and so it begins...

Ok so we secured our place on the run. Now all we have to do is

- get this website sorted - airfares - vaccinations - driving permits - visas - decide charities - raise money for charities - travel insurance - figure out gear we need - purchase gear we need - get maps (and not lose them like last time) - figure out ferries and sea crossings - try and remember what went wrong in Indian rickshaw adventure (might be quicker figuring out what went right) - come up with catchy team name - figure out insane rickshaw pimping scheme - sponsors (hopefully) - assure family members we will return in one piece - sort out will and financial affairs in case we dont

After that driving the 3000 odd km's should be the easy part!

and it continues

have made it to Gwalior with Team WWTD and are having our rickshaws serviced before pushing onto Agra and the Taj Mahal this afternoon. Only 150 odd km's to Agra so an easy afternoon. Did over 400km yesterday, 20 of them with the handbrake on, it still works but thinking we may needto use rocks to chock the wheels as this isn't the first and probably wont be the last time it is left on

Have seen some amazing sights, Ellora Caves were amazing but we were pushed for time so couldn't really see them all. Have stopped counting the amount of crashed trucks we see, have seen a few accidents and people lying on the road, a body without legs arms or head (just the torso) and countless dead animals in various states of decay on or next to the road.

The people are friendly though it can be daunting when stopping the rickshaw and 50 locals crowd around. We obviously stick out like sore thumbs with our painted rickshaws and pasty white skin and are a real novelty for the locals. Often motorcycles, three wheelers, cars and vans will drive alongside of us and have a chat which on a two lane road (at best) with trucks bearing down on us is nerve racking.

Have driven through cities which is just absolute madness and has added a few gray hairs. Have dropped almost 5kg already through heat and bad diet but intend to put that back on in one meal at the finsh line! Have some great photos and video but all to complicated to put up on the road so will be up as soon as we are back.

Pretty much half way there now hope to be in Nepal by Thursday/Friday next week but dont know what today is so may re assess at a later time!

and so it begins...

has been a interesting three days after (embarrassingly) breaking down at the starting line with hundreds of locals watching/laughing. have broken our rickshaw in, a few repairs on the road so far, an improtu interview with Maharti state TV crewon the side of the road in the middle of no where as we waited for the mechanic to arrive.

Some amazing scenery so far as we pushed our little 8HP beast up 1400m mountain ranges watching scores of waterfalls, monkeys, dogs, goats and then thundering down the otherside at breakneck speed (well not really but iot feels like it when here is little to no gaurdrails) as nightfall decended upon us and our petrol ran dangerously low.

averaging about 300km's per day so fairly happy with that (though we start driving at 6ish and finsh around 6 in the evening!)

have made it to Aurangabad, rest morning tomorrow to check out the Ellora caves and then we continue north (by which pot hole riddled road we have not  yet figured out...

 

navigational aids

after deciding it would be against the spirit of the adventure to use something sensible such as a GPS unit we decided to order some good old fashioned paper maps. Maps arrived yesterday yet we seem to be missing one map thats covers the state of Madya Pradesh which we think we will be travelling through. Oh well the state is only 308,252 square kilometres- we couldn't get too badly lost?????

one step closer

have put KRudd's stimulus package to good use and purchased airfares to Mumbai arriving with a few days up our sleeves to devour some curries, drink beer and sip gin and tonic's on the beach. Then of course put the finishing touches on our rickshaw and grab any last minute things we may have forgotten...