Goa, Goa ... Gone

Steve departed Goa early this morning, destined for Chennai again (only this time using the quick fix of a flight) ...

Another 24 hours and ben and myself shall be leaving here also destined for Mumbai/Heathrow/Ponteland on route to home. It's going to be a long day tomorrow ... (approx 24 hours I'm told) ...

I love India!

The people, the country, the food, the weather ... and yes even the driving! I will have to bring Sylvia here - I don't think anyone could understand India or begin to imagine just how magical the place is without sampling it personally. It certainly didn't look like this on Paul Merton's India!!

One final note from Goa ... has anyone noticed how much Ben Higgins looks like Dave Gorman! Dave Gorman would come second to Ben in a Dave Gorman look-alike contest!

 

 

And the chapter closes

Well, how to end this. I think just about every adjective you could throw at this is appropriate.

Its been stressful, exhilarating, exhausting, tough, wonderful, heart warming, heart breaking, humbling, emotional...

The people have been amazing. Happy, welcoming, inquisitive, honest. We have at most times felt like celebrities, obviously not deserving, but the people we would see in houses 100 meters away pointing to the rickshaw, and we would wave and then they would have arms waving in the air at us...this happened everywhere. The people we would drive past in the streets whose eyes would open wide, then jaws drop, then we would always smile and wave, and their faces would just light up....we felt truly special, even though we are just ordinary people having an advemture.

The tabas where we would stop for chai, with truckies and kids, would see the rickshaw surrounded with people just wanting to see us and somehow with our very tenous grasp on a few words of hindi, and their much better english we would leave with full hearts, refreshed palates after awesome chai, and many smiles behind us.

WE had some pretty scary moments, and i'm sure some moments we should have been scared but just were blissfully ignorant. We left the road blind a couple of times with a truck 30 feet away from us, had mirrors nearly shaved by trucks and buses on either side, insane night driving, surrounded by truckloads of armed soldiers ( some of them smiled and waved too).

The more trucks we saw totalled the more the plight of these poor buggers hit home.

BUT,  what i really want to finish on here is the kids and the real issue behind the kids charities who work in India.

We have seen 10 or 11 year old kids out on the highways in 40+ degree temperature, breaking large rocks down into smaller ones on rockpiles, then others breaking them down again, and it seems down again into gravel. This is in temperatures we have been cooking in while these kids are trying to feed families who have nothing. Another team told us of a little tacker sweeping the forecourt of a petrol staation during the day, and they asked him 'School', and the poor little bugger burst into tears cos he wanted to go to school but had to work.

I saw a kid on the train who basically slid along on his bum with a stick broom under peoples feet, sweeping under beds and floors, then asking for two rupees from people on the train, a few gave, many didnt.

I've seen how far Aussie dollars and pounds go here, all it needs is for a few rupees to feed a family, to free a kid up from work, and get a basic education and give them a chance.

I ask everyone who has been following these blogs, to give up the price of a night at the movies, or a trip to mackers, give up your morning coffee for a week and donate just a bit to the SOS charity and please help some of these REAL KIDS, who by a twist of fate have ended up born in Rural India rather than Aus or England and dont have the chances, food and welfare our kids have. These are real children, with souls and dreams exactly the same as our kids, but no opportunity to fulfil them. If your donation could help get only one kid into a school for a bit, you will never see it, but the kid who benefits will never forget the opportunity.

thanks for following, taking the interest and supporting us, its been great to have you along.

Steve

We bloody did it!

Well ... we arrivewd in Colva beach, Goa at 15:30 today, 24 hours ahead of schedule and will all three members having all limbs attached. Other than previously mentioned gear problems, and the battery falling off - we've made it through with no real problems - other than the physical toll the heat has taken on us ... which is not inconsiderable.

We've spent the last few hours in Mickey's Bar talking to fellow survivors about our and their adventures , problems and difficulties. It's been emotional!

We eventually finished 13th out of the 55 or so teams that started, which will do for us - that was never an importat issue - it was the adventure, the people, the sights and the experiences that India had to offer which were our main objectives. We have not been disappointed - India was very good to us, the people very welcoming, the food delicious and the country beautiful.

It has been a very satisfying experience and although we have missed the people back home, it was something not to be missed and never to be forgotten.

Thank you India ... thank you Steve, thank you Ben. We made it through without a punch thrown! (Though the night is still young!) :^) 

 

I'm sure there will be another updaet or two before we leave here, another from Steve tonight surely, but thank you for your support ... if you had seen some of the sights we've saw you would appreciate even more the need for the sponsorship that you have provided ... many of the people here have NOTHING but they retain a smile for outsiders and are always keen to help - the warmth of the Indian people is something that will remain with us all for a very long time ... I'm sure we'll all be back ... though maybe not in a rickshaw and maybe not together! :^)

Seriously though - if one of the team had not put their share of effort in, we would not have made it, it needed to be a team effort and it certainly was that.

There is only one note I can possibly end my blog on ... it has to be this little acronym ... FTM!

Last night on the road in Kolapur..( hopefully)

and to make things better...we get the best hotel so far. even has free wireless intermenet.

had a later start today, just cos we could, and got here at about 5:30, so should be cruisy down to Goa today.

Broke the battery tray today, so like others, the battery is bungied in, i did no drivin today cos i aint eating too good and not at the top of my game...you need your wits about you when you have buses coming head on at you 50 feet away. you generally just stop and pull to the shoulder of the road...about 10-15 times a day.

 better temps today, still warm but much more bearable. 

we gonna miss the little bugger when we hand it back...its a quick little critter as many a truck and rickshaw will attest to as we leave them in our dust.

hopefully meet up with many teams in Goa tomoz to share tales of trucks, sights, people and laughs.

will do one fnal post tomorrow after the line...

steve 

 

Nagpur

Hello blog readers,

John here today, my turn to update you all ...

Where will I start - the knackered roofrack which meant we had to carry everything inside the rickshaw ... the bloody malaria meds making me and Steve T hyper sun sensitive (nice side effect that for malaria medication) ...

 Any way - I already said enough about those things so lets get positive - We set out a little later than some days (around 8:30) and set a target of arriving in Nagpur and getting a hotel found before dark. Objectives completed with time to spare. We even managed to get our roof rack welded in 6 places for the grand total of around 2 quid.

We had no mechanical breakdowns (unusual), no mental breakdowns (even more unusual) and I only bumped my head around 8 times today (impressively low number, though one of those was when I almost fell down stairs in a crowded shopping mall ... te people where too polite to laugh - until they confirmed I was OK anyway. 

Steve and I as mentioned above have slightly burned arms which has resulted in some strange handle bar gripping and more water poured on t-shirts to cover arms than down necks today.

Ben still the only one to be somewhat bothered by the dreaded Dehli Belly - so the doxycycline has had some upside too (apart from the obvious no catchy malaria thing).

Nagpur is by far the most modern of the Indian cities we've had the great pleasure to visit so far ... though that is not to detract from the others, they all have there charms and most modern is not always the best.

Struggling to get clothes cleaned at the moment so have had to buy hand washing powder (but don't tell Sylv I can do hand washing! ... I haven't tried it yet ... I'll let you know if my Sunderland top loses it's stripes tomorrow if we get internet access again).

Enough of my waffle, I going to bugger off now and try to upload a shed load more photographs as I've taken hundreds but slow interent connections have meant I've only had the chance to bore you a little bit so far with them ...when I get back watch out for the DVD, slideshows, video nights and talks - there is so much to say about this country!

In Jabalpur

we have found another internet cafe for an update, last night was the Bandhavgarh National Park, with the famous tigers.

We've had a couple of days running with no mechanical problems, so have made good progess.

We had an interesting trip to the hotel, which is inside the park, in the dark cos we got a tad lost, in an open richshaw, in tiger country...wild tiger country. we felt like the dessert cart.

We found a great little hunting lodge, and booked in, and the owner explained there are three tigers, a mother and two cubs, which have the 3-4 kilometre territory around the lodge. Ben wanted to go out for some smokes, and the hotel insisted on him beiong accompanied by a guide. THe guide had an interesting trip on the rickshaw for a few ks. Saw housed with bamboo fences aroudn them to keep the tigers out.

Morning we left at 5.15 to get a jeep safari into the park, around 3500 rupees for the 3 of us, about 100 dollars, and a tiger was found about 500 metres into the park, An elephant was waiting with its handler, and for 600 rupee each, about 20 dollars each we boarded the elephant for a ten minute jaunt around the tiger 8 feet belwo us and about 15 feet away...was awesome.

Previous night we arrived in Rewa at a yearly festival day, when many marriage ceremonies are celebrated, the whole town, and all towns were alive with festivities as people celebrated weddings, this was one we obviously couldnt participate in but was wonderful to see all the colours and lights.

Apart from the tigers, has been two days of getting some miles under the belt, so not alot to report except alot of heat, drinking heaps and dodging trucks.

Will keep updated, next stop planned is Nagpur.

JP is uploading photers now onto the gallery.

 

Made it to Colpara

In an internet cafe in Cuch bahir, in West Bengal, we has some issues today with the clutch which put us back about 3 hours. Had a 5km bus trip into town, to fetch two rickshaw mechanics, nearly passed out in the heat of the bus ( now water with me), but the good news, the mechanicsdid a ripper job and charged me 300 rupee...9 dollars for an hour and a half on the roadside and travel.

 We will miss out on the sunrise in Darjeeling as we didnt make Senaguri, but we will still get up there to visit for a bit.

 Stayed in a "very interesting place last night called Dhoni, fires in the streets, a motel room we didnt want to not sleep in separate rooms, 2" cockroaches, power off and an every 20 mins...great for the ceiling fan in a stifling room, and gechos belting around the room.

 JP filled the time in today taking photos of the kids and locals, as soon as we get wifi we will upload gobs...most cute kids.

Say about 300,000 smiles and laughs and waves yesterday as we travelled from Shillong to Guwahati, was awesome.

 Had lunch in a roadside shack with about 20 truck drivers, many about 14 years old driving 20 ton trucks. We have seen many rolled on the side of the road too sadly. We had choruses of "Alan Shear Boo" from the 20 drivers, were great guys and dinner was awesome.

Yak more later

Steve

and the big day arrives

We are launched today by the state Govenor at 12:15, and we point ourselves to a 2200 metre descent back to the flat lands, in among some of the crazy trucks and taxis which traverse this route.

The beast is ready to go, have fuel, jerry cans, luggage and a desire to get into West Bengal as soon as possible.

Mumbai behind us

Well Mumbai is behind us now and we are waiting to board our flight to Guwahati ... the scene of bomb attacks early this week.

Mumbai was certainly an experience, even if it was for less than 24 hours!

We were a bit peckish by last night, so I think we managed to get through what is considered to be 3 main courses each ... for the grand sum of around 1.50 each! Maybe I won't lose weight on this trip after all!

Looking forward to getting to Shillong, seeing the pimped 'shaw and having a test drive before Sunday's off.

If the driving we've witnessed so far is a good example of the driving over here ... may the good Lord have mercy on our souls! The video clip on the video page of this site is tame by comparison, it's mental!

Enough for now, see you all later ... possibly!!!!

The three are in Shillong

we cant find each other yet, but we have all arrived safely. This is one big place...

Steve isnt in the hotel booking list, so some sadness reigns here...some other hotels but this has wireless internet.

Such is the life of an adventurist!!!

a third bed has been added to the "suite" and we are all set.

Lunch in the very swish restaurant with Darjeeling tea and paratha's...for 100 rupee...about 2.50 aus or a pound and a bit....ya gotta love this.