-- From Ernakulam to Old Goa

From the 21 to the 24/03, I awaited the arrival of the hose connections of the water radiator. They arrived in the morning of the 23 and were installed.
A German couple arrived at the Force garage the 22/03 with a MAN truck and a Action Mobil cell. They have travelled for more than nine years. They had mechanical problems. During our talks we exchanged information.

German vehicle 
the 22/03/2007 

I decided to leave the 24/03 morning to continue my trip towards Goa.

Taking into account the administrative slowness of the garage Force, I left it the 24/03 around 10:40. I decided to drive one hour before filling the tank with diesel. I lunched on the inch have regard to the delay taken at the beginning. The NH17 was sometimes in bad condition at the time of diversions. As a whole it was travelling but there are many villages which slowed down. I decided not to stop in Callicut taking into account the hour. I arrived at Kappad Beach around 17:00. It is the place where Vasco da Gama landed in 1498. There is nothing remarkable; on the other hand it is a good campsite for one night.

The 25/03 I left around 9:00. On the move I visited the old French town Mahé (de La Bourdonnais) which is summarized by a main street and a fishing port at the edge of a sand beach as on the entire littoral in Kerala. I had the surprise to be hailed by people who spoke French of whose a young boy who taught me that there was French school in Mahé. I congratulated him to learn our language. I continued my road as far as Bekal Fort where I opportunely found a place to spend the night on the free carpark of the Office for the Development. Of course I visited the vastest and oldest Fort in Kerala built between 1645 and 1660 without neither LP nor local documentation mentioning the founder dynasty.

The 26/03, I moved towards Mangalore and Udupi where I took the road to Malpe Beach. I arrived there around 12:30 to lunch at the Paradise Food Resort. I must say it clearly the beach is not worth the five kilometres of detour. To have rest I decided despite everything to spend the night there at the foot of the musical fountain of which I was a privileged spectator.

The 27/03 was primarily a driving day with very varied landscapes and a road NH17 such varied, very good and sometimes at least good like always in India. Have regard to the delay taken in my road plan I had removed the visit of the Jogg Falls. Being at 11:00 in Honavar, junction to go to the falls and the 61 kilometres to be traversed on a good road I decided to go to spend the night there. Alas at the end of 10 kilometres the road became with only one lane in bad condition and moreover with toll. I gave up to see the falls and I turned back to take again the NH17 as far as Agonda Beach where I arrived around 16:30 on a site indicated by French met opportunely.

The 28/03 was a day of control of the truck and household of the cell. Agonda Beach is an insulated village and a desert beach, no restaurant, no shop for tourists, only palm trees. Away from the beach, guest-houses, enclosures with huts on pile, some gravers and the church constitute the essence of the village. In this paradisiacal place a colony of a dozen French-speaking people whose Inhabitants of Quebec meets every evening to dine in “their restaurant”.
By doing the visual checking of the bodies of the truck I noted a leak at one of the connections of the air-conditioning compressor changed by Poomkudy Force. I decided to remain the 29/03 in Agonda to organize the repair of the leakage of refrigerant. I telephoned Mr. Ramesh of Force to ask him to deal with repair and to announce my arrival  at Force workshop in Pune.
Once again I was to re-examine my road plan.

The church 
Agonda 
the 02/03/2007 

Of all cities given up for various reasons, epidemics, wars or others, it remains after the test of time only the buildings of the worship. “Old Goa” does not escape this rule from civilization. The site well arranged and maintained is composed of at least a dozen churches and two museums which are only having a moderate paying entry. I arrived there the 30/03 at the beginning of afternoon. The obliged travel of the monuments finished around 17:30. Of course I had rest under the fresh naves of the churches. All these monuments with the Lusitanian character have each one their attraction. The tomb of St François Xavier is particularly remarkable.
 I decided to spend here the night in an adjacent street at the carpark.

Church of St Francis of Assisi
Old Goa 
the 30/03/2007