Week 5: Mysore to Agonda (via Hampi)

1. Boulders – We enjoyed walking, cycling and scrambling around The spectacular granite boulders at Hampi. We had thought they might have been created by plate tectonics, but I’m pleased to here there is no fault lines here (particular on the anniversary week of the Christchurch earthquake). These were created from gigantic granite monoliths (a craton, no less, a new word for me) which over millions of years of erosion have cracked, split and eventually metamorphed into these spectacular boulders.

2. Cycling around Ancient temples – We hired some pretty old, gearless mountain bikes to spend a lovely day cycling around some of Hampi’s multitude of temples. Unfortunately a combination of being out all day, 36 degree heat and our Indian Ayoverdic 50+ suncream being under-par, meant we both caught too much sun. We’re now on to a different brand of 60+ cream containing zinc and covering up in the heat of the day.

3. Coracle ride – Apparently coracle (round boat) originates from the welsh word for boat and are a traditional method of transporting people or animals across rivers. We had a rather dizzy ride, although turns out when Mark was at the helm that it can be rowed in a straight line rather smoothly.

4. Bat and ball on Goan beaches – To continue Lizzies ball skills education we’re playing daily bat and ball in between reading, swimming and dodging cows on the beach. It’s a hard life in Goa.

5. Sleeper trains – We’ve taken two sleeper trains this week (Mysore to Hosapete and Hosapete to Margao). Not necessarily on time (in fact the second incurred a 3 hr delay), but comfortable and always interesting. We’ve found it’s a perfect opportunity to watch a film, read our book and catch up on our diaries, as long as our cabin neighbours don’t want to talk too much.