Today was our first day of actual riding, and it was a lot smoother than I'd expected!

It rained a little as a minibus took us from Mahabalipuram down to Alampurai Fort, but thankfully the rain stopped before we got out and set the bikes up. After a little detour down to the beach, we set off on the actual ride itself.

We had a lot of stretches on quiet backroads, but also plenty of busy patches in villages and towns along the way. I'm glad we'd had a day and a half of settling in time before starting the cycling, as it had given me some time to get used to how Indian traffic works. Everyone weaves around each other, in and out of small gaps, but it all somehow manages to work, and everyone keeps moving. There's a definite pecking order in terms of who gives way to who. You've got to pay attention the whole time, but everyone else seems to be paying attention too, so it all keeps flowing. We've had plenty of cars and mopeds come closer to us than you'd expect in the UK, but it hasn't felt particularly dangerous for most of the time.

The road surfaces were mostly good tarmac, with some crumbling sections, and other bits that were just dirt roads. We only met a couple of places where the rains had made the roads too muddy to cycle on. Thankfully our route mostly takes us on quieter roads. We had to cross over the main highway, which made us grateful that we hadn't had to cycle on it.

We've been cycling through plenty of villages and paddy fields, with plenty of glipses of people going about their daily lives. Lots of people have been waving and saying hello, and everyone seems very friendly.

Part of our route today took us to Auroville (https://auroville.org/), a new age town founded on the principles of peace and harmony. We didn't see much of the place except for the large golden golf ball that sits at the heart of the central meeting place, Matrimundi.

By the time we had lunch we only had 9 miles left to go. It felt like a bit of a struggle to get going again afterwards, but it was good to be fully fuelled for our entry into Pondicherry. It's a busy and bustling place, made even more difficult to navigate by the road closures for Republic Day.

We found our hotel and had a quick shower before heading out for a walk along the Promenade. Pondicherry used to be a French colony and you can see the French influence in a lot of the old town, but it does all feel distinctly Indian too. There's a lot of domestic tourists here, with lots of people trying to get the perfect picture of themselves in front of one of the many picturesque doorways. Unfortunately we forgot to get a pic ourselves!

We're planning on setting off early tomorrow in order to beat the traffic. Hopefully the ride out of Pondicherry will be a little quieter than the ride in.