As promised...

 ...some photos now in the gallery for you.   More to follow.    

We left Shillong the day after the 'Finish Party' (5am!) with aim of getting off that mountain to catch our flight to Delhi.  Sad to leave our mighty rickshaw... but bloody happy we don't have to drive that thing again on those Indian roads.  

Its been a crazy few weeks here in India.  Mixed emotions about it all...but amazing memories for us all.  Each day, in fact each hour was totally unpredictable.  So many stories, I can't even begin to write about them on this blog..so photos will have to suffice for now.  

Enjoy!  

                          

Guwahati

It's 5am and we've just arrived at our hotel in Guwahati 10 hours after we left Shillong. Taxi ride a bit of a nightmare especially when we got a flat on a downhill bit just before blind corner. Broke some glowsticks out and had a couple of near misses but survived, will never complain about M25 again. Off to airport at 4 pm which is only 40 kms away, what could possibly go wrong? Night night all, blogging off :)

 

the finish line and getting to it

a big hello to all. it looks like gary forgot to publish his last blog so you may not have heard anything from us since the 25th and were maybe starting to worry a little bit, maybe you weren't

anyway sitting in the pinewood hotel in shillong, a glorious colonial hotel which eventually made it all worth while. i have just played golf on the wettest course in the world with the chief and deputy chief of police, an officer and a politcian at 6am in the morning and had a cracking time. the general public use the course as a park/shortcut/army training ground so trying to avoid hitting them is paramount, but if you do it is their fault so i was told not to worry too much. 

i suppose i had better continue from where we left off. gary and muff had left ross and i in hyderabad on the first train to varanassi, we had to wait another day to get the second. as we were travelling with the bunny chow express you can glean more of our adventures by reading their blogs. after a pretty un-eventful day in which we attempted a bit of sight seeing - the stench from the lake in the centre of town sort of put us off - we had another fine nights sleep and got to the train station nice and early next day. suprised by the whole train experience, far better than anything you can get on british rail, had a pleasant if long journey through the middle of a very desolate india which we were constantly relieved we hadn't had to drive through. met a very pleasant family of indian doctors for the first leg who were replaced by some newly weds and their friends for the second part. that i suppose was almost the end of any luxury.

we arrived in varanassi to be met by muff and gaz who had a rickshaw waiting to take us to the hotel, back through the dust, insane traffic and blaring horns - sort of missing them by now. saw the bunnies tuk being driven through town by an indian - thought they may have sold it but turned out to be on a test drive. arrived at hotel and made straight for bar. everyone turned up a various points, we swapped stories and made for the ghats to watch some burning. an incredible almost spiritual experience - i would recommend anyone to go. we got a boat, dangled our feet in the water, floated some candles down the ganges and pulled up to watch a ceremony full of trance inducing drumming and bell chiming. i had this nagging desire to swim in the water and cleanse my soul which i was advised to do first thing in the morning with everyone else. as we had made plans for a 5am start this wouldnt be possible so upon arriving back at our ghat i saw some locals swimming, stripped off and made my way into the black water. locals very impressed and water nice and cool. felt elated when i came out but was straight into shower when we got back. since hearing everyone elses tales of what they had seen floating down the river in the daylight i am glad i was naive enough to do it and still here to tell the tale.

next day - we set off following local shaw driver to get us out of town. it was like the end of the world. thick black dust everywhere, people living in squalor and not a friendly happy face among them, relieved when we got to highway and started moving into some cleaner air. we made some good kms, almost 200 i think before we stopped for liquids and muff noticed oil coming from the back of the bunny. they found a mechanic who fixed the leak but managed to bugger up their fragile gearbox. after a second visit to him he declared their clutch plate was split and he could do no more. thus began the towing. the bunnys had a beautiful yellow tow strap with hooks on both ends, we had some cheap thai hammock rope. maybe they had seen it coming before they left the uk. made some good speed while towing 40 kmph at some points, better than our general average. towed them about 70 km to the town of Gaya, one of buddhas many birthplaces and low and behold another mechanic. this guy seemed to know his stuff and after attaching a spring to something they had gears again! riding our luck we enquired about their electrics and low and behold 30 mins later they were working like new - get in buddha!!!   

 full of beans we decided on getting a hotel for the night, eventually found one with a bar and also learnt another tukker had been here the previous night - we could smell the finish line. left the next morning making for the bridge over the ganges on the nh31, had planned to be there by 9am but revised this to lunchtime. never made it. after pulling over for petrol the bunnies lost their gearbox again and the towrope was out again. 40 kms down the road we eventually found a mechanic who first was at lunch, second declared he was a diesel only guy and thirdly didnt really understand our problems. he started with sparkplug, then the hd cable then realised finally it could be gears. we were being mobbed unbearably and this was about 3 hours in. read the bunny blog for more on this but for sake of time lets just say that this was the end of the road for them. we said our goodbyes and rolled out of town feeling very alone.

 

 

it was about 4pm and we hightailed it at 35 kmph out of town heading to for bridge not knowing what we were up for. we made it over and joined the nh31 which led pretty much to shillong. what a tukking crappy road that was. at this point we had decided to drive through the night in the vain attempt to get there on saturday. it was never going to happen. the road was terrible. potholes like bomb craters and tata trucks everywhere. the road grew worse and worse, the dust got thicker and thicker and the trucks gots closer and closer. at one point, hugging the side of the road, the road ceased to be and we hurtled into a muddy puddle in which we were nearly bogged. we broke out some zandril (some sort of india pro plus) and pushed on reaching purnia and a decent dual carriageway by dawn and stopped for some well earned chai

i have to go for a minute to check out but will return shortly for part 2 

Day 10 Varanassi

Well, we have arrived in Varanassi (or myself and Muff have) - 30 hours on the train in a second class sleeper. The conditions were fine, nice sleeper all the time and not too cramped. Air Conditioned and very pleasant. 

On arrival to Varanassi I got blessed within seconds, I had little choice but the lovely red and yellow spot on my head cost me a few rupees.

 Varanaasi seems crazy, very very busy and not as friendly other places. They can see the dollar sign on your forehead alright, everyone seems on the con. 

Bunnychows tuk tuk arrived with us so she has been to the mechanic - after a few hours they are still streuggling, no lights and the beast wont start - more hours at the mechanic today.

Our baby is running a lot better so hopefully she will arrive with Tom later, mgo through the formalities at the station, should only take a couple of hours! Then she willbe off to the mechanic for a quick service.

Tonight we intend to go down to the Ganges and get a boat - I have not been yet but Bunnychow say it is mad down there, cremations going on everywhere before they send the deceased down the river. Appartently you cant move down there hence the boat. Hopefully should be there for sunset.

There are cows everywhere here, and I mean everywhere, in hotel receptions, shops, in the middle of the road, everywhere. Not seen one heading to McDonalds yet, funny that. 

Plan is to head off early tomorrow and cover some KMs, need to check out the map and see if shillong is in our reach in 3 days, hoping so but who knows here....

 

Will add some pics later if I can.....

Love to all - up the blues!  

Delhi, India

We made it to Delhi. Traversed thousands of kilometres rickless and felt the withdrawals acutely. Left Bede and Harriet this morning and the se ** some text is missing **