Maharashtra, India

Whoa Hoa! Finish line reached at 17.30, 4th to arrive. Bit more 'exploring' 2day which meant getting 2 ferries, very exciting. The Adventure ends, and it has been. Great fun, absolutely knackered, heading 2 the nearest bar for a couple of hard-earned Kingfishers. Good times. Phew!@

Kerala, India

Al is a little bit surprised by the lack of Michelin Star restaurants that we've come across. However he's taken 2 the street food in a big way.

Karnataka, India

How do you attract a large crowd of excitable locals? Answer; Park in the middle of nowhere and wait 2 minutes. You'll soon be surrounded. Thir celebrity status is starting to become tiresome. Thomas is starting to behave like my stomach; making some very strange noises! Not far now.

Palolem Beach, Goa.

Well hello good followers, sorry to wake you all on a Sunday morning, but the t'internet has been a very difficult thing to track down in a working guise.  But we're here now, so let's give you poor cold people back in wintery Blighty a bit of an update.

First thing I must say is that I'm sure Alan must have a bit of Indian blood in him.  He's taken to life here like a duck to the Ganges.  His use of the horn whilst driving is absolutely flawless, and his spitting ability is first rate.  I've got a feeling he'll be moving to Bradford when he gets back and taking master-classes in Indian custom.  What a legend.

At the moment we've arrived at Poalolem Beach, a beautiful Goan beach resort in the south of Goa, a bit less commercialised that the resorts further north and really laid-back.  We only stopped last night about 40km down the road, but were not going to get here before darknes fell, and neither of us are going to endure night-driving in India again, we've done our share and it's the most scary thing I've done in my life.  So we pitched up here nice and early, got some accommodation sorted, right on the beach and then took Thomas for his service to a local mechanic who seemed to have done a good job.  It still starts, so that's a good sign.  Oil change, gearbox oil change, clean air filter and new spark plug all for 7 pound 50.  Can cope with that.  No pound sign on this keyboard by the way, plus lots of the keys are full of sand, we know it gets everywhere, so excuse odd typos.  Thank you.  Just after 10.30am and it's 32c which is marvellous, as we've been freezing our nuts off for the first few days in the north, 7am starts when it's just got light have been bitterly cold, wearing virtually every bit of clothing we had, just wish I'd brought gloves and a hot water bottle.  But being tough Northerners meant we could cope, but it's a lot more comfortable now.  We're spending the day here before heading south again, taking a more leisurely 5 days to get to Cochin which I think is about 1,000km away.  We've made good time up to press and feel we deserve an easy day.  Al's just swinging in a hammock smoking Gange with his dreadlocks, looking quite a home really!  The beach is amazing, the water beautifully warm and i'll be taking a full emersion later after lunch.  Reminds me of Whitby without the fish & chip shops!

The contrast in landscape since we came off the 'interior' on to the coast is amazing, it's now all foresty, with more palm trees than you can shake a masalla chicken at.  The wildlife has been quite amazing, apart from everything you see on the roads, cows, oxen, pigs, camels and elephants, we've had lots of monkeys some amazing birds and lots of bitey things.  Most of those seem to have been in our beds over the past few nights, and Alan must have really sweet blood because they absolutely love him.  Got to stroke a really nice 'religious' elephant one day, think he was religious because he was all chalked up and ridden by some dude in orange.  The contrast between the various regions of India as we come from the desert to the tropical beaches has been interesting, the driving standards don't change though, and we've both now ha minor encounters with other vehicles, but nothing to worry about.  It's a bit like Dastardly & Mutley on tour when we're going through city centres, it's just out and out war on the roads.  We are now both quite blaze about traffic coming straight for you when they're overtaking other vehicles, and have lost count of the number of times we're been run off the road, well into double figures.  They don't intimidate us now, and suddenly driving at home is going to seem like an absolute doddle.  We were held up by an ox jam the other day, bringing all the sugar beet crop in from the fields which took forever to get through, another day which meant we arrived in the dark.  But after a couple of Kingfishers it didn't seem so bad in hindsight, but actually I well remember that it was.

We bumped into another team (Agracadabra) at Ellora Caves, well bumped into is probably the wrong expression as on day 2 they hit a truck.  Totalled the front of their tuc, so new windscreen roof capopy and roof-rack and they're back on the road.  Quite a lucky escape, but I'm sure if I read some of the other blogs which I will in a minute I'll see similar stories.  It's strange being involved in the event as we know buggerall about what's going on, and you guys are probably a lot more informed than we are, but we'll find out at the finish.  Expecting to see if any other teams pitch up here as a few said they were going to, but where they are now, who knows?

We've seen some amazing sights, most of it committed to memory, but hopefully some captured on camera.  When you're spending 10 hours a days driving it's not always easy to photograph things that you want to as you whizz past at 50kph.  We've had some great food, eating with the locals evrywhere, and it's all been good even the street food and truck-stops that we've done.  Thankfully internals seem to be holding out (Thomas's and ours), so it's all good.  Going to try and add a few photos, I did have a list of photo numbers to upload, but as Wallace would say 'wrong trousers'.  Here goes, we may not get another long blog opportunity until Cochin, but I'll contimue to do text updates.  By the way, we didn't go to Croatis, and I think I noticed that it also has us somewhere in the States.  Have Rickshaw will travel!

 All the best JD & Alan

Palolem Beach

We've joined the hippies in southern Goa, a beautiful beach resort. 32c, 10.30am, marvellous & beats working. Al's got in the free & easy spirit, now sporting dreadlocks & a kaftan! Swim in the sea shortly, couple of Kingfishers over leisurely lunch then catch some rays. Enjoy the M1!

Karnataka, India

when NASA was testing their lunar vehicle, where did they practice to make it as real as possible? Answer; The roads of India! Now reached the coast, beautiful, day off tomorrow with service for Thomas & a day on the beach for his passengers. Seems t'Internet is having a bad few days in India.@