Up to Chhindwara.

Got up to a nice early morning start. It was still misty when we left, with the sun just breaking thru. Its still cold in the night/early morning but it doesnt take long to warm up if youre in the sun.Our ride started in forest tho. The road was actually good for a change, but only single track, winding up thru the forest. The road was blocked to all but motorbikes after 4 km, with tons of rock barring the way. This meant we had the road virtually to ourselves and could revel in throwing the bikes into bends and accellerating up the climbs. The air was for once free of pollution and it was all quite exhillerating. We saw he weirdest tree ever - it was silver white in colour, with a green tinge with no leaves - and it glowed in the forest.There was not a straight branch on it and the trunk was knobbly and curvey. We saw 3 of these altogether - hopefully they are on video, but we have to charge up the camcorder to find out.Theres only one socket in every Indian hotel room - and we have a waiting list for things to charge and plug in .
The ride up for 60 km was blissfull and a real charge- good to be doing some real biking.
After 60km things got bad again - the road disintegrated - then returned then disintergrated again.Its very tiring and physically hard work trying to keep the bike upright and moving forward at a sustainable pace. On one section the potholes were so bad that my hand jumped off the grip and knocked the killswitch without my knowledge -as we were going downhill I just coasted for about 8km till I reached a standstill. Cursing I dismounted and got the tools out and removed the points cover and looked inside - it was then Joe informed me that I was a prat and should check things. Enough said!
Joes throttle cable broke 20km out of town and we wrapped it around his hand and he then tensioned it over his thigh and lifted his leg to accellerate. Did this for 10km then managed to get a replacement. We tried a couple of hotels before we ended up in the Surya- its a dive but it has fresh paint and decent chai. Its the worst place weve had to stay in yet - but we do have fresh sheets!
To Nagpur tomorrow - this means that politically we leave the north of India, as we enter Maharastra, but culturally its still the north. What I remember about Maharastra from last year is that every village on the road has huge sleeping policemen which can launch you dangerously into the air if youre not carefull.
We should stop in Nagpur for a day or two, as we have laundry to do, and Joes bike has an elusive electrical fault which I cant place , so we need an authorised dealer.
Weve covered 1000km now, and the trip has a momentum of its own. The bikes are having a hard time of it-but we"re enjoying the fixing and tinkering and we are re-learning things weve forgotten.
Thinking of food now- and a cold beer would be nice!.