THE END!!

Well, we finally made it to the finish line at Gangtok.....just!  The final day was another rollercoaster of emotion.  What should have been plain sailing turned into anything but.  With the dodgy roads of West Bengal and Sikkim slowing us down, we inexplicably ran out of petrol 25km from the end - errr, stupid!  I had to hitchhike to the petrol station as we had left none in the jerry can.  If that wasn't enough, Rita started giving up the ghost on Sikkim's ridiculously steep roads, she just didn't fancy it and conked out every 2 km or so.  So I was hard on the gas when a tight hairpin came up, and in a blur we had completely stacked it on the corner - SMASH!! Rita was in a bit of a state, but luckily Vicks and I escaped with just cuts and some painful bruises.  Thankfully the Wrong Way Up guys Goochy and Bil were on hand to help us on our way.  We struggled over the finish line and did a big high five...of RELIEF! We made it!  We signed in the arrivals board (48th) and then set about getting ridiculously drunk at the finish party - which we achieved!

It was an amazing experience, the most intense thing I've ever done.  So many memories that I'll never forget - India, incredible India.  Thanks to all our fantastic new friends who I can't wait to meet up with on the next event....Mongol rally anyone??

 Sads

The Road to Hell: Vijayawada-Jagdalpur

All was going well on day 6 as we headed from Vijayawada north towards Chhattisgarh province.  We had about 380km planned for the day to get to Jagdalpur, but that soon went out of the window when a fuel stop cock up meant the attendant put the oil in first (its a 2 stroke engine) and we chugged to stop a few metres down the road.  A friendly local towed us to the next town and we soon found out the carburretor was clogged.  The mechanic we found dropped his work and helped us straight away, much to the pleasure of the ever growing crowd!  The kids here are brilliant, all smiles and just love getting in a photo! He got the old girl (Rita we named her) going after an hour and we were on the road again.  A navigational mishap meant we missed a turning (my fault,was too busy chatting) and wasted an hour and a half going the wrong way - bugger.  Our cause wan't heped by the ever bumpy road which snapped our roof rack and battery compartment clamp.  We stopped to get those repaired (a bargain 70p) but by now it was 5.30pm and we still had 250km to cover. 

We decided to soldier on, and things just got worse.  The 'national highway' 221 (which looked a big road on the map), suddenly turned to a single road, first tarmac, then dirt/rubble as night decended.  Mmm, more than a challenge with huge lorries coming the other way.  At some points we could only manage 10 kmph and it looked liked we'd be driving all night.  I was getting annoyed and Vicks was panicking with the p*ss poor headlights of the tuk-tuk not really doing the job.  By 10pm we were still 150km away, but were abruptly stopped.....by armed teenagers.  All righty then.  We were absolutely bricking it at this point and had an hours interrogation while our bags were searched.  What were 2 foreigners doing in the middle of nowhere in a purple rickshaw??! We were asking ourselves the same question.  I was beginning to wonder if Hiscox had an employees Kidnam & Ransom policy as it looked really bad for us. 

Along came a senior man,who told us he was the local head of the Special Security Bureau (basically super-police).  He said we should not be in this area as it was not safe and the local Naxalite bandits were active at night - he actually told us people had been killed in explosions on this very road this year.  We had reseached out route beforehand and found nothing of note, so this was all news to us.  Still, we felt like berks, I can tell you.  Everyone relaxed a bit, including me, after they brought our chai and biscuits - it really was a very surreal moment I can tell you.  He then said we should stay with them in the compund for the night and proceeded to turn his own office into a bedroom for us - what a legend!  Vicks and I had to laugh in relief after they finally left us to sleep.  WHAT A DAY!

We finally made it to Jagdalpur today, but our beloved Rita is almost dead.  We took her to the mechanic for a service and also to repair the roof rack (cracked again), the exhaust (hanging by a thread), replace all three shocks (shot to bits) and last but not least, replace a piston which had bust the engine.  All in all, we'd done a pretty good job of ruining our little beast.  We await the result tomorrow, but a 3,500 rupee (GBP 50) bill should see everything back to normal....

Running smoothly: Kochi-Vijayawada

Well, its been rather a mixed bag of emotions over the last couple of weeks. Final preparations and purchases, yes I did buy a compass and we've used it! Last minute nerves, driving lessons and a whistle stop tour of a 7 horse power engine... We've been on the road for 5 days now and loving every minute. The rickshaw is being kind to us, we've been cruising through the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and now Andrah Predesh meeting fantastic people who are uber friendly and just want to help us on our quest any way they can.. We bought a monkey carved from a Coconut shell and stuck it to the front of the 'shaw' which has pretty much stole the show and gets all the attention. We fondly named him 'Alastair'.... This was until yesterday..... We set of yesterday mid- morning in 35 degree heat. We'd been out the night before with some fellow 'runners' drinking rum under the full moon - never a good start!!!Everything was going fine and before long we were heading into Chennai, our confidence boosted as we had a great run through the city chaos. I'm convinced Phil was a Rickshaw Driver in a former life as he is a natural and doesn't seem to have any fear on the road. I think he is turning into an adrenalin junkie!!! Everything started to go wrong when we reached a town we planned to stop over the night. There were already a couple of other teams in front of us, basically we found out we weren't welcome in the town so had to keep going. It was already getting late and the next big town was another hour's drive. Fine, cutting it a bit fine we thought, but plenty of day light left. 3 hours, 9 break downs and a run out of fuel for good measure later we limped to the 'rickshaw friendly' town. Cutting a long story short I'd checked us into 'Hotel Nightmare'. Phil is convinced the room was a living sweat box with the temp set at 35 all night. At about 1.30am this morning, Phil took control and decided enough was enough - the final straw being that we were literally being eaten alive!! So we packed up our troubles, jumped into the 'shaw' and set out to make it to our current location - some name we can't pronounce. We've clocked 1400km's so far, been to the mechanic's (50p to get the spark plug fixed) and ready to head north tomorrow...

Countdown Conundrum

With Vicks busily beavering away at home sorting out the many important provisions for the trip, such as Haribos, I was gradually making my way down through India.  I couldn't come to India and not see some cricket so I headed over to Bangalore to witness Jacques Kallis in scintilating form for the Royal Challengers as they saw off Rajasthan Royals and  Kings XI Punjab in the space of two days.  The atmosphere in the grounds for these IPL games was electric, really something special - they LOVE cricket!

I then caught a flight down to Trivandrum in south west Kerala, and finally I was in the state of the starting point of the mighty Rickshaw Run.  I wanted a few days on the beach to give the body some recovery time ahead of the race and found the beautiful coastal hideaway of Varkala - what a stunning little place it is too.  I shared my 31st birthday celebrations with travel buddies Birgit and Pia (German) - a few cocktails after sunset was a perfect way to mark the occasion, oh yes!

 As for the race, the deposit is paid and our custom t-shirts have been printed.  And Vicks has packed and on her way to Haethrow airport to join me out here in India - it is becoming very real now!  Bring it on!!

Rajasthan rumble

So my journey through India continues as I began to head southward towards the holy grail that is Kochi.  I chilled out in the hippy town of Pushkar for a few days, managing to avoid both the headlice (that surely goes with the braids that these people keep) and the priests trying to give 'blessings' for friends, family and foes alike.  Needless to say I was a bit sceptical!  I met a German namesake which provided a funny quip or two in our days together.  We headed over to Jaisalmer, right near the Pakistan border in the Great Thar desert and endured a touristy boring camel safari (totally overrated in my opinion), but marvelled at the beautiful fort town itself.  I stopped in the lovely lake city of Udaipur and did  nothing but sit on the toilet for 3 days - ah, the great Delhi-Belly had finally caught up with me, three weeks late.  Next stop was Gandhi's ashram (like a community village) where he directed the efforts towards independence back in the 1920s/1930s - he wasn't a fan of the British, lets put it that way.  Since then I've stopped at a couple of drab places not worthy of a mention before arriving here in the great Megolopolis of Mumbai (Bombay) - a great city and alive with IPL fever - if my tickets finally arrive, I am hoping to be at Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals this very afternoon....

 Meanwhile, the preps for the race are going well.  Sponsors t-shirts have arrived.  our fundraising target has been met and we are now trying to get as high as we can.  Tuk-tuk pimp-job is in the bag and IDPs have been acquired.  So all that is left is to sit back and drink a  cold Kingfisher or two....'waiter, waiter'

Crazy first week

So, I have made it to India succesfully and spent the first week trying to get my head round this mind-boggling country.  It's chaotic, but also a lot of fun, I have to say!  There's people everywhere and trying to get a minute's peace is pretty much impossible.  I started with a few days looking round Delhi, which has an unbelievable amount of traffic - note to self: do not include Delhi on Rickshaw Run route!  I went off up to the north-west to see the amazingly beautiful Golden Temple in Amritsar, a site of Sikh pilgrimmage.  It was incredible and just a great place to sit by the lake and be at peace with oneself.....ahhhh!

I've been travelling with a mixed-nationality group (German, Canadian, Dutch and British!) and we also took in the outrageous border ceremony at Wagah/Attari, where the Indian and Pakastani soldiders face off with all sorts of bravado and silly walks to try and out-do each other, while simultaneously closing the border for the day...all in front of a grandstand of about 4,000 people....very surreal indeed!

So I've taken a few days to chill out (literally) up in the hills of McLeod Ganj, a very relaxing place where the Dalai Lama calls home.  He wasn't in as he was busy meeting Obama in Washington, but it was interesting finding out about the struggles of the Tibetan people who make up most of this little hillside town.

So now I'm heading south and should be in Agra sometime tomorrow, depending on buses and trains and all sorts of other variables which will no doubt show up!

Ta ta for now.

Sads

Visa or Mastercard??

So here we are, about **6 weeks** to go before the event starts.  Vicks and I are on opposite sides of the world, trying to get our sh*t together....thank god for email I say, imagine trying to do this in the 1980s!

Our first most important task has been to try and get ourselves into India.  Those cheeky upstarts have a few rules and regulations and don't let just any Tom, Dick or Harry in.  They told us they didn't accept Mastercard, so we decided we had better go down the Visa route.  Okey-dokey then.  Vicks did it the old fashioned route, sending her paper application to the High Commission in London.  I couldn't believe when they said it was in Aldwych, its really only about 20m above sea-level.....high indeed!

I had to go down the even-older fashioned route and apply for my visa in person.  And why was that?? Well, it has nothing to do with the snow, but a lot to with the fact that I joined the team whilst on an extended overseas trip.  Well, I've been away from home 9 months already actually, and had just decided to go to Sri Lanka and India when Vicks asked me aboard.  So there I was in Colombo, the ugliest and dulliest city in South Asia for sure, having to go to the High Commission with all number of things, including myself, to present my case for a visa.  I was a bit miffed when I found out the locals only had to pay 300 Sri Lankan rupees, which is about £1.50 and I was being asked to shell out 5,250.  Mmm.  Well, not that I had a choice, I either wanted to go India or I didn't as the ever so helpful chap didn't hesitate to tell me.  I choose 'yes' and set off round Sri Lanka for 3 weeks tanning myself and drinking copious amounts of tea, while I waited for my application to be processed.  And here I am back in Colombo, all set to go tomorrow and find out my fate, as Vicks eagily awaits her in snowy Essex....