Dec. 27 : 6km S. of Nadiad, India

Tuesday, December 27 :: 6km S. of Nadiad, India :: 122km today / 1029km total

The Indians in the guesthouse were extremely noisy last night and this morning, and seem to take tremendous pride in "horking" as deeply and loudly as possible. Fan-tastic. Either way, I hit the road around 8 a.m. still feeling strong, aiming for Vadodara, 170km away.

The road passed through rural Gujarat, all agriculture and all green. Very flat, the road sometimes deteriorated to gravel, but nothing unridable, although my pace was compromised at times. 90km along I knew I was in trouble. There was, quite simply, no gas in the tank. Nothing hurt, no soreness, I was just empty. I knew I would bottom out calorie-wise before I reached Bombay, but this was much sooner than expected. Great. I HAVE to TRY to eat more, but its hard when you are scared half the time of what you're eating - and the other half of the time the food is either fried or oily or both. Sigh.

I pushed on, slowly turning the pedals over, knowing the game was up for the day. Only rest and eating would bring my legs back. Just out of Nadiad I pulled into a roadside guesthouse, never having been more exhausted from a flat, wind-aided 122km ride. The place was run by Sikhs, which meant good food, albeit vegetarian (90% of Gujaratis are vegetarian). I like vegetarian food, but my legs (ankles, knees, etc) desparately need protein to recover.