Day 6: Friday, Feb 4

Today's route: Ralegan Siddhi-Hivrebazar. Got up at 6.30am, packed and were outside
ready to cycle at 7.40am but got into conversations with people crowding around us as we packed. The usual started: photo with you, please. What's your country? Where you go? Etc, etc. Exchange of phone numbers for when we pass through their homes, a last good bye and off we are at 8.20am. We reached Hivrebazar, located only 34km from Ralegan Siddhi, at 4pm. There was another one of those stretches of hills but not quite as steep as previous ones.

Weather: Sunny with close to 40 degrees, at times nearly no wind at all. What a joy!!

Cycled: 34km on SH50, then on a smaller road and the last few km were just a         patchy gravel road covered with some tar or not. After around 20km we had the first flat tyre, a big thorn of one of the typical trees around here had gone right through the tyre and tube. It got Kalyan's bike, whic Wiebke was riding today. We had swapped bikes as the gears on Wiebke's bike kept playing up and the chain came off a few times as well. So Kalyan kind of test rode it meanwhile Wiebke punctured his tyre and managed to have the chain come off this one as well. At least that resulted in Wiebke learning how to put it back on herself.

So, Kalyan replaced the punctured tube in some 45min and after another 1km it was flat again. Luckily, we were just invited into a public school we passed. The kids got all excited about our bikes and the teachers followed suit. We spent some good 3 hours there with them showing us each of their 5 classrooms for their 169 students (of which 73 are girls). The teachers asked the kids to perform all sorts of songs and dances for us    and we had so much fun recording them all along. Then they made us eat & drink so much, even Kalyan gave up before finishing it all off!! After that Kalyan repaired the old tube, took out the new one which now was gone as well but beyond repair and off we went onto our last 10km stretch for the day.

Didn't cycle: None. Cycled all the way, no alternative transport today.


Ate & drank:
7:45am: 300ml Aminos and 1x meal replacement each, water
On the bike: nuts, 2l of water with enersol, 1x power bar each, ripe tamarind (Wiebke), sth similar to pies that the teachers had given us to         take along incl it's branches
12.30pm: roti, rice, curry, sambar, cookies, chai, water
4.45pm: nuts (Wiebke) to not fall off the bike, or chair, after arriving at Hivare Bazar
6:00pm: power bars as we were starving as we waited to hear back where we could stay and black tea with tons of sugar - to cope for the lack of milk, perhaps??
8:00pm: 2 kinds of roti, mixed veg, sambar prepared by the wife of the caretaker of the Panchayats office where we rested
9:00pm: chai (this time with milk) & water at Gaikwad’s, the caretaker’s home where family and neighbors encircled us within minutes of arrival :)

Highlight of the day: The warm welcome at the government school by kids and teachers alike. There was no better way to get over the punctures :) Or the tea at         Gaikwad’s house?? Both these bunches of people were making us feel so quickly as if we were dear friends, inviting us to their homes and sharing dinner, breakfast and lunch - the later at the field they farmed - with us.

Health Check: all well


Stayed at: Panchayat’s Office. Nice room, 1 bed, 1 sofa, bathroom incl. but with some other guests as well, which scared the hell out of Wiebke, namely mice (or rats?) and spiders of some unknown sort.  Cost: none. Alternative transport: none, yeah!!