A very short day in the saddle today, with only 16 miles from start to finish, and not a hill to be seen.

We came to level crossing with its barrier down just next to Alappuzha station. Plenty of cars and tuk tuks were waiting behind the barrier, but pedestrians and other cyclists were mostly just walking round it and crossing the tracka. After waiting for a while the train slowly rolled past, with something like 20 very full carriages. The barrier didn't lift for a while after that, and we decided to join all the other cyclists who were going round the barrier and crossing the tracks anyway.

About halfway through our journey we caught our first sight of the Arabian Sea. We'd made it across India!

Once we got to our stopping place we had to push our bikes along the sand to reach the accommodation we're staying in.

The beach here is beautiful, and a great place to spend some time when it's so hot. We spent the rest of the day reading on the beach, walking up and down it, and Ewan went for a swim in the ocean. It was all very relaxing, and a great reward for making it all the way across.

Our dinner was a prawn and mango curry on the beach after sunset.

We just have one more day of cycling left, and again it should be pretty easy. It's just 30 miles up the coast to Fort Cochin and then we'll be done!