A Scooter Safari

Super duper brilliant day today - we rented a big moped and headed out into the Goan jungle and backroads to explore. Great fun.

The Lonely Planet had two points of note for motorcyclists: 

     Don't take corners too quickly, chances are there's a cow just around the bend. 

     Watch out for farmers  - the poor ones don't have threshing machines so just spread their wheat on the road for traffic to crush the grains out of the ears of wheat.

Helmets firmly strapped on, stern talking to received and we're off. 

First up we headed into the nature reserve, home to wild roaming leopards, boar, elephants and monkeys. Other people enter the reserve in covered Jeeps. We trundle in on the Hog - to be confronted by monkeys with 5ft long tails within the first couple of minutes. Sarah holds on a bit tighter.

Leaving the Hog on the side of the dirt tracks, we trundled in to the jungle/forest (difference?!) to the tree top hide - rackety to say the least, but we made it to the top eventually.

Don't look down...

Sweaty Bessies at the top

From the hide, we heard a lot of rustling in the trees not too far away, with branches swinging and twigs snapping.

Silently we wait. The 38degC heat makes us sweat. Midges fly round. The rustling comes ever nearer, but never quite near enough.

After half an hour, eventually they emerge. Cows. Glorified cows (Bison, apparently) - but still cows, an animal we've seen more of (but not eaten, though it's tempting to lick them) than ever before.

To be fair, the big Daddy bison when he emerged was mighty impressive.

We let them get well clear before we came down

Charlie's Angels: Honda Scooter Outfit, Limited Edition

The only people in India wearing helmets

We finished off in the nature reserve with some drives around the various tracks and trails - flooring it whenever the monkeys came too close!

Later on we filled up the mini-boot with lots of cold Kingfishers - how Indian!

After the nature reserve, we headed South down the coast to explore various beaches, coves and coastal towns... The traffic wasn't too bad - as long as you keep at the same speed as the majority. People drive with their horns on and the following is the rule of the road:

Most vulnerable  People
                          Dogs, it seems
                          Cyclists
                          Motorcyclists
                          Cars
                          Buses
                          Lorries
Top trumps        Cow.

Although I did overtake an elephant, and that was quite scary.

Calling in for a pit-stop - with a chai, bhaji and some cricket to watch.
Spiffing.

A typical sleepy Goan beach in "low-season"

It was a really great day - buzzing around local, quiet roads through gorgeous scenery and coastline. No pressure, no rush. Super good fun.

It really is a tropical paradise!

We're hoping to do some more motorcycling in a yet to be determined part of Asia (after we've seen how safe it is!) - but Will, this one's on you and there's more left in the piggy bank for Round 2. Thanks buddy!