News from Jupiter
From My Notebooks In 1976: India to Nepal
February 22, 2025
This might be a good time to imagine yourself in Kathmandu, with no TV. Friday, 31st, to Pokhara Into Nepal towards Pokhara. First flat road then mountains rise up steeply before me, a rich red-brown village, houses of adobe, top half white, lower half terra cotta. Frames painted in almost black brown, and intricately fretted wooden shutters. Echoes of Ecuador, Colombia. Poor Nepalis wear […]
From My Notebooks In 1976: New Delhi to Kanpur and Gorakhpur
February 16, 2025
I’ve come up the West coast to the capital where, as usual, I look to Lucas for help and shelter. Here, word for word, is what I put in my notes. New Delhi, Monday 27th November Swiss couple very flattering outside American Express. Give me address in Geneva and invite me there. Lucas friendly (after funny business with wrong number} and I’m installed in […]
From My Notebooks In 1976: From Baroda to Ahmedabad to Udaipur
February 9, 2025
Friday More lorries, front wheels collapsed, nose-dived into ditches and culverts. Tribals with three camels, each with upturned bed on top of their belongings. Women leading them had each breast separately wrapped in pink muslin slung over top of sari at midriff. Cows with horns [pointing] in every direction, like the printed characters in Hindi writing. In Ahmedabad a sudden outbreak of handcarts – everything […]
From My Notebooks In 1976: To Poona
February 2, 2025
In case you haven’t been following me during the last year or two, I am reproducing, word for word, what I wrote in my notebooks on the journey that led to my books, Jupiter’s Travels and Riding High. I arrived in India at Madras (now called Chennai) earlier in 1976 and have been travelling round the south of India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). It’s […]
From My Notebooks In 1976: Back Down India’s West Coast
January 26, 2025
Leaving Bangalore behind I ride back down to the west coast. To Mangalore at 10am. Road good and bad, but much traffic. Often 40 – 45 mph. But last section bad, and overall average 25 mph. In M’lore at 5.45. To see Mr. Srikant. Stiffening steering head worrying. Thursday, November 4th Regreased steering head with new balls. Noticed that front brakes might need relining. […]
From My Notebooks In 1976: Coffee in Chikmagalur
January 18, 2025
[It’s November 1976 and I’m working my way slowly up the west coast of India. In Bangalore, Gopinath invited me to accompany him on a visit to a friend of his with a coffee plantation in Chikmagalur, which was also Indira Ghandi’s constituency. I only got to know the friend as Cyril.] He’s a passionate man, and a very striking figure as he appeared on […]
From My Notebooks In 1976: The Emergency In Bangalore
January 11, 2025
Sunday, October 24th, 1976 To Mysore. Help the Germans down the hill, holding their bike with my brakes and engine. [I wish I could remember how we did this.] Then in wildlife reserve my first wild elephant wanders across the road. In Mysore, at govt. guest house, meet three Indians and wives. We go to Brindavan Gardens, under the dam, 10 miles out. Very impressive, […]
From My Notebooks In 1976: Cabbages and Mushrooms in Ooty
January 5, 2025
I’m back in India, and from Madurai I rode out of the state of Tamil Nadu into Kerala, and across the Cardamom Hills through Kodaicanal to the West coast at Cochin. Colombian country. Neat agriculture. High coconuts, bananas. Last stretch to Cochin in dark, on wrong road. Wet. Potholes. Red buses. Corporation guest house. 7 rupees. Sea Face Hotel. Volga Rest. 5-rupee note. […]
From My Notebooks In 1976: Shaky in Ceylon
December 22, 2024
I’ve been riding round Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and I’m back at Mannar waiting for the ferry to Rameswaram, India, but the weather’s against me and I’m still feeling feverish. 14th October Rain is really punching down in the night. The garden has become a lake. The varnish on all the stairs is sticky. Pools of water on the floor. Write to Tony and Mum […]
From My Notebooks In 1976: Sweating In Ceylon
December 14, 2024
I’m in Ceylon, having visited one of the best known sites, Sigirya, a fortress created out of a phenomenal rock formation. The view from the top of the fortress was extraordinary. There were carvings, but little that my uneducated mind could explain. The next day I left the Rest House (and the German sisters). October 11th – To Puttalam On shore of a lagoon. […]