On the road again!

March 6th - March 13th,

It was time for us all to part ways again. Merryl and I wanted some time to ourselves and Marcus had plans to do a paragliding course in a town called Kamshet, about 100km SE of Mumbai.
We’d been hunting around for a bike to trawl the coastlines of Goa on. We’d hoped for a Enticer but there didn’t seem to be a decent hire bike anywhere in Anjuna. Things weren’t looking very hopeful until we bumped into Miriam who put us on to a mechanic who renovated bikes in Anjuna old town. We popped in to see him early one morning and he offered us a 350cc Royal Enfield for a week. I was a little dubious at first because I had never ridden one before and the gears and brake are on opposite sides to any bikes I’d been on before, but my reservations lasted all of five seconds. The minute I laid eyes on it I knew it was going to be the perfect bike for us for a week.
It was a perfect week.

… We are riding along the coastal road from Goa Old Town to Colva Beach. The scent of musky flowers hangs in the air intoxicatingly. The sun is gloriously hot. The road is long and stretches ahead of us along the side of a long valley. Luscious, verduous, forest greenery flows in every direction. The wind whips through our hair and on our skin. We are both in shorts and singlets as it is simply too hot to wear anything else. Our bags are slung on either side of the Enfield counterbalancing perfectly. The bike is heavy but not cumbersome. Enfields are delicate machines and need to be treated with respect. The gears are not to be stamped on, but must be treated gently, like a lover’s caress. The engine starts perfectly every time. First you must half crank the kick-start to bump up the amps, and then one kick and it purrs into life. It handles like a dream and it goes forever. Despite the heat, despite the dust, it is consistent and dependable. I love this bike. Later today, much later, we will reach Colva and Benolium and take a secluded beach hut by Arabian Sea. We will sit and eat and drink red wine and get lost in each other. But for now we are both right here in this moment, riding without a care in the world, without jobs, without responsibility, along a coastline of coconut trees, on an endless road of smiling people, and white – low-roofed – houses, and nothing but time on our hands…

The next week belonged to just Merryl and I. Nobody else in the world came into it. We met many people and chatted and had fun. But they just flowed into and faded out of our world. We’d waited a very long time to be selfish together. Something that didn’t depend on one of us working, being somewhere, or catching buses, planes, trains, visting ruins, meeting people, or leaving one and other. Something that just involved no-one and nothing but us. Life isn’t always fair. Sometimes you never have these things, sometimes nothing works for you and everything goes wrong and it all just falls apart; however sometimes things do go well, things do work out, miracles do happen, you do get a chance at happiness, and you can trust and let go and allow yourself to be happy just being. Keats may have got it slightly wrong. You cannot be too happy in thine happy lot. If you put your faith in the present - whatever may have happened in the past, and against whatever the future may have in store – then you can find something truly magnificent in yourself. May it happen for you.

We explored all of Goa’s coastel towns: Colva, Benolium, Palolem, Patnem, Agonda. We visited many of the places Marcus and I had, and many others we hadn’t. We did the tourist trail and got caught up in a life that involved, hammocks, beach life, and a care-free lifestyle. A week passed without us even realizing it, but that belongs to us.

Before we knew it, though, it was time to get the bike back to Anjuna and to evaluate our remaining time in India.