Over the weekend we finished up our work in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Although we didn't see a lot of fossil bone, we're confident that the 3 tons of sediment that we sieved will lead to some good discoveries back at the lab under the microscopes.
On Monday we drove the 300+ miles to our second main area outside the town of Gokak in the state of Karnataka. Driving is the one thing that I truly dread about fieldwork in India. It seems dangerous in the other places I've been but India is in a league of its own. Fortunately, when you rent a vehicle here, you also hire a driver. The drivers have a language of honks, light signals, and arm waves that I still don't fully understand. And when I do, I usually don't like the translation: "yeah, it's safe, go ahead and pass me uphill around this sharp turn." But for the past two years, we've had the same driver, Tirupathi, who is actually very safe and doesn't do the macho blind curve thing too often.
The trip started off at 7 a.m. and went off with only two minor incidents: a tire leak and a random pull-over by the police. It turns out Tirupathi license, registration, and insurance were all expired. He was looking at a 3,500 rupee fine (85 dollars), but we managed to talk the officer down to 1,000 rupees (22 dollars). That doesn't sound like much, but to our driver it was a severe blow, close to a week's wages. After regrouping, he successfully weaved in and out of traffic honking at every opportunity and bringing us safely to our lodge by 9 p.m. Tomorrow we'll start work at our site that has produced some beautifully preserved mammal teeth.