Day 11: Chirala to Tirupati

Distance travelled today: 341km
Total distance travelled: 3,115km
Driving time: 10 hours

We set off from Chirala down the coast road following the chapatis until we hit the main highway south. This was probably the most boring road we found in India: dual carriageway, no speedbumps, very few cows on the road, only one tractor coming the wrong way towards us, no exciting overtaking manoeuvres, sudden braking etc. The only highlight was when the road became two-way with no warning as oncoming traffic was diverted on to our fast lane for a short section. The chapatis noticed very late and almost had a head-on collision with a car, but apart from that the road was dull.

It was fast though and we made a lot of ground. We turned off towards Tirupati, which had the usual combination of offroad/no road stretches, bullock carts, tractors, oncoming buses that were wider than the road itself and fun was restored to the day. We also bumped into our third set of journalists so far on the trip who took our pictures and asked us what we were doing. So far we have yet to see ourselves in print.

Tirupati is the most visited Hindu temple in the world - receiving an average of 10,000 pilgrims a day, many of whom shave their heads and offer their hair as a sacrifice. So we saw lots of bald people and a temple.