I have a new rhythm partly dictated by the heatwave conditions around here. I shouldn’t have read the newspaper and I wouldn’t have been so much aware of it but I did. Thus I start out by 7 and find a lodge, which is what “hotels” (places to stay for the night are called here) by about 1 or 2 p.m. It is also early enough to wash my clothes. Then, about 6 I find my beer joint and often have lively chats with other patrons of these invariably sleazy establishments.
Telengana is completely different from Karnataka and not just in language.
It is a very prosperous state but I really cannot get any real picture of what this state is all about. Hindi does work here, but just to some extent. The last couple of nights I have found lodges in small towns (Deverakonda and Nakrekal) at 1200 r/s. (a.c.) for a room. Just ok.
From Nakrekal to Mahbubabad- a hot day on excellent highways and a long 115 kms. I have done about 900 kms. so far and body and bicycle in good order. Lodge here in Mahbubabad is ok at 1700 r/s. for a.c. room.
Route planning is a challenge and I spend hours every night planning where to go. I have become reliant on Google Maps most of all. I consult the other apps for cyclists, Komoot, maps.me, mapy.cz, and pocket earth, some of these recommended by my Warmshowers guests, and I have the off-line maps downloaded on my phone. Coming up are some remote areas in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and even Andhra Pradesh (tomorrow) and I have to 1, take a route that will have a lodge approximately 100 kms. distant and 2, have roads that are in decent condition. The latter cannot be deduced from Google Maps, but the former very good at listing hotels even though in google hotels (restaurants) and Lodges are listed together.
Thus far my strategy was to avoid Hyderabad and the probable horrific traffic- thus my southerly route (not what Komoot had recommended), and I hadn’t imagined the excellent condition of the roads. Now, I could head to the coast and take the coastal highway up to Kolkata, the most direct route, but instead for as long as I can I will take an inland route through the jungle and tribal areas in Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Wish me luck…..also it is Naxalite territory but that shouldn’t have any affect on me.
