Challapalle – Narsapur - 128 km
Take perfect weather, throw in a good road and grand vistas, and it
makes a perfect cycling day. While following country lanes, and taking
wrong turns on three occasions, our path eventually landed at a
bridge washed away by the storm waters. An obscure old wooden
ferry boat carted pedestrians, bicycles and motorbikes across the
river, a lengthy process. This little diversion turned out quite
fascinating. Each day, a short article about our travels would appear
in the paper, and people would quickly point it out and ask for our
autographs. Imagine that! Hahaha.
As we moved further east, and it still being winter, the sun set
reasonably early, so we peddled like the clappers to reach Narsapur
before sunset.
Tiny Narsapur dates to 1173 AD, and history has it that the Dutch
landed in Narsapur in 1626 and used the town as a shipbuilding yard.
I wondered if the Dutch brought the lace industry to town, an
industry still prevalent today.
Narsapur – Jaanam (Yanam) - 79 km
Our ride to Jaanam was interesting and picturesque and I didn’t even
need the iPod. I was once more surprised to find newspaper reporters
wanting to interview us.
Yanam, a former French colony, was reached in good time and we
pulled in, primarily to do laundry. While the town had quite a good
location along the Godavari River, no accommodation could be found.
Once settled at a guesthouse in the city, the taps ran dry, and we
were unable to do our laundry.