Reaching the Southern Tip

Run, Run and run again it’s been like this for the past nearly four months, covering a distance of 4008 km, in 93 days. No matter if I have been sick sore or even discharged from hospital, I have had to keep moving. This run has been the most pressure that I have ever been through on an event. I still don’t know why it’s been like this, but the main factor I feel was the terrain, basically flat road running. There has been no assistance from the terrain from a physical (up and down hill) or mental perspective ( the natural beauty of the surroundings in limited bursts). On top of this there has been the constant human element. With India having such a massive population and such limited space, one can never escape into the quietness on nature and just unwind and focus.

Nightly harassment

The province of Kerola has not turned out to be our favourite, although from a distance its looks great, massive palm groves some long beaches, massive river estuaries, there is potential. The only problem once you walk into the plantation, there is no space. For the entire province there are wall to wall villages. Nearly every piece of land has some structure on it. We have met some really brilliant people in this province, but as a whole we all have found it very unfriendly and not at all geared for tourists, mainly because of attitude of the locals, who on top of this believe and constantly tell us that ‘Kerola is gods country” They could not be further from the truth, we have found it to be a bit of hell.

Mangrove

Over the past I have had numerous encounters with swamps, you usually come off second best. Somehow they manage to always get the upper hand of you. In Madagascar it was fine as I knew that the creatures that lived in them were not let life threatening. In India it’s a whole new story. The creatures are as abundant and they are all poisonous. The further south I have travelled, the more I have encountered the swamps, but these are massive and deep because of the size of the rivers. The worst is that there are often really strong flowing currents in them, especially when trying to cross on the turn of the tide, if its in coming or out going these currents are dangerous, you can see the rate at which they are flowing by watching the floating debris swirling past.

Fruits of the sea

The run now over, we have taken a few days to unwind, just relax and slowly sort out our gear , repack what needs to go back and give the rest to the needy around us. Its been lazy times after what we have been through. The best has been that there has been time to cook, find fresh fish and enjoy creating a meal.

From above

Every time we ended up camping along the coastal belt, it was usually in a coconut plantation or natural grove along the beach. The southern coast of India must have some of the biggest plantations that I have ever seen. These trees are also massive producers and one can see big clusters of coconuts hanging high up in the fronds. As with every camp there is the gathering of local villagers. Attracted to us out of curiosity, normally they stand around and just stare for about an hour then eventually move off. One thing that I have always noticed is that they will sit, look at where we sit or place our table or tent, then look up at one of the palm trees. They never comment, sometimes the glance will be longer with a few extra ones at the tree and then at us again, followed by a little smile. I have on occasions thought about this, followed by my own upwards glance at the trees fruit, but felt no need to take the lets say quiet caution seriously.