A few weeks ago I booked tickets in and out of Mumbai from LHR.  That is the framework of my trip - arrive Mumbai Jan 9th 2025, depart Feb 5th 2025.  By Emirates, with my bike in a box as part of my luggage allowance. 

What to do in India?

My original plan was to ride North from Mumbai along the Maharastran coast - past a friend’s place in Dahanu (sadly he died in COVID) - and up to Surat and Kambhat, then into Western Gujarat and onwards to the Kutch.   Returning via ferry from Bhavnagar to Surat and train to Mumbai.

But the more I looked at maps and read the internet the more I realised I would be riding into a highly populated, polluted area with  swampy lowlands and busy roads.   The beaches looked drab and too accessible from Mumbai.  Not what I wanted.

Last year I revisited the coast of Southern Maharastra and rode South to Goa (see my unimaginatively entitled Journal ‘Mumbai to Goa’).  The area I rode through is largely protected from Mumbai by the large natural harbour at Mumbai that forces the main roads route inland and leaves a quiet, non industrial coastal region.  I could ride more slowly through that again……or I could visit Hampi further South and East and then ride back from there.

Hampi has been on my list of places to visit for a long, long time.  I have seen the temples and sunrise at Ankor Wat in Cambodia which are stunning and Hampi also has an old lost temple and city complex.   Trouble is, Hampi in on the Decan Plateau behind the Western Ghat mountains and that means a big climb up from the coast, and I am not sure I have time to ride there and back.

So - my plan now is to take an overnight train from Mumbai with my bike to Hubballi and cycle the 100 miles from there to Hampi.   Then return by riding down from the Western Ghats to the Maharastran coast and North to Mumbai.

Sounds simple - but trying to organise an Indian Railways ticket this evening resulted in a fee paid to some media provider and phone calls to my credit card company stopping any future payments…..