Day 4
up very early for a 7 am start today feeling a little outdone by everyone else we trundled out of Ratnagiri and back onto the main north road...taking it easy now at a steady 40-45 we weren't making fast progress but we were being cautious...
we had abandoned thoughts of heading over to Aurangabad and the caves at Ellora to save time...and hearing that another team had spent 2 hours trying to get through Pune we thought we would follow the American's route and stay on the N17 to skip round Mumbai...
all was going to plan until we hit Thane, a Large town which appears to be the outskirts of Mumbai itself...the road changed to the N3 and by road i am using that term very very loosely...
if you can imagine the worst road you have ever seen...then take the surface off so you are left with rocks and bumps that even the trucks were having difficulty driving over you might have some idea of what it was like to drive on...added to the face that our main rickshaw (Farce 1) had no working headlights it was proving to be an arduos task...
with tempers becoming frayed and a lot of slow slow driving we managed to pull through and tried to find a hotel...we stopped to ask someone if he knew of any places and he promptly made a few phone calls although not being from the area, as it turned out, he didn't really know too much...he jumped in out rickshaw though and guided us to a very plush hotel, which we decided was a bit out of our price range, and headed off to the next town...
finding the only hotel in the town we were desperate for sleep as it was 11 pm and we were hot, dirty and hungry...however the night porter, having showed us a room, then told us that they were full...then he told us that the rooms were dirty and he couldn't let us have one...then he told us that there were cockroaches in the rooms...then he got the manager on the phone who told us that he couldn't give us a room because he needed photocopies of our passports and visas and the photocopier wasn't working...
on we went with the plan to drive all night...luckily though, as soon as we hit the main road again there was another sign - Food and Lodgings - yet again salvation from despair...so with overpriced rooms and a restaurant next door (which we shared with a very energetic mouse) we were fed and watered and in bed by 1.30...
distance travelled 480 km today and we were again feeling good...
Day 3
up bright and early to leave the hotel at 9 (not as early as the Americans though who left at 7) we set off with renewed confidence about catching people up...steaming along maybe a little too fast at 60 kph we were beginning to let go with the throttle a bit after running the engines in as suggested...
after the first 100 km Keirin took over in the spare rickshaw and after what seemed like only 30 ,and probably was, it ground to a staggering halt...luckily we had only just passed through a town 2 km back so we headed back to find a mechanic...we found one who opened her up yet again and told us that the piston had gone again...2 hours later and 1600 rupees down we were on our way though keeping it at a steady 40kph...
after crawling into a port town 100 km up the coast we had the idea of dumping the spare rickshaw on a train but the station wouldn't have it so we managed to find the local Bajaj garage and asked them to take a look...150 rupees later and we had a new piston seal and went off looking for a hotel for the night...with strict instructions not to go over 45 it was looking like it was going to be a long drive after all...
working out that we could probably just about make it to Nepal we planned out our next few days driving feeling good again until we heard that the team that had started out with us from Colva on day one had made it to this town (Ratnagiri) on the very first day...we had some catching up to do that was for sure...
Day 2
after the relative stressful start to the trip where we blew our piston on day one we had a most relaxing time in our beach front hotel in Arumbol (sp)
we took it easy in the morning and after omelettes and lassi we headed off buying yet more essential supplies for the trip...a funnel for the petrol and a couple of 5 litre bottles for spare fuel...on the road for just after midday heading north up the coast...
making good progress and with both rickshaws running smoothly we drove on up the road for a largely uneventful few hours...we practiced the art of non-stop driver changes and zipped out way though a few small towns until at about 3.30 we came across two more teams at a roadside foodstop...Black Sheep from Yorkshire who had stripped their engine on more than one occasion and an American team who had more or less had done the same...thinking we weren't doing too badly any more we stopped for a very nice veg curry and waved them on their way...
we pressed on to the next town and with Kev making his daily stop at the ATM we decided to head on although we were beginning to lose the light...the rain had started too but being still warm it was a very welcome change...after what seemed like hours of slow progress through the dark we finally emerged round a bend to see a brightly lit hotel with the American Rickshaw in the car park...with Gareth just narrowly avoiding a random gate in the middle of the road a few seconds earlier it seemed like the perfect place to stop...
