Our second days cycling took us through much the same flat landscape as the day before. Fields of peppers alternating with cotton and increasingly rice. As we traveled further away from the big towns the reception as we entered each village got more intense. Being asked for our autographs and the constant photographs gave us a taste of celebrity. After an early start and despite a little saddle soreness we arrived at a lodging in Macherla in good time and had a good meal of vegetable curry and chipatti. Unfortunately our room for the night was infested with mosquito and despite a major cull we didn't affect their numbers so we were forced to spend our first night under canvas earlier than planned!

We headed north west out of Chirala and straight into the town's waste disposal zone ie the sides of the road immediately out of town. Not the first impression of India we had hoped for but very typical. Thankfully the trash soon passed by and we cycled through tobacco fields with racks drying brown leaves at their edges. Next came cotton fields with women shaking off the white balls. We stopped and took a snap of one of the cotton pickers and took a sample for Rose to play with as we continued our ride. Cotton gave way to chilies and then rice. The scarlet chilies drying in the sun was striking when set against the green fields. The small roads we had chosen took us through many villages and we drew much attention. Within a few seconds of stopping we would be surrounded by dozens of fascinated locals staring in bewilderment at our white faces, bicycles and ROSE!

It was only three days since we had flown into India but we were itching to get on our bikes and set off. After a light breakfast we pushed our laden steeds across the soft sand to the lapping edge of the Bay of Bengal where the Krishna river meets the sea and took the essential setting off photo. The bikes felt good and we waved farewell to Satish as he filmed our departure and cycled the 7km back into Chirala and out into open country side. We were off!

As we began to think about a trip to India it was difficult to kniw where to begin. It is a vast country and the interest lies in all corners of the land. Although we have heard wonderful things about cycling in Ladakh in the north, at this time of year we would need snow tyres, and the far south is too hot, so we started to look to the middle of the country. We were keen not to just tick off world heritage sites and wanted to get under the skin of the real India instead. The idea formed that we could cycle a straight line east to west across the country so we ended up with the 16th parallel, latitude 16deg N. The distance across the land mass was about right and we decided to start and finish with a swim in the sea - Rose loves the seaside!

Because we have over a month here, we decided to leave the fine detail of the route til we got here.

As we arrived at Chirala station we met a TV reporter named Satish Redish who asked if he could make a story of our trip for the local channel. We were happy to oblige and in return he gave us lots of advice and local knowledge. We established our selves in a brand new sea side resort that seemed to have opened 6 months early and, having recovered our bike and had a refreshing dip in the sea we set about fine tuning our route. Satish took us to meet the local bus station manager who was more than happy to sketch out his recommendations and warn us of tigers!

That evening we caught an overnight train to Chirala where the Krishna River flows into the Bay of Bengal and at which point we had decided to begin our ride. Only Rose slept well on the train due to stereo snoring by our carriage companions. Our sleepless night did have some plus points though, as we got to watch the sun rise as we approached our destination. We arrived safe and well at Chirala but the same could not be said for our bikes which could not be seen! To our relief they arrived that evening so we had a beer with our dinner to celebrate and finalized our preparations for departing the following morning.

After all the excitement of two flights, one of which was on the new double decker jumbo, Rose was very tired when we finally got to Hyderabad in India so went for a long deep sleep. She woke up feeling great so we ventured out to sort a few things out and visited the Chowmahalla Palace.