The start saw us accidentally heading south rather than north for some distance, this however lead us into rural back country of Kerala which was without doubt the best accident ever. We drove only 122km on day 1 over 7 hours, we headed due east through the Cardamon Hills climbing from sea level to over 1800m, as dark fell upon us we had no hotel, no idea of true location and more importantly vision. The tuktuks lights are poo at best. (poo was a typo of poor but on reflection it's more fitting) we managed to find a hill top hotel but turned it down as it was £15, thinking this excessive we carried on, to our peril. Darkness set in and we had to illuminate the world with head torches. Ended up in a small town called Kumily with a room twice the price, rubbish view, kids disco on till 11pm in the car park outside our room, no food and to add insult to injury the beer was warm!
Day two saw us set off from Kumily at 0600, early hey! Within an hour we had crossed into Tamil Nadu where everything changed rapidly. The Tamil region of india speaks its own dialect, totally unique, they even look different, most of the men seem to have korma smeared over their eyebrows. The religion is Hindu, their temples are on the highest mountains, the lowest valleys and anywhere else you would care to look. They seem more intrigued by us than in the Kerala region where tourists are ten a penny.
We managed to cover nearly 500km by end of day two, and had safely and expertly driven by James entered and left the city of Dindigul, I've driven some busy cities but this was like no other, our nerve and the tuktuk both held up well. As all ways we had planned where and when to stop but the all went to pot when we missed our turning, got lost and again ended up diving after dark, (which we promised each other not to do again) rather than being 30km above Pondicherry, we rolled into Pondicherry after 730pm, managed to find a local hotel aptly named the Hotel D'Europe where they rapped us gently for 1500 rupees only for us to take a taxi to the beach front to eat a local meal and spend the same amount again in Pizza Hut. Home from home. At least James belly is slightly happier now.
We ate pizza for breakfast on the road, while Lloyd polished off the 8% kingfisher larger all before 7am. But 9 we had again missed our turning and found our ride, now named Esmerelda entering Chennaiand stuck In heavy traffic, road after road was gridlocked, all roads headed every direction then the magical north east we desired. 2.5hours, many u turns, one mechanic, hundreds of hand shakes and a few rupees lighter we got back on track and planned to drive to just north of Kavali and head east to try and catch the coast road/track and may be fish and camp in the wilderness. Planning again proved our downfall, what started off as the most amazing experience heading off the beaten track through villages that undoubtably had never seen white folk, nor owned tv's, children running after us down the street, the women seemed to especially welcome us, turned out to be pretty sinister, or so it felt, we were dead ended and not to confident for our safety so doubled back, only for our new friends/cannibals to chuckle wildly and grin through red stained mouths. After another 2 hours of night driving we are now in Ongole, a very small town on the east coast.
No planning tomorrow! May be fishing though..
NB, sorry for no photos yet, can't upload to the iPad and haven't seem and Internet cafe since Fort Cochin.
Plenty to come don't worry.
we rose through the hills and suddenly dropped down to the bridge on the dammed side of the water, vendors of fresh green orange juice and nuts of every variety stood like trolls at each end of the bridge. It was welcome refreshment after the last 5 hours. 
