Day 2 - 112 km to Thirumangalam

Yesterday it was good that I decided to take a break in that town as next town, Kovalaptti was 35 km away to which today I took 1.5 hours to reach. I would have certainly be drenched by rain if I had continued and I was ill prepared for that yesterday.

It was drizzling in the morning itself. When Coach Rajesh staying in next room said about impending rain I had a look @ satellite image only to find Tamilnadu full of clouds. I had decided to keep moving not allowing rain to slow down my progress & they helped me to carry the trike out of the room. The lodge owner gave me concession, he charged me INR 100 instead of INR 150 that was previously quoted. Their caretaker telephoned him that I am insisting on some concession, having come by cycle. So saved 50 rupees.

I use rubber sheet in bed ever since coming out of the hospital and today that same plastic sheet I carry doubled up as tarpaulin. So all my luggage was protected from rain. Today studio department declared rain holiday and so I don’t have photo of my trike covered with plastic sheet. My sony still camera takes moisture too fast. Many people have taken photographs today but I don’t have access to all that, right now.

The tires kicked up so much muck today that I had to wash the raincoat and plastic sheet after the ride is over. So some more things to wash today.

The road was passing thru some villages and that was a good thing as I did not find tea yesterday noon @ 330 when I was feeling sleepy. That part of highway was passing thru remote area which I believe was recent realignment and so was not passing thru tea shops. Slow climb today while drizzling was quite enjoyable.

After Kovalpatti the size of rain drops increased but it was not very uncomfortable. The wet factor was there but it was not chilly. So I did not have serious problem. Little later the people waiting waved me to stop with a camera and I obliged but did not get out of trike. One of them asked me if I am handicapped & when I asked how come he knows, he said he is a doctor. Looking at their genuine interest I got out and by that time another car had stopped nearby. I gave them the pamphlet and thereby earned Rupees fifteen from that. I explained them the idea of pamphlet is not money but sharing of knowledge. Free pamphlets never get read.

After another couple of km when power usage crossed 15 Ah and it was almost 12.30, I felt it is time to get food and charge. I am not carrying watch & my mobile will be mostly in the bag. So I add up moving time and non moving time recorded in GPS and make guesstimate adding starting time to that. The Balaji Bhavan people obliged but then they had power shutdown & generator was on but my chargers did not accept that. So I had about 1.5 hours to kill till 2 PM. Actual waiting is much less as I had lunch there too. Same reverse polarity problem like yesterday arose in plug in remote corner & they agreed to have my trike in middle of hotel. Luckily customer inflow to meals section had waned and I parked the trike opposite cash counter, in middle of the hotel Balaji Bhavan @ R R Nagar.

One thing we have to very careful about trike riding is road humps and similar situations. We have to approach it directly and never at an angle to avoid toppling over. There are plenty of road humps in service roads & so I am constantly reminded of that. BTW, reason for taking service roads sometimes are to avoid a steep climbing flyover & freewheeling on the other side.

It was nice that there was no problem with pedal assist though there was moderate rain considerable part of day. So this gives me more confidence that little rain will not harm as I had really struggled on climbing Shiradi ghat road other day. Today I was confidence as both my luggage and electricals were well covered. Taking the reading from my cycle analyst meter was bit difficult as it was also under transparent plastc.

Todays Raja lodge is far better than yesterdays as Thirumangalam is a bigger town. They have neon sign that says a/c and non a/c rooms available but there is no hot water for bathing which I hoped for after long ride in wet condition is absent. There is TV in the room that also has Tamilnadu government emblem that indicated it was part of free distribution..

I was able to pinpoint the tracking problem in GPS morning itself and have loaded the today’s ride to everytrail site and is available @ http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=768535

Todays riding time was 5 hours with moving average 22.2 km. Power consumption was 27.24 Ah and 1014 Wh. I continue to make mistake of data recording after battery is kept on charge and hope to do it before charging from now on as I will be happy with minimum voltage recording too. Being fully tired at end of the ride I simply arrange for charging and take rest. I was liberal in using power towards end of journey and thus was able to raise the moving average a little bit.