. I plan on camping a bit, using hostels periodically and motels where needed.
This will be my third tour starting in San Diego. The Baja Peninsula in about 2000, and the Southern Tier ride to Florida in 2005. Both of those were with Rich.
I flew in today, arriving at 11:00 am, got a taxi to my hotel, where my Bike Friday was waiting for me. It went together well and all the repairs are great, as I expected. Everything Bike Friday has done for me has been excellent.
I had about a 15 km ride to find and buy a gas cartridge for my stove and to look around the harbour a bit. The bike seems to be good to go.
I had dinner and another long visit with Uris Torods, a friend through George Kinnear, with whom I stayed each of my previous cycle trips. On each visit the conversation has been great, this one no exception. The temperature seems to be about 65F and the forecast is for the same for the next week, with no rain. Hopefully this will hold as I head north. The wind seems to swirl, but then I have myself ready for almost anything in the way of wind. i will attempt to post when I dan on this trip. Til then..

Posted in West Coast Cycle | 3 Comments

Kerala, Birds & Backwaters

Posted on November 26, 2012 by kenmyhre

 Nov 18-21 Jungle Bird Home Stay – Thattekad, Kerala

My hesitant introduction to what will become my home away from home in India, began at about 11:00 am when Sudha, the beautiful 57 year old owner of the Home Stay walked me and my bike up the road into the park, sat me down and fed me a late breakfast. I was kind of joining in at the tail end of the morning bird outing, which is followed by a late breakfast. There was no discussion about whether I was staying or not, just the hospitality of a person who saw a red-faced old man about to die if she didn’t get something into him. I had had a very easy morning, belying my appearance, and had been captivated by the place and would be staying indefinitely but Sudah, I think just felt that I needed sustenance. The next four days she and the others here tried to restore all of the weight that hot, hilly cycling had removed. Unique, among the many places I have stayed at around the world, we never did settle on rates for accommodation, meals and services, but somehow we just knew it would work out to every one’s satisfaction.

I spent four nights here, met many avid and casual birders, became part of a small and growing group that quickly became friends. I went on six bird outings, they are held in the morning beginning at 6:30 and in the afternoon beginning at 3:30 pm, each for about 3 hours. I added about 60 new birds to my non-existent life’s list, some quite exotic, and learned a lot about birding in the process. My six trips were to five different sites, I have no idea how many more there may be.

The characters in this play begin with Sudah Chandran, the owner who dragged me into this great experience. I went on three of the bird treks with her. She is about 5′ tall, wears long Indian saris and sandals, but scampers over the rocks and roots nimbly. She is old school, I think the binoculars that John, one of my partners, gave her are interesting for her, but she spots and identifies the birds by sound, habitat and good eye sight. She also works in a school and runs her guesthouse admirably. Helping her are her son, daughter in-law, her mother, and 4 or 5 others depending upon the number of guests.

Sudah’s son Gireesh, is a lawyer in addition to helping run the guesthouse and providing the significant bird guiding activities, so he runs off to complete these duties in between efforts catering to us. I went on three outing with him and was so impressed by his enthusiasm and deep knowledge, but will save that for the conclusion of this short tale.

The day I arrived Gireesh called everyone, which included six Indian birders at the guesthouse doing a one day birding count, and John, a 65 yr old doctor from San Francisco, who is here for his second two week birding visit this year. We all followed Gireesh into the jungle adjoining the guesthouse as he had identified the call of a Malabar Trogon, one of the rare birds everyone was after. Sure enough, it was spotted high in the trees, and we got some fuzzy, over-zoomed photos.

Back to John, the first of my little group of compatriots. I went on all of my outings with him. He is a serious birder in a nice way. We spent much time visiting and tasting different alcohols, while waiting for the next meal or the next outing. He has a Swarovsky spotting scope that is an added bonus for me, as my viewing involves taking a picture at maximum zoom, then digitally zooming in many times again, until I have a fuzzy image with with to appreciate the bird. When we can get John’s Swarovsky on the bird it really gives a finer appreciation.

Each of the people I talked with over my first days here removed a little of the incentive to go down to the back-waters between Alleppey and Kochi. The Indian birders indicated that the bird reserve would not get birds until April, and others indicated the house boat thing was of poor value, confirming my earlier assessment that I would not likely do this. I will still head in that direction, but not for as long. All this opened the incentive to stay on here, as it has all of the attributes that I am looking for as the end of my trip.

Our day begins with tea and biscuits at 6:15, and then we head out to a birding site. The birds are most active as the sun is coming up. The bird activity begins to die about 9:30 and so we return for breakfast at 10:00, kill time until lunch at 2:00 and head out for the afternoon birding session at about 3:30 until dark at about 6:00. We squeeze in a sun-downer before dinner at 7:00. Meals are very communal as we eat together and visit a lot with all the people staying at the guesthouse.

My second day here Sudah, John and I took a tuc-tuc into Khotamangalm where I got a haircut. Sudah picked up some bottles of Toddy, a local home brew made from some part of the pine tree, for John and I to add to our alcohol tasting. Mari, a young German girl joined our little group on this day. On the third day, Sudah brought Rich up the stairs, she had found him out on the road and brought him into the fold. In the meanwhile the groups were still arriving. A group from Sweden and Norway on a guided cycle outing joined us for one night, and a group of photographers from Bangalore joined us for my last night, but we don’t go birding with the groups..The final member of our group came in on my final day. Bruce is a hippy from the 60s who is still a practising Hindu and has spent much of his life bouncing between India and flower (or other plant) life in California. I wasn’t sure there were any still around. But he is fun and has lots of interesting ideas.

Some of the exotic or interesting birds that I saw included the Malabar Trogon, the Dollar Bird, a Changeable Hawk-eagle, Chestnut Bee-eater, three different Drongos, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Brown Capped Woodpecker, Black Baza, Ceylon Frog Mouth and Indian Pita.

A final story on Thattehad illustrates the capability of a strong bird guide like Gireesh. Our final night as a group I wanted to see a Frog Mouth and John wanted to see an Indian Pita. We went out and as the dusk was beginning to settle around us Gireesh left us and headed into the deep undergrowth and came back requesting we follow him, but not to touch any of the brush. Two Frog mouths were sitting on a branch, the strangest birds I have ever seen. We got some photos under the light of Gireesh’s high powered flashlight. After walking about a bit more, it was now getting quite dark, Gireesh stopped and indicated that he had just heard a Pita. Playing two recorded Pita calls on his phone and making some himself we headed back up the trail and at a certain point we stopped while he continued to make his calls. Now we could all hear the answering calls, as the Pita got closer and closer. After about 20 minutes of this the little Indian Pita, the cover bird on the Birds of India Guide, jumped up on a branch, and with flashlight illumination let us all take our photos.

My four days and nights here were incredible, even more so when you read Lonely Planet describing the Bird Lagoon, 12 km away, as the place to go. Every one loved the Jungle Bird Guesthouse, Sudah, Gireesh and the others there, at a fraction of the price.

Nov 22, 23 – Kumarakom

Sudah was up to take Rich and Bruce birding and to give John and me breakfast before we left. Rich would leave after birding. I got away on a foggy morning about 7:00, and soon got to Kothamangalam and the busy highways. I stuck to the main roads to Kottayam, so it was fairly busy the whole way, there were more hills than I expected and I was back in deep humidity as I expected. So, as there was no real reason to stop much I rode right on through. Once past Kottayam I was on small roads leading into the back-waters and on into Kumarakom and our chosen hotel, the Tharavadu Guesthouse, After the busy main roads the back-waters was nice. I caught a few good birds and the traffic was slow. The Guesthouse is lovely. I checked in a bit after twelve, and had my shower and a beer and was working on my notes when Rich turned up.

I did 95 km getting here and another 20 in the area.

The next morning, after a late breakfast we made out way down to the Bird Sanctuary and started with a two hour tour of the canals with a guy in a wooden canoe. Our guide was pretty good at spotting birds and we had some good sightings, including a Brahminy Kite, new to us. We also saw lots other birdes and some back-water life as people went about their daily activities. Later we saw numerous large and medium sized houseboats heading out into the big lake with their guests.

After our tour we had a long leisurely beer and buffet lunch at a government resort. Late in the afternoon , even though we had been told it was the wrong season for birds in the sanctuary I did the 4-5 km walk through. All in all the visit to the back-waters has been pleasant. It is an enormously attractive place.

Nov 24-26 – Ernakulam, Kochi

I did 90 km, getting to Ernakulum, visiting Kochi and looking around.

I left the Tharavadu at 8:00, continuing north on the road along the east side of Vembenad Lake, although never really seeing it. I was following a route I had picked out from a back-waters map I picked up at a visitor information centre. I initially crossed many canals and saw lots of people activity but no birds. 20 some kms along I hit the end of the first road and found a ferry from Viakom across Vembenad to one of the main islands below Kochi. It cost me 2R, about 4 cents. This gave me 20 more kms of back road cycling. When I hit the main road into Kochi/Ernakulam I only had 10 km left. After a nice second breakfast in a high end hotel I had an easy ride in on the 4 to 6 lane highway.

Once in Ernakulam. I did another 15 km finding the YMCA, where Rich and I agreed to meet. I got there first and was told Rich had not turned up and that they had no room. As I walked out, Rich walked up, saving the hassle of trying to find a place and then going back to the Y to leave a message for Rich. We checked into a hotel Rich had stayed at when he went through five days ago, and then we both went out to find things we need for packing our bikes for transport, and both found some things that might work.

Our second day would be a visit to Fort Cochin, the tourist enclave for this area. We took small people ferries over to the town, I had my bike. I rode around a fair amount and visited the two main attractions, a musem with great Hindu muralsss and a Jewish Synagogue. However it was Sunday and my museum visits were marred by hoards of people, Indians and Europeans from a large Cruise Ship. Mostly I enjoyed riding slowly around the narrow lanes. Rich and I stumbled into each other in a restaurant before catching the ferry back to Ernakulum. Some time is the last two days I figured out that I had an extra day here, which is kind of annyoying as I should have used it back in the countryside, or at least we should be over in Kochi.

The next day, my wasted day, we hung out at the hotel and around the streets until Rich headed off for his all night train trip to Goa, pick up his bike and fly to Delhi.

I will make my way to the next town up the way, where the airport is, pack my bike  into a parcel hopefully acceptable to the airline and fly to Delhi.

We both find these sorts of things more stressful than the actual travelling.  But we are leaving what has been the highlight and most enjoyable part of this trip.  The Western Ghats and backwaters of  Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

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