An enjoyable ride today. We left Madurai relatively early before the traffic started to build, but the roads were still pretty busy and there were a few times where we ended up squeezing through some tight gaps between other vehicles.

After we got out of town we turned onto some quieter country roads, and much of the day was spend pleasantly riding from village to village.

The scenery continues to change, with hills all around us now, and mountains behind them. The cycling felt like harder work too, with a little more climbing needed. After days of flat landscape it's a bit of a shock to the system to have to switch down into some lower gears.

The crops we see are starting to change too. There's still some rice, but that's now been joined by maize, large banana plantations, coconut palms, and several other crops that we didn't recognise.

Lunch was samosas again, from a roadside cafe. As there was no space to sit in the cafe we took them a bit further down the road and ate them sitting on a wall under a tree, while being watched by a wild dog. The dogs are everywhere here, and usually don't feel threatening. We do occasionally get barked at and chased short distances, but they stop quite quickly.

We've started seeing macaques along the roadside too, and today startled a family of them that were hanging out on the road.

Tomorrow the climbing begins properly. Most of the day we'll be heading gently upwards, but for one section we'll be snaking our way up a fairly steep slope. Hopefully there will be some good views from the top!