Bicycles and beaches

We took a sleeper night bus from Hospet to Margao Goa. It was good but we arrived to Margao at 4.20am so we didn't get to sleep for very long.

Deluxe honeymoon bed haha

 With some luck we found a very clean cafe near the bus station where we waited till things started to open up. Well we had a idea of riding a bicycle from Goa to the southern tip of India. We have only done a bit of research online but it looked possible. So first thing in the morning we started searching for bicycles. After lots of searching and pricing out we decided on Indian made 6speed Hercules bicycles. Less to brake and lots of parts available.

Us with the cycle shop owner.

By the time we finished that it was late in the evening and we were exhausted. Spent the night in Margao then in the morning headed off to Colva beach 7kms away. Was great to see the ocean again. When I went down to the beach i saw a great way to do 15ks by riding the beach. Hope we can do it again was a great way to bike. No honking trucks and many restaurants to stop for a cold water. Well our map showed a bridge at the end of the beach but no such luck and we had to back track a bit. On our way to the ferry Saara got a flat and we had to spend the night in a very strange hotel. After checking I had to bike to try and track down a new tube as Saaras had a hole at the base of the valve. After 3 little bike shop houses and almost 20km we were back to having 2 working bikes. With doing only a bit more than 40km i was unusually tired. I was not feeling so hot before but attributed it to long bus rides and no sleep. By the evening it turned into a fever which thankfully passed and we were back on the road in the morning.

Our map well sort of we took a picture of one and used that haha. Need to plan a little better.

Improvised panniers. Rice bags with one side sowed together. It gets many laughs.

Colva beach

 We had two options hilly and sort of scenic or a little less hilly. We opted for the less hilly highway and found it to be very hilly more than our loaded 6speeds could handle. We ended up pushing it up a never ending hill running from shade to shade. After 6 hours 40km later we were finally at Palolem beach. Now time to watch a few sunsets relax swim and plan the rest of our journey south.