SMS Update

Made it to darjeeling yesterday after a big 6 hour climb through the hills and clouds. We looked pretty stupid in our shorts, t shirts and flip flops as the temperature bombed! Locals were great on the way up, so friendly. Today we had to find a garage to fix our breaks as they are completly gone - not ideal for hill driving! I thinked we picked the only place in india that doesnt have rickshaws, and so nobody to fix them. After much pain and begging we got a half way fix which should get us to the end. Hopefully. Just found out that there is a football match in gangtok tomorrow so we are going to try our best and get there for that, and show them how its done! Team Madras

SMS Update

So here we are, 150ish km from gangtok with 2 days to spare. Been a wild ride and now we cant wait to enjoy the relative calm of the hills. Shaw was a bit off today and cut out half way to siliguri but as usual she fixed herself! Planning to head up to darjeeling tomorrow and stay for a couple of nights, sample some tea and hopefully check out the sunrise over the himalayas. Should be an amazing few days. Team Madras.

SMS Update

Started to make our way up north today. Got very lost trying to find the right highway and spent 3 hours roaming the country side following some very dodgy advice from the locals. A least it got us off the highway and into some small little villages. Love some of the looks you get. The rest of the day was slow and full of stops which draw the usual 30 strong crowd to the zoo! Also meet another team who had just broken down - they didnt appreciate it when we said we never had! Ended up in baharampur where they have the biggest mozzies we have ever seen! Our tennis racket death ray took care of those. Early start tomorrow as we are going to try and hit shliguri and avoid the worst of the 48 degree heat. Shaw still going strong - might we make the end without breaking down???@

SMS Update

Spent the night about 60 km outside calcutta in 'hotel de paradise as it got too dark and had to stop. It was a cross between a brothel and ** some text is missing **

SMS Update

after a long 13 hour day and 430 km we arrived in the dark at bhubaneshwar and found a little dive to crash in. Night driving in a city is highly recommended by the way! Everybody either has no lights on or full beams - mental. Heading towards calcutta today where we plan to stay somewhere on the outskirts as we dont fancy night driving there! The roads at the moment are long and games like 'can we all drive at once' and 'how far can you drive with your eyes closed' and shaw fav 'how many times can you turn on and off the windscreen wiper before it does one stroke' quickly wear thin. The current record is 8. . . The shaw is still rock solid (touch wood) with no issues apart from the breaks are very woolly at the moment. Only a minor detail... A very hot team madras.

SMS Update

Race day 6 - Headed for the coast seeking the palm trees and beaches of the West coast that we'd suddenly lost for dust, rocks and miles and miles of super heated tarmac! 46 degrees today, even the locals call it 'unbearable', that's when you know it's prop-a HOT! Arrived in Vijayawada, found a hotel and decided to give 'Roxy' some well earned tlc (service). With a change of juices (oil), new nostrel hair (air filter), heart (spark plug-of which she only has one) and spine re-alignment (tracking was so far out she'd steer round 45degree rights on her own, not so much fun fighting to make the thing turn left!) she was good as new; although we declined the offer of a wash, to keep the 'dirty/used&abused' look we'd now earnt! Back to the hotel for some dinner and rest before a 400km day tomorrow with a view to reaching a beach hotel and having a day off! Bliss! Real Madras boys going strong!

SMS Update

Just leaving vijayawada and heading for the beach at visakhapatnam. Only issue is that its 400km away and it was 46 degrees yesterday. Should be a fun day. . . . ! Loving the sunrise tho.

SMS Update

After the last two days of hellish road conditions we prayed to the road gods that we are due a bit of nice long flat tarmac - they duelly delivered! We set off early from our overnight stop off not before sharing a bit of breakfast with the local one handed monkey - not that every town in india has a one handed monkey on guard! We aimed to hit hyderabad which was 320km ish away so needed a decent surface to get anywhere near that kind of distance. What we got was 320km of the flattest quickest tarmac ever seen in india. Our faith restored. The little beast rocked along in the 40 degree heat at an average of about 40km an hour (monster speeds for our rickshaw!) even driving down the wrong side of the motorway planes trains and automobiles style (not that anybody cares here - just a wave and a smile to your pending death!) and we hit hyderabad ahead of time. Driving into hyderabad we were quickly informed that we would probably be shot if we continued along toward a section of town so as keen as we were for a bit of action a quick diversion was called for. Then we hit the traffic. The traffic in this place is proper naughty and the only way we could find our hotel was to pay a auto driver to act as a guide and blocker. All good in the end. Now just chilling and getting prepared for tomorrow where we aim to hit the coast and get 'roxy' looked at. Tracking is way off and the gearbox is creeking. But apart from that she is rock solid. Well good night all - update soon. Lord madras.

SMS Update

Race Day 4 - .....and the moral of the story 'DON'T TAKE SHORTCUTS!' it just WONT save you time....Day started in Hampi, very strange; huge boulders precariously balanced above the town, with old temples secretly scattered in the hills.....well worth the stop but not enough to make us stay the night, so we pressed on. We made the decision to save ourselves 100km and take the country road/scenic route. We were in joyous mood discussing the Paradise Hotels that await on the East Coast.....but that didn't last long - in 10km sections the road worsened. First Tarmac to broken Tarmac, then to rubble, then rubble with pot holes, then pot holes to craters and then to something that only a tank could handle! Having gone through discussions of "it may get better", "it can't be like this the whole way", and the best comment of all "just drive head on in to a truck so we can end this torture" *all said in jest with a hint of seriousness!!* we decided to turn back and head south (the wrong direction) to get back to the National Highway, which also ended for no reason in the middle of no where forcing us to take the 'shaw through a field and see how she fared off road....'Shaw coped well all day, although becoming more rattely by the second and in dire need of a service she's done us well!! Now set camp in a town 100km east from the location shown on map (Guntakat) in a busy bustly typical Indian town; £1.50 a night for our hotel! Feels a million miles from back home! 1000km done, 2500km to go!!

Day 2!

Evening all,

 

BIG LONG DAY TODAY - 11.5 hours driving, 340km - all very tired indeed!

Set out at sunrise to try and beat the madness that is Indian traffic, and also get a head start on the competition, but within 4 hours we saw them fly past whilst eating what can only be described as road-side left-overs, that remarkebly tasted good! With an end goal of Mangalore to try and set us up for a hill climb the following day we decided to push on and reach Udup, boring boring!

 Rickshaw still in good working state, a few new rattles and squeaks, but nothing to write home about as yet! Up in the mountains tomorrow where the 7hp will be called in to action and ceramic brakes put to the test!!!

 All shattered and complaining of tiredness, so going to bed for another early start.........

 

Speak soon.....

 

R.M Boys