Jaisalmer

As the sun slowly rose over the Rajasthan desert today it found two battered, tired, and colourful rickshaws at full throttle flying across the poorly maintained tarmac.

We left our roadside hotel in the dark, aiming to cover the ~500kms between us and Jaisalmer.

Ned and I took the lead in our superior rickshaw and bent our wills to putting some miles behind us. About half an hour of driving down the highway later, we realised that we hadn’t seen Finn for a long time. We pulled over and after waiting for 20 minutes we turned around and drove back the way we had come, expecting to find the boys broken down on the side of the road.

30 minutes later we were back at the turnoff to the highway, but the boys were nowhere to be seen. They had disappeared. At this stage Ned and I accepted that the boys were dead and decided to head to Jaisalmer ourselves.

Without any maps to guide us (they were all in the other cart), we used our wits and charm to navigate the treacherous roads all the way to Jaisalmer.

We had wasted an hour driving backwards, but without the boys slowing us down, we managed to cover a shitload of distance, showing once and for all just how much they have been slowing us down this entire time…

At about 1 o’clock we passed a large castle-cum-restaurant with an impressive exterior wall. Lo and behold, we find Finn sitting in the car park out the front. We pulled in and walked around the back to find Kieran, Eggy and Cameron sitting in a lush private garden eating lunch, while being waited on by several attendants. I’m pretty sure that we walked in just as they were making a toast…

Turns out they had made several toilet stops and their walkie-talkie had frozen, so they couldn’t communicate with us.

We hit the road again and immediately they started slowing us down again. A few hours apart had revealed exactly how glacial their pace was. Ned and I had covered an extra 50km going back looking for them, in only 3 hours. At that rate, we could have been in Jaisalmer days ago!

We pushed through the afternoon (our first day without cloudless blue skies) and managed to make it into Jaisalmer shortly after dark with rain starting to spatter us. We checked into our hostel (only 100 rupees each a night!) and celebrated with dinner and a few drinks with some new friends (somehow this added up to 9,000 rupees) We had made it! We survived. What an adventure.

We haven’t crossed the official finish line yet, in case we want to drive somewhere in our rickshaws tomorrow, but we’ll say goodbye to our faithful steeds sometime soon. :(

Kumbhalgarh Fort

We woke up this morning to the bitter cold mountain air of Mount Abu, but fortunately we were prepared. Layered in copious amounts of clothing we descended and headed north-east away from Jaisalmer. We passed a couple of teams heading in the other direction who seemed very confused about our direction.

There was dissension in the ranks too with some of the boys unsure about whether this trip to see a hill-fort would be worth our time. Ned’s neck was on the line…and boy did he come through with the goods.

In the early afternoon we arrived at the magnificent Kumbhalgarh Fort, which towers over the surrounding countryside. We had been making a lot of fun of Ned over his excitement about seeing forts, but this was something seriously special. According to Ned, the fort wall is a continuous 38km, making it the second longest in the world - only to the Great Wall of China. It was like something out of a Disney movie.

We walked to the top and enjoyed the views, before eating lunch and hitting the road again. Stopped at a roadside hotel just before dark and can still see the fort way off in the distance.

Planning to hammer out some k’s tomorrow and hopefully cross the finish line, so that we have a little bit of extra time in Jaisalmer.

Mount Abu

2,000 bumpy, winding, pot-holed kilometres into the Rickshaw Run, our faithful steed, Jake finally faltered. Of course it was deep in rural India and there wasn’t a mechanic for 50km.

Obviously it was entirely Kieran’s fault, since he sabotaged our rickshaw with his reckless driving yesterday. It no longer seems a coincidence that Finn has broken down so many times… Eggy and Kieran took great delight in notching up our first breakdown on the side of our rickshaw, and reclined in the sun while Ned and put on our mechanic's hats.

We set to resolving the problem with abandon; we had seen the other boys do it enough times that we were confident we could get Jake back up and running smoothly in no time. Breaking down is supposed to be a big part of the Rickshaw Run, and up until now we had kind of felt like we were missing out, so we were excited about getting our hands dirty.

An hour later, after we had taken the fuel line, spark-plug and carburettor apart 3 times, and Jake still wouldn’t start, we were sick of being mechanics and regretted ever romanticising breakdowns. They suck. Fortunately Lauren and Warwick passed by just then and stopped to help out.

Warwick jumped into work and had us up and running in 15 minutes. Thank god. Fingers crossed there are no more breakdowns for the rest of the Run.

We continued on and climbed to Mount Abu - 1,220m above sea-level. It’s a market town with a big lake and some *incredible* temples which reminds us of Mahabaleshwar. We watched the sun set into the revolting blanket of smog - that seems to cover the entire country - from what would otherwise be a spectacular lookout, then stocked up on warm clothes, since the temperature dropped to -3 degrees.

Only a couple of days left before the end of the Run. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing at this point.

Jessore Sloth Bear Sanctuary

We left Anand and headed north-west past Ahmedabad. The smog has been really bad ever since we passed Mumbai and we’ve all picked up bandanas to wear as face masks to try to reduce what we’re breathing by a little bit at least.

We took a wrong turn on the way into the sloth bear sanctuary (the same bears as Baloo from The Jungle Book) and ended up on a horribly bumpy and pothole-y road which lasted about 10km before we realised that we went the wrong way and had to go all the way back down this shitty road again.

Kieran and Daniel have been whinging like little bitches that their Finn isn’t as good as Jake (which is true, Jake is a boss), so we let Kieran drive back to the centre of the sanctuary. Our one stipulation was that Kieran take it slow over any speed bumps, since he has a history of not seeing them and hitting them at speed. True to form Kieran managed to hit a ‘speed breaker’ (basically a slab of concrete which you normally go over at max 5 km per hour) at top speed only a couple of minutes after taking the wheel…

We arrived at the sanctuary and eventually managed to organise accommodation in a little building just off the back of a lake, surrounded by mountainous hills and bushland. Ned and I hiked the hills and wandered through the bush while the others walked the lake edge. There are loads of animals in the forest; boar, mountain lions, honey badgers, sloth bears, monkeys, camels, hyenas, leopards, and so many more.

There was a school camp next door and we were mobbed by about 60 frenzied teenagers. This was fun for a couple of minutes but really started to drain us after half an hour or so. The kids are friendly, but when they get worked up, they are relentless. We must have taken 200 selfies before dinner was served.

We ran into another Rickshaw Run team (Warwick and Lauren - Lorwick) driving through the dark and helped them organise accommodation. After dinner we sat around a campfire waiting for the nocturnal sloth bears to show up. We gave up at about 1:30am and slept like logs.

Anand

We splashed out last night and stayed at a nice hotel and ate dinner at a fancy restaurant. After eating street food for the last 2 weeks we thought that we wouldn't have any problems with food anymore, but somehow the fanciest restaurant we've been to set us off. This morning two of us were feeling a bit of Delhi belly and weren't looking forward to a whole day driving.

We set off anyway with the intention to forgo Google Maps and navigate by the sun. We stopped off at a road-side diner for lunch and realised that our multiple temporary fixes to Finn's rear axle cover was yet again falling apart. There was a small tyre shop in the parking lot which we approached to see if they had any parts we could frankenstein in to protect it. Fortunately, one of the men spoke excellent English (he had lived in London), and was able to sort things out for us. He had someone drive Cameron to an auto-rickshaw mechanic 10km down the road - on the back of a Royal Enfield - and return with some new covers.

We then tried to replace the parts ourselves but quickly realised we were in over our heads. We limped to the mechanics who laughed at our multiple MacGyver efforts and replaced all four rear axle covers. There is no chance at all we would have been able to do it, and we watched, fascinated as he sorted it all out in just over 30 minutes. He also tightened the exhaust and secured the muffler so that it no longer bounces around - which is what was causing the (now replaced) rubber housings to split.

Time: 35 minutes Labour and parts: 200 rupees (AUD ~$4)

The boys wouldn't let the mechanic service Jake, as he hasn't broken down at all yet and they are waiting with bated breath to rub it in when he does. Ned hasn't helped by continually gloating about how superior our rickshaw is. It's only a matter of time until something goes wrong.

Good news though is that Finn is back up and running and we shouldn't be stopping on the side of the road for breakdowns quite as frequently.

We managed to make it all day without Google Maps, but ended up spending half the day getting Finn back into shape, and the other half on the highway, so it wasn't really very adventurous.

Staying in Anand tonight, a little town off the highway near Ahmedabad. We've been having difficulty for the past week finding ATMs which are open/have cash in them, and tonight we almost couldn't pay for our accommodation because we are all running so short. Fortunately the hotel manager offered to drive the boys to a working ATM and we were able to get a little cash each.

This hotel is great - good Internet, soft beds, and warm showers. We've roughly planned out the last 5 days of the trip to include something we all want to do; sloth bears, mountains, and forts!

Daman

Stopped off early looking for a mechanic today after a few more breakdowns. We didn't find one who works on auto-rickshaws, but honestly we didn't look too hard. We walked around the fort here, and relaxed in the nicest hotel we've stayed in so far - it even has hot water!!

Navi Mumbai

Today was a great example of what India is all about. We woke and froze our asses off leaving the mountains. We put on all of our warm clothes, as well as anything else that we could. Sitting in the back of the rickshaw means that the you get the wind blowing right into you, and no matter what you did, the mountain air was cold.

We found tiny paw-prints on our rickshaw seats, indicating that the local monkeys had double-checked we hadn’t left anything of value in the tuck tucks overnight. The mountains were beautiful, and around every turn was a gorgeous lookout.

We did a little sightseeing of some ancient temples, sprawling strawberry fields, and took in the spectacular views from the top of the mountains before climbing all the way down to head to Mumbai. Traffic was pretty good. We’re getting used to dodging the oncoming trucks, buses, and cars which take up the vast majority of both sides of the road while overtaking. This was pretty scary to begin with, but now we understand how the road hierarchy works and actually feel pretty comfortable with it. It’s going to be interesting driving at home afterwards!

Just after lunch (the most delicious chicken tikka masala and garlic naan I’ve ever eaten), we realised that Finn’s (Eggy and Kieran’s rickshaw) rear axel cover had split wide open and was spurting grease everywhere. We managed to zip-tie it back on, but it feels like a temporary solution. We headed off again only to have Finn’s clutch lever entirely fall off 200m down the road.

Fortunately we stopped outside a little roadside stand and the owner leapt into action. He removed the snapped clutch cable before we even knew what was happening and instructed a friend to jump in with Ned and I to direct us to the closest auto spare-parts store. Neither of them spoke English, but we managed to pick up a new clutch cable, and a few other spares too. Returning to the boys on the side of the highway, our new favourite Indian promptly installed the new clutch cable and Finn was back in business! He insisted we stay for Chai, and who were we to refuse?

We set off again, aiming for a hostel in the outskirts of Mumbai. We managed to take a wrong turn and somehow ended up on the expressway, which is basically a freeway of almost Australian standards and is only for cars and trucks - no motorbikes, and definitely no rickshaws. We got flagged down by a traffic cop about 5 minutes in and he made us turn around and drive back the way we had come. As the two sides of the road are separated by a divider, there was no crossing to the correct side, instead we had to drive on the shoulder back into oncoming traffic. This is something that you see relatively frequently on the highways, but it was the first time we’ve done it ourselves and we agreed that we wouldn’t make that mistake again. In true Adventurist fashion, we would make the same mistake twice more before the end of the day.

The breakdowns had cost us a lot of time, but we still thought we should push on through the impending night and make it to just outside Mumbai. This would set us up for a good run through Mumbai early tomorrow morning in low traffic. It was our first experience driving in the dark, and while it wasn’t too bad, it's not one that we’ll repeat if we can avoid it. Fortunately since we were coming into Mumbai, the roads were well maintained and we could (mostly) trust that we wouldn’t crash through a pothole at 60km/h - which is a serious concern for most other roads.

We finally made it to Navi Mumbai about 3 hours after dark, and very weary. We had now been on the road for 14 hours. Driving through hectic traffic, we tried to check in to several hotels only to find that they were all full. To make matters worse, the bolt holding Finn’s exhaust on fell off while we were driving down the road between hotels. Retracing our steps with torches, we couldn’t find it, but managed to wrangle some nuts and bolts from an auto-repair shop and were able to secure it again.

We were surrounded by kids and other locals who wanted to talk to us and take pictures. Seeing white people is rare, and it is even more unusual for them to be driving themselves. Lastly, it’s even rarer that they would be driving painted, colourful auto-rickshaws, so you can imagine their confusion and excitement when we roll up next to them.

Side-note: The smog here (50kms out of Mumbai) is revolting. It hangs thick in the air like mist and you can feel it in the back of your throat when you breathe. I’m not sure how anyone lives here, and I can’t imagine what it’s like in the heart of Mumbai. We were on the beach the other night watching the sunset and were surprised when the sun disappeared before reaching the water. It had been obscured by the layer of smog hanging above the horizon...

Now getting late, we decided to continue driving out of Mumbai to see if we would have any luck further down the highway and managed to find a hotel with vacancies. The price was expensive, but we were tired and probably would have paid anything they asked. We asked to see the rooms and they took us to the second floor where they could not open the door to several of the rooms, despite having the keys…? Eventually the manager came, who spoke good english, and we were able to negotiate a far more reasonable rate. No hot water, but it was amazing to shower and scrub away the layer of smog filth that had built up. Honestly the towel was half black afterwards.

There’s no wi-fi on Sundays apparently, so I’ll will need to upload this later. Looking forward to a good sleep before getting up early and doing it all again tomorrow.

Mahabaleshwar

We decided to head inland to a nature reserve in the mountains today, but we were skeptical about Jake and Finn being able to make it - especially following Kieran’s directions.

We managed to hold up an entire 10 land toll-booth gate today when we rolled into the very left lane and all 10 attendants ran over to meet us, abandoning their booths and leaving the 50 or so cars impatiently honking their horns. They happily waved us through without charging us and we continued on our way down the surprisingly clear highway.

10 minutes later we were pulled over by the police for the first time. They looked stern at first but it quickly turned to excitement when they realised the hilarious novelty of 5 white men driving ridiculous looking auto-rickshaws across India. They insisted that we take multiple selfie shots with them and made fun of Kieran for not speaking any Hindi, even though he is half Indian. Before they waved us on our way, they started saying ‘Money, money’ and we thought that they were requesting a bribe - something we had heard was relatively common. It took us a moment to realise that they simply wanted to see Australian currency, and they were ecstatic when we gave them about 35 cents in Australian change.

About an hour later we were pulled over by yet another policeman, however this one was not nearly as friendly. He checked my driver’s licence, international driver’s licence, passport, visa, vehicle registration, vehicle insurance details, vehicle pollution certificate, and when he ran out of things to catch us out on he simply told us to give him 200 rupees. This is about AU $4, so we just handed it over and continued on our way.

We arrived in Mahabaleshwar in the early twilight and discovered the town’s thriving markets. We ate way too much delicious food and tried to sleep on the hardest ‘mattresses' that we’ve ever seen in our lives. The temperature is really low up here, which is a change from the last week of hot weather. Now thinking we should have brought warmer clothes for Rajasthan.

Malvan

Woke up late, hungover and feeling sorry for ourselves. Eventually hit the road around midday and tried to make up some miles. Stayed coastal for one more night before heading inland. Found a little B n B in a port town called Melvan which had the nicest rooms we’ve stayed in so far. Had an amazing fish curry and played cards. Will be getting up early to try to make up for the short day today.

Goa Pitstop party

Had to all get out of the rickshaws so they would make it up the hill out of Gokarna. We were planning on heading into the mountains, but we now don't think that's a good idea. Headed to the Goa beach party instead and lounged on the beach all afternoon before playing some beach cricket and dancing the night away. Turns out Cameron, the hitchhiker we picked up, can fire twirl, and we... cannot.