Day 2 Head south!

We took the ferry from Mumbai across the bay, past Elepanta Island to the mainland. This is a very pleasant way to leave Mumbai and it avoided having to ride back up through the city center and around the headland. Instead of a day of traffic jams and motorways, we had a pleasant cruise before being dropped off in the middle of nowhere.

We had our first exposure to heavy rain, the Bortal Panchaita monsoons - but the weather was so mild, we didn't bother to put on waterprooffs and dried out in no time once they passed.

All day long we had smiling faces and waves. We had a picnic lunch on a beach under a palm tree. Lardy cake!

We traveled on smooth roads, broken roads through quiet towns and busy towns.

We took a bridge over one estuary and then a ferry (foot passenders and cycles) over another. As we sat on the wooden bench facing inwards looking across the boat to a muslim group on the other side (women dressed from head to foot in black - only their eyes visible) we were a little surprised to be spoken to by one of the veiled ladies "you from London? hot innit?"

Ended the town in a great town but somehow ended up staying in a "spa" outside of town.
In spite of this mistake we had great meal. Downed a couple of cold beers and then spent a sweltering night under a mosquito net - alarm set for 6.30am.

Our aim was to avoid the highways and hug the coast as closely as possible while heading south.
We didn't have a detailed map and couldn't see whether or not the roads would continue and even if they did, wheter we would be able to cross the many river mouths that stood in our way.