After leaving Mumbai, Miki and I had a peaceful twenty minutes on the water before reaching Mora Jetty where we met a crowd of people, all waiting for the boat to take them to the city to work.
After very gratefully being helped by some locals with my heavily loaded bike, I joined Miki, who was already on flat land, ready to begin our two-wheeled adventure.
The moment of freedom and relief at leaving the heaving city behind lasted all of two minutes however, as we began to ride and first one of my back panniers fell off, and then the other! Trying not to worry about the fate of my laptop inside, we fastened them back into place and began again. We had attracted the attention of a few young, excited, boys who followed us down the street for a short way before letting us head out of the colourful port town alone.
Small towns soon fell away to be replaced by large dusty highways. A constant stream of trucks passed by as we bumped our way along the side of the half-finished roads, eyes full of dirt, sun beating down. And so we were both surprised, and exceptionally grateful, when a man slowed on his motorbike to pass us across a bottle of mango juice!
We reached the town of Panvel in time for lunch, which also meant in time for all of the workers and school children to be taking a break. The streets were full of people and cars, many of whom were fascinated by our arrival. Some women immediately came towards us, hands outstretched in search of money. This seemed to be a common occurrence, and although I found the scenes very difficult, I also felt intrigued that it was always women who had this role. Where were the men? Were they all working, were the women here because the men couldn’t find a job, or was this just the automatic reaction to seeing a comparatively rich foreigner cycling through the middle of their city?
As we continued our way around town in search of a place to eat, Miki approached a local who looked to be in his early twenties, asking where we might find some vegan food. Quick to introduce himself and his sister Priya, Sid couldn’t think of anywhere for us to eat and instead invited us back to their family home!
Back at their apartment we met their mother, father and two younger sisters. We had what felt to us to be an incredibly strange mealtime experience, though it may not have been so for them. So happy to welcome us and to give us food, they settled us at the table to eat while the family proceeded to stand by the side of the table watching with interest. We discovered that Sid was an Influencer (a popular, influential person on Instagram), and they shared some knowledge about local areas and where they thought we should head next. We were also honoured to be part of a small ritual, as we discovered it was lucky for them to have guests in their house on that particular day.
Our plans from here changed after they warned us away from Pune, the original place we planned to visit, due to a spike in infection currently being spread by mosquitoes. So, instead, we headed south on their recommendation, to a beach town called Alibag.
Having more than a day’s travel to get to Alibag, we needed a place to stay that night and as we continued into the afternoon, looked out in hope of finding a spot to camp. We came across a cricket field cum building site which seemed perfect and after getting agreement from the men on the field, who seemed to be members of the local cricket club, we were good to go. After eating at a roadside bar two minutes down the road, we headed back as the sun began to fall and the sky turned a brilliant red-orange.
Tent set up quickly, ready to jump in to escape mosquitoes, when a man from a neighbouring house came over for a chat. Miki bravely opted to be the one staying outside for conversation as I dived into cover and listened in horror as the wonderfully friendly man stayed to warn us about the mosquitoes in the area, to tell us that they spread disease, that his daughter was going to get something to help (this turned out to be incense) and wouldn’t we instead like to stay at their house? The irony of warning Miki to stay safe from mosquitoes, while keeping him from getting to said safety was not lost on us, though the kindness was very much appreciated! After a lot of reassurance that our tent was mosquito-proof, the man finally headed on his way and we settled down to our first night of rest, tired, but happy.
