A very brief note before the final leg to Adelaide!!! Yesterday, walked for more than six hours - just headed off in one direction and turned back after about three hours - a little bit of lost wandering when I forgot the markers I had set myself, but managed to find my way back to the hotel safely! At one point, I turned off the main road where I had been walking through an industrial area, thick with dust as buildings were being torn down and the hillside excavated, crossed what seemed to be a railway bridge, and suddenly found myself in a completely different setting - almost a village feel to the community. Some kind of festival preparation going on (it's the harvest festival at present), hordes of school children returning for lunch, a dead woman's body being carried through the street (and passers by stopping to mark their foreheads and hearts in a way so reminiscent of the Catholic sign of the cross!) - and a totally different atmosphere to the streets of Mumbai that I had thus far been walking in.
The pollution in Mumbai is killing - the air is dark - it's like looking through a thick veil. After those hours of walking yesterday, my eyes were stinging (despite wearing glasses throughout), my throat really dry and even my skin seemed to be burning. Someone I met at the airport, however, assured me that the pollution is far less serious today than it was a few years ago and that the local government has taken a great number of measures to improve the quality of the air and water, including reducing the use of kerosene which was being subsidised as cheap cooking fuel for the poor, but was being used in motor vehicles.
Have to go - too many people pressing around! Met a fascinating American at the airport who works in ewnvironmental areas - and a special reference to Peter Faulkner!!! His firm has developed a low emmissions motorbike which is currently being marketed worldwide - have a special leaflet to pass on to PJF!!!
Many many lessons from these days - more to come!!! Love to all - peace in your hearts, and on the road...
PS- does this mean I can get a motorbike now?! Just kidding