FROM TRIVANDRUM TO NAGERCOIL. We were met at the airport by Sanje Sumadre, the professional driver from Yavatmal, near Umri, who will be our primary support during the trek north to New Delhi. Nicknamed “Gope,” he is an essential part of our Bicycle India 2007 team. With Gope was Sathi Sam, the Umri Christian Hospital administrator who is from Nagercoil. After greetings and hoisting the bike boxes on top of Gope’s SUV, we drove from Trivandrum to Nagercoil, a city further south in the state of Tamil Nadu. Nagercoil is less than 45 miles from Trivandrum, but it took over three hours due to pace and traffic. It was a two-lane road which is shared by cars, trucks, motorbikes, three-wheeled motorized rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, goats, dogs, cattle…you name it. This, we are told, is typical of the highways and roads on which we will pedal 2,000 miles.
OUR FIRST TWO RIDING COMPANIONS: ANAND AND JOCE. We met our first two Indian riding companions when we arrived in Nagercoil. Anand and Joce are two young men who, without us knowing them, have been anticipating our trek together for some time. We look forward to building friendship with them. They will be riding 6-speed bicycles which our project purchased for this purpose. Anand and Joce helped us unload and reassemble our bikes, which survived the air travel and drive from Trivandrum quite well. We can’t wait to start riding. After so much time sitting on airplanes, we are a bit stir crazy.
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1 comment:
We are praising the Lord for your safe arrival! Sounds like some interesting roads to bike on! :) It's about 5:45pm Friday here, so with the time change you're probably starting soon! We'll continue to pray for your physical recovery from jet lag and for a GREAT start!
Rachel, Nate and Damaris
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