I took two nights to rest in Kochi at Lululu Guesthouse. It was nice to meet some other travellers. One Austrian couple was finishing their volunteering there after also doing a winter season in Nozawaonsen, the guy used to do parkour too. An American guy had a flip phone with a touch screen and we talked about limiting screen time. Hungarian girl just finished her bachelor's and is travelling around Japan, volunteering at these guest houses. Young 18 year old French Canadian guy had a date with a local girl that apparently went well. And on the second night an Indian entrepreneur joined who is an absolute coffee nut. He made his money running 27 hostels in India, and has now changed career paths to a coffee consultant, travelling the world to understand how each country grows, roasts and makes their coffee. And the owners of the guest house perform music for half an hour before dinner each night, which was nice. On my rest day I went to the local market and got a Tatami set meal, the same quick seared fish that I'd had at the roadside station a couple days prior. I then went and bought a dry bag for my backpack as it got soaked in the rain last time. I also cycled all around the city trying to find sandals in my size. I ended up finding one store with the model I wanted a size smaller than mine, but they ended up fitting well. Not the colour I wanted either but beggers can't be choosers, they're growing on me! The idea is when it rains I can take off the socks and not have to worry about soaking shoes, I can just embrace the wet. After what was honestly not a great night of sleep that included me getting up at 1am to shower and do a Lawson trip (damn mosquitoes were biting me and woke me up), I woke up pretty late at 8:15am. I went straight down for my breakfast and packed my things. I left the hostel just after 10 and headed to a cafe for a nice coffee I'd been craving since I got there (the cafes were closed the day before). The first cafe I tried was not open for another 1.5 hours, but I found another even bougie-er one and the coffee was sooooo good. I then went east to follow the river path that the cycle shop has recommended I check out. The road for a long time was just a main road, but it slowly got smaller and smaller until it turned into a nice back country road. Along the river there were countless stunning bridges, sometimes incredibly tall above the valley. I must've cycled up some elevation, but honestly I barely noticed. The river is very beautiful and I'm sleeping next to it up on by a dam tonight. Luckily I prepared some food because I was aware there wouldn't be good available much along this route. There was also a couple here with a little toddler kicking a ball around, the toddler giggles basically improved my mood by 500%. Steph is also competing for the first time today, up against Tori as well. Go Steph!