Home.

Arriving in lon Heathrow tomoz to complete tracking

Final stop, Delhi.

Last stop Dehli. Flight home in the morning.

Last trip to Agra for a bit of Taj action

On the way back to Delhi

Going to see more monkeys via the train in Jaipur

On the way to Agra and Dehli.

Look Mum No Passports - we made it!

LMNH crossed the finish line in fine style. Without our passports.

We have changed our name to Look Mum No Passports.

Two days back, our eldest and supposedly most responsible member decided to hide the passports behind the bed at our hotel overnight. She thought they would be safer in there. Fast forward a day and we arrived at our next hotel only to find that our most important items were in the hands of some dodgy military style hotel. After an hour of panic, bag rummaging and sympathy hugs, we tried to figure out what the hell we could do.

We decided to push on without them. We were one day from the finish line and there was a party to be had.

The final day was quite surreal. Picture 10 rickshaws swerving on an Indian highway through the desert, swapping vehicles while driving, standing on the roof or turning off each other's fuel lines. It was anarchy. Somehow there were no accidents. We even managed to get a shot from someone's drone of the convoy blocking the entire road with trucks beeping and trying to pass.

We crossed the finish line to the sight of a magnificent palace and 50 or so rickshaws doing donuts and flipping themselves over. We then paraded our grotesque yet beautiful machines through the centre of Jaisalmer before returning back to the palace for a game of cricket against the locals. The rickshaw team made a respectable 80 runs and then the locals chased our total down in about 7 overs, mostly by one guy who hardly broke a sweat. A true thrashing.

The party was a bit of a blur. There was chanting, eating, intense dance battles, beard contests, turban tying, a small amount of drinking, a fireworks display, falling over and lots of smiling. Today we woke with a sore head. We went for a rather expensive lunch and ate until our bellies hurt (this time, in a good way).

AND WE GOT OUR PASSPORTS BACK. The hotel manager gave them to his brother, who took a bus to Jodpour, who then gave them his mate who drove and gave them to another guy and 2 days later here they are in our eternally grateful hands.

Look Mum No Hands (Look Mum Nice Passports)


Run Day 14 - The Final Countdown

Breakfast consisted of beans on toast (which Bhargav noted definitely were not Heinz), some Crossaints which Claire found to be the consistency of some old cardboard and curry with Indian bread (which James had enough sense to choose).

We checked the map and the finish line was only 160km away which brought mixed emotions of excitement (we were so close, we might just make it) and sadness (we don’t want it to end). The home straight was going reasonably well until team Izumi started having some mechanical issues which limited their top speed to 30kph. Henry, who has been dying to fix something, was conflicted but decided to plough on as long as she didn’t get any slower. After an hour team Izumi’s issue had sorted itself out whilst the Screaming Eagles had charged ahead (they had booked the Marriott Resort at the finish and clearly fancied a bit of pampering)...

We go to the finish line at 12.30 (ready for the victory parade of all the survivors at 13.30). 81 of the 86 Rickshaws made it there was much rejoicing (including a massive circle of rickshaws doing doughnuts). A few of the more gutsy drivers were (rather impressively) driving around on two wheels, several teams rolled their rickshaws trying to do the same. We thought it best to stand and watch (with a beer). There was then a cricket match between the rickshaw runners and the locals. Somewhat unsurprisingly the locals absolutely destroyed the tourists with some top bowling - a batting display that Sachin Tendulkar would have been proud of 0 and bowling a tennis ball faster than we thought physically possible.

We took a load of pictures, cleaned out Janine (sniff) and handed back the keys. Our final distance travelled was 3273km. Thanks to Claire’s unorthodox fuel management regime we also got to work out exactly how far 8 litres would take us so we could work out our vital stats:

Rickshaw MPG = 62

Total fuel used = 150 litres

Total fuel cost = £140

Main breakdowns – snapped clutch cable, blocked fuel pipes (x2), blocked carburettor (x2)

Oh, and in other news, today was Claire’s birthday. Having already sung happy birthday to annoy the Germans the night before, we sung it again at breakfast. Claire even got a happy birthday from grumpy German man 1. The Adventurists threw Claire a party (they called it the Official Ricksaw Run Finish Party but we know it was really for Claire’s birthday). We had food, drinks, and awards ceremony and there was dancing and merriment for all. A great way to say goodbye to our fellow Runners! Special mention to teams Izumi and Screaming Eagles for top convoying – we’ll miss you in particular.

It’s been an amazing trip and we have met some awesome people. We hope you have enjoyed following this blog and a big thank you to everyone who has sponsored us.

Lots of love, us x

Total distance covered – 3,273km (165km today)

Total breakdowns – 6

Total u–turns - 26

The finish line!

Thanks so much for all of your support.

Day 14 - Final day!! Dechu to Jaisalmer.

Day 14 - Dechu to the finish line, Jaisalmer. 169km travelled, total distance 3262km

After a buffet breakfast and singing happy birthday to Claire from the Goshtbusters we set off to the finish line, each rickshaw started with ease and there was only 170km to go so the days driving should have been a breeze. One road with minimum roadworks, what could go wrong? Early on we reached our top speed of 72km per hour , down hill on good Tarmac with the wind behind us. About 40km from the finish line our rickshaw started to periodically loose power and then cut out. We managed to get her started again and Henry diagnosed that we had dirt in the idle jet of our carb. The solution Henry came up with was to keep driving with the revs up and see how far we could make it. On any other day we would have stopped to fix it but we only needed it to last 40km and it was freezing cold and raining. The Goshbusters kindly stayed behind us to be on hand in case we needed a tow. After 30km of driving with the tuk surging and jolting it fixed itself! We were back to 60km no problems and made it to the finish line with time to spare!

As we passed through the entrance archways to the finish I had to test my limbo skills as I was sat on the roof - they were so low that we snapped a flag, again! Posing for photographs on the podium listening to Bruce Springsteen, we were extremely proud considering the issues we'd had that day. After a round of kingfishers to celebrate we set off on the victory parade around the town of Jaisalmer, Henry was sat on the roof and I was navigating the narrow streets - it was a great feeling of achievement and the locals were loving it!

After the parade there was a game of cricket, where of course we got hammered by the Indian team, I have never seen someone bowl so quick with a tennis ball and so many people unable to catch! After snapping a bat on a concrete wicket we knew we were probably not going to win. Just time for a nap and a quick catch up with back home before the finish party. Everyone was so shattered but determined to celebrate hard and what better way to celebrate getting through 4 days of freezing cold driving than with an outdoor party! Henry was quick to get the face paint out and ensured that as many people as possible had red paint on their face!