Meghalaya, India

Day 15 THE FINISH (22/4/12)- After a massive day yesterday we were determined to make the final 100km dash to the finish line. Our first challenge was to find a welder that was open on a Sunday. It was crucial that we did, as the rickshaw was pretty much in two pieces and the suspension mounting had snapped. After about half an hour of getting the run-around and watching jimbo try and explain what we needed by doing some creative impersonations of a guy welder, we finally found our man. A few dodgy tack welds later, we paid the man a bottle of sprite and the equivalent of $2. Both parties were happy. We started our climb to Shillong not overly confident the welds would hold. Our engine has been so reliable the whole time but by the sound of it, she was on her last legs. We really do pity the poor team that gets our rickshaw next. The road to Shillong was undergoing widening works, so not only were we dodging the usual potholes, trucks, busses, people, cars, dogs, cows, goats we now had to contend with falling boulders. We see the finish line banner and limped over it. We arrive to a sea of battered rickshaws and an aftermath of what looked to be a good party the previous night. We were greeted with a manly embrace from Matt the event coordinator and a warm Ganges Water (or Kingfisher lager as the locals know it. ) As our finishing time was put up on the board, we realized we were one of the last teams to arrive. Although it seemed we missed a good night, we were assured there would be some more festivities in our honor. We hit the bar and exchanged tails of adventure with other teams. There were broken bones, flipped rickshaws and cow collisions just to name a few. As the band was setting up, we started tuning or air guitars. A good night was had by all. ** some text is missing **