Day 98: Malvan to Devgad
/Hard grind
These hills are killing us. Only 750m of climbing today, but that was on only 50km of riding. Winding Blue Strawberry and five bags, plus the weight of the Captain and Stoker, up all these hills is a hard paper round.
Breakfast was a samosa and a tomato roll sat on Malvan beach - it was the best we could muster from the shops that were open. The was also a couple of small chais involved of course. Sarina and I have become quite enamoured with the marsala tea. It’s never as good as the ginger chai from Chai Point in Bengaluru, but it’s still good. Tiger’s not so impressed.
Then we plodded out of town, feeling weary even as we started.
We did get a little further in understanding the mystery of the red blocks from yesterday. The piles on the plateaus are there because that’s where they’ve been cut. There are nomadic stone cutting crews up there, cutting the stones and leaving them in piles for trucks to pick up.
We made it to our hotel for the day though and Tiger and I had a very pleasant time on a deserted beach nearby. Mercifully free of rubbish. (Sarina opted for a nap.)