Day 32 - Madurai to Sattur, 80 Kms

Only 2 more days to go.. As the end of the expedition is coming closer, so is the realisation increasing that we have to leave each other soon and get back to our lives… (not that our lives are not exciting enough :) )

We started off our day at 4 in high spirits as we were told that we have only 50 kms to go.. but after about 25 kms of hard riding, we came across a milestone that said we have 55 more to go… :(

But it was a great day.. Great weather and great cycling :) We took hardly any breaks and reached Sattur before 12 noon. We were greeted with very refreshing fresh lime juice with jal jeera in it that we stood outside a shop and had. The shopkeeper was so excited to meet us that he gave us free biscuits to eat. Thereafter were taken to a marriage hall where we were to stay for the night. Since, we'd bought so many sarees yesterday, we decided we need to get at least one member of our team married here today.. hehehe.. no luck though..

Had some great lunch as usual :) and managed to get some rest.. The exciting part of today was the visit to the match factory (Sugar Match Factory - that's the name)… It takes a team of 60 people to make one match box that sells for Re. 1/-. All age groups of people work in the factory from Women to old men. Each one does the kind of work that they are able to do. The old men stick stickers on the boxes and the women mostly box the matches. Wow, they work so so fast :) It is fascinating to see how a roll of paper Is transformed into the bright tipped matches in no time at all. The machinery is all very simple and so are the processes, but they process is of complete transformation.

We had a great presentation at the end of the day. Krushnaa Patil gave a presentation about her 6 summits and Reena about her expedition to the South Pole. They really enjoyed it and so did we. Sleepy now.. another 80 kms tomorrow :) And i'm sure everyone is waiting for another round of shopping hehehe..