We landed in Trivandrum, India just over two weeks ago and with a few hundred ish kilometres under our belts we are beginning to understand some of the things that make Kerala Kerala.

The huge variety of curries available means we will be needing at least three months here to try them all!
Dosa breakfasts were already a favourite from our travels in Sri Lanka so we are both pleased to find ourselves firmly in amongst the Dosa stands again.

We have seen more butterflies and flying insects in two weeks here than we did all summer in the UK.

We’ve seen leeches as big as my little finger trying to hitch a ride on the back wheel of the bike and smaller ones desperately trying to get into our socks on jungle hikes.

The spiders are genuinely massive, the ants can leave a nasty bite, and booking a hotel near any kind of watercourse will leave you covered in mosquito bites (even if you are completely covered up following a DEET bath).

Giant multicoloured squirrels are definitely a thing.

Flying foxes are HUGE and they seem to enjoy dropping their guano off at the swimming pool (no really, don’t put your head under the water in an open air pool, you’re likely to regret it!).

As we headed inland, we found ourselves reasoning with local Tuk-tuk drivers doing their best to dissuade us from cycling up the first of the very many steep hills to come.
After much thoughtful discussion and gesturing from the drivers, I fired up gomandrake.co.uk and scrolled to the Nepal entries, pointing out the bikes, myself and then Gez.
With the shared understanding that we are most likely bonkers, but probably have a vague idea what we were letting ourselves in for, they wished us well and waved us up the hill.

We’re assuming the crazy English people may have cropped up in the local WhatsApp group as everyone we encountered on the way up said massive hill seemed to know all about and approve of our trip to Nepal.

While we have already met chancers making half hearted attempts to rip us off. Thinly disguised ruses ranging from ‘can I take a selfie using your phone?’ to selling us most of a good fish for three times the market price and proclaiming it a bargain (while doing a little air-punch when he thought we weren’t looking).

Fortunately, as we have found on every trip so far, the vast majority of people we encounter along the road, greet us with genuine kindness and well placed curiosity.

We’re writing this on a rainy day in Kumily, we’ll be heading north towards the Cardamom hills and Munnar tomorrow, the smell of fresh cardamon already fills the air so we are excited to see what comes next.