End of day 13 - The End

Saying goodbye to Darjeeling and packing our bags up for the final time, we set off as the sun was coming up.  It promised to be an eventful day, only 100 km or so to cover, but with quite a few mountains to go up and down on the way.

Brakes were sadly a luxury that our rickshaw was now lacking, which is a little worrying when our first challenge for the day was to get down the mountain from Darjeeling.  With a lot of furious brake pumping (they'd kick in for a few seconds if you pumped for long enough), and using the engine to keep the speed down, we wound our way down the roads, with only a few wrong turns and subsequent hairy hill starts along the way.

Down in the valley we started our climb up to Gangtok, stopping off in Rangpo to collect our visas then pressing on up the mountain.  All was going smoothly but the Danes seemed to be having some difficulties, with us having to wait for them quite often.  They broke down once but we managed to get it started and we continued on.  Noticing the Danes had completely disappeared, we backtracked down the mountain and eventually found them, only 10 km out of Gangtok.  Somehow they'd manage to detach their engine from the rest of the rickshaw, making it completely undriveable and stuck in gear.

Although painfully close, there was no way we could abandon them after this long together, so Jonathan and I rolled up our sleeves, crawled under their rickshaw and set to work.  James ferried us to a local hardware store a few times and we managed to source a few bolts that I though would do the job.  After an hour or so of getting completely covered in engine oil (ruining a shirt in the process sadly), we eventually got it attached and sent the Danes off towards the finish line with firm instructions not to stop for anything.

Thankfully our road side repairs held and we triumphantly made it across the finish line together.  Our final task was then to navigate the mountain town of Gangtok and find the final resting place for our rickshaw.  We just about managed to get ours down the narrow road, successfully denting it for the first time in the last 15 metres.  The Danes rickshaw gave up for good at the top of the road, but we were able to roll it the final few metres home.  Adding our name to the arrivals board, we handed over the keys, stripped all our stuff from our rickshaw and set off on a taxi to our hotel.  We're in Gangtok till Tuesday, then down to Siliguri for Tuesday night and flying home on Wednesday.  We've got some time to kill now, so we're hoping to do some white water rafting and investigate the local nightlife.

I'll follow this up with a longer more considered note when I get home, but all in I've thoroughly enjoyed the trip.  The rickshaw, while a ridiculous method of transportation, held up against everything we threw at it, crossing mountains, thundering down motorways at over 60 km/h, driving through enormous floods in Munnar, all without any trouble.  It also provided the best possible view of India as a country.  Down at street level, we were able to take in the chaos of cities as well as the beauty of the landscape.  Our choice of route took us through the good, the bad and the awful places.  Clearly India still has a long way to go in urban development, some places like Dindigal were truely horific, while others like Darjeeling and immaculate.  Hopefully the money raised will be put to good use helping those in the less fortuante areas to introduce businesses and grow basic infrastructure.  Most towns had absolutely no waste management, no sewage system, minimal running water and the streets were filled with packs of feral dogs.  I'd love to repeat the journey in 10 or 15 years time and see what has changed.  But for now, thank you to all of those who sponsored me and I look forward to sharing a few stories (unfortunately they will be backed up by hundreds of photos and hours of video) when I get back. 

End of day 5

Yet another early start, hitting the road just after 6 am.  By now a slight problem with our rickshaw's frame had grown to being a big problem.  With two heavy rucksacks and our tents strapped to the roof, it had been subjected to much more force than designed for, causing one of the welds to break over the course of the past few days, creating a very worrying wobble every time we went over a bump in the road, which is every few seconds.  A trip to a welder was definitely in order, but the past few days of looking had been unsuccessful.  It had now reached the stage where we had to have a second rucksack in the back of an already very cramped rear seat, making things a little tight.

We initially made good progress, but the past few days had taken their toll and we were all starting to flag.  Jonathan was feeling unwell and James and I were struggling to keep our concentration as the heat picked up.  We treated ourselves to lunch (we've skipped breakfast and lunch for the last 3 days), in a road side air-conditioned restaurant, which are almost impossible to come by.  Here with our Danish sidekicks (team Tuxi for anyone wanting to read their blog), we decided an early finish was definitely in order, with Jonathan in no state to drive and James and I only managing an hour at the time (our usual driving shifts have been about 2 hours each, twice a day).

 We pulled up in Eluru, a seeming quite prosperous town and near instantly found a clean, reasonably priced hotel and decided to treat ourselves to 3 seperate air conditioned rooms.  Jonathan and I both went straight to shower and sleep, while James heroically set out with the Danes to get work done on the rickshaws.  The Danes found some spare spark plugs (their's had gone on day 4), both rickshaws had a pseudo-MOT, had the oil changed on the transmission and engine (had to be done in the next day or two) and got the welding done, saving us at least half a day of faffing trying to get someone to do all these jobs on their own.

After dinner, James and Jan went straight to sleep while the rest of us went to hunt down an internet cafe.  Looks like about 1800 km to go, which is well within our sights.  We've been doing 350-400 km/day in the past few days, which with 9 days remaining should pose no problem, assuming no mechanical faults and our health improves!  Hopefully after a good nights sleep we'll be well on our way to Calcutta tomorrow. 

End of day 4

Following another early start from Pondicherry we made very good progress.  Found a superb new toll road that cut up through amazing scenery along the East coast, flying past rice paddies and the ocean. 

We cut through the outskirts of Chennai/Madras, missing the centre but still hitting a fair bit of the traffic.  Our FM radio we installed also finally paid off and we picked up a station playing Western music, with a few modern songs and some Phil Collins managing to brighten our day.

 Our original target was Nellore, which required us to blast through without lunch.  Having reached Nellore, I can sfely say I never want to return.  Despite being quite a large city, we spent the better part of an hour going through about 15 hotels, all of which either point blank refused to take us, or claimed to be full.  In the mad rush through the side streets trying to find somewhere to stay we had our first accident, managing to knock the flimsy light off another rickshaw.  Thankfully 300 rhs (about 4 GBP) managed to calm the angry crowd and we escaped out of town.  As we were about to rejoin the motorway just as sun was setting, we came across another 4 teams, all of whom had the same problem as us.  After a bit a chat with our fellow runners, we set off up the motorway as night was closing in, on the road to Kavali, which one of the other teams told us only had 3 hotels.  We arrived to find everything a bit chaotic (Nellore had a massive wedding on, I believe Kavali was the same), and the prospect of getting rooms was looking faint.

We were weighing up camping by the road versus driving in shifts with our Danish friends through the night, neither of which were attractive options, when James managed to come through by slipping the manager of a hotel which had no rooms 100 rhs and magically two rooms appeared.  Slightly cosy with 3 of us to a room, but we got a bit of sleep at least.  

 

End of day 3

Right, time for another update!

 Today was a bit or a touristy day, with a very early start to visit the Rock Fort in Trichy where we stayed the night.  After a bus ride and alot of walking we finally found our way into the temple, where we climbed at least 200 steps to reach the summit of the temple.  Drenched in sweat we then returned to our hotel to pack up and get moving, unfortunately an hour or two later than planned. Trichy certainly isn't designed for easy tourist access!

 Our next stop was Thanjavur, which has a stunning temple complex near the centre.  We had a quick look around then continued on our way to Pondicherry, our stop for the night.  Unfortunately we ended up driving in the dark, which is a rather stressful experience and certainly not one we plan to repeat.  Pondicherry is however a lovely town, much cleaner and more modern than anything we've yet experienced and it's a real shame we can't explore more of it.

 Our hotel mercifully has airconditioning, which should make the night much more pleasant.  Plan for tomorrow is to set off with our Danish wingmen by 6 am and get in a solid 10 - 11 hours of driving, aiming somewhere north of Vellore on the big highways.  Fingers crossed our little rickshaw holds up to the 400 km target we're aiming for...

End of day 2

Right then...

 We're at the end of our second day and I feel an update is in order.

 After a few sweaty days in Cochin, mainly spent frantically learning to drive our beast and buying it accessories, we finally got underway yesterday around midday, having learnt a valuable lesson about not wearing tweed in midday sun on an unshaded field.

Our first night was spent up in the mountains in Munnar, which was mercifully cooler and full of tea.  The drive up was a bit hairy, with torrential rain and the "exotic" driving of the locals, particularly the buses which fly down hills round blind corners with no regard for lanes or speed limits.  Thankfully we struggled up the hill and made it in time for the sun to go down.

The second day started early with yet more uphill driving.  Our little rickshaw is a bit laden down with gubbins, so had to be pushed up a couple of the steeper bits, but we were treated to an amazing twisting downhill road that went on for miles and miles.  After the slow mountain driving, we picked up pace in the afternoon, passing through some truely horrible towns. Of these Dindigul has to be the worst, with the decision to forgo lunch and drive through the filthy chaos as quickly as possible.  Thankfully we left it far behind, on the expanding 45 highway, which one day promises to be a superb dual carriageway, but for the time being requires you to drive down the wrong side of the road and suspend your fear that one of the lorries might forget that it's a two way street.

Eventually we made it to Tiruchirapalli towards the end of the day.  After a bit of hunting we've found a hotel, which has no air conditioning, but will hopefully do for the night.  We're up early tomorrow (circa 5.45am) to visit the rock fort where one of my ancestors died back in 1843, then on to the East coast, hopefully ending up in Pondicherry via the temples of Thanjavur.

 

Missing cold weather and sensible driving!