The end of the road

Well as you can see, we have arrived! Check out the photos - apologies for them not being in the right order - limitations of the user here :).  So it was again a long day for us yesterday, starting at about 8am and arriving just after 4pm.  We covered approximately 200 kms, had some more mechanical issues with our battery nearly falling out and exhaust almost falling off.  Also were waylaid by a reporter and some poor directions by the navigator too (oops).  So approximately 2500kms, 125 litres of fuel, more breakdowns than we can count (maybe 40?), 3 welding requirements, 8 different mechanics, some awesome roads and plenty more atrocious roads.

So I think we had fun.  But it was also a lot of hard work and lots and lots of driving.  Thanks to everyone for all your support and fundraising over the last 12 months.  Not sure what the next adventure is yet, but I'm sure there will be one :)

Song for the day is "end of the line" by the Travelling Wilburys

Fort Cochin, India

Yay! We made it. Team number 13 arriving at 4.10pm on the 13th. More to come after a bit of relaxing!

Kerala, India

Day 12 Kundapura to Calicut. A monster long day starting around 8am and finishing at 8pm. We covered 320 kms to close the gap to Kochi. Not a lot to tell - just lots of driving. Lovely landscapes and many crazy Indian truck and car drivers who behave as if they are in the Paris to Dhaka rally. We only stopped to refuel and rest our trusty rickshaw. Stopped to help another team who were having fuel line problems and heard another team had rolled their rickshaw. Haven't heard anything else so fingers crossed they are okay. Chris undertook some night driving so we could get to Calicut. A very scary experience as the headlights on the rickshaw are poor, meaning it is both hard to see and hard to be seen. Then factor in the craziness of the drivers and it is one awful experience. For the majority of the night drive, Chris managed to drive behind a massive goods carrier truck which gave us a lot of protection and visibility. Our song of the day, dedicated to all the crazy Indian drivers, is 'insane in the brain' by cypress hill.

Karnataka, India

Day 11 Panaji Goa to Kundapura Karnataka. So the mechanic arrived and resolved our issue fairly quickly, it was an electrical short circuit in the reverse lights wiring, so now we have no reverse lights ;). Early in the day, we realised Kochi was just under 800 kms away. So we decided to try and get there in 3 days rather than the 4 originally planned. We initially hoped to cover almost 400 kms today but after a few breakdowns, we realised this was not achievable, so covered 300 kms instead. Lots of crazy driving today, saw a few near misses with trucks and cars! Was involved in a double overtake where a car overtook us whilst we overtook another rickshaw. Lots of beautiful tropical scenery, palm trees and rice paddies, so much greenery! Probably the most beautiful scenery we have seen so far. Long day starting at 8.30 and finishing at 5pm. Have found ourselves a fabulous secluded beach resort for the night. Just us and 6 other guests, right on the beach :). Hoping to cover the same distance again tomorrow. With all the muppet drivers, song of the day is the Muppet Show theme song.

NH 17, India

Midday day 11. Currently waiting for a mechanic to arrive. Complete engine failure coming down a hill after about 100km covered this morning. Luckily we stopped just outside a strip of bar/restaurants so we have been able to find someone to help us quickly. Fingers crossed we can resolve when mechanic arrives.

Goa, India

Day 10 Pit stop in Goa. So we decided to stay 2 nights in Goa to try and relax a little, as well as getting some more work done on our trusty rickshaw. The morning consisted of a late breakfast and checkout, then trying to hunt down a welder and a mechanic. All the bumpy roads yesterday nearly completely dislodged our headlights and horns. The third welder we found was happy to help and 50 rupees later we were on our way. Then it was off to the mechanic, who only appeared after about 1.5 hours of waiting. He then proceeded to change our engine and transmision oils in the middle of the street as well as rewiring the speedometer which broke at some stage yesterday. A bit of engine retuning and we toddled back to our first choice hotel for the afternoon and night. It is a fairly swank place so we look quite odd driving up in the rickshaw however the hotel security were all smiles and laughes and happy to see us. We also got some polite questions from the hotel staff about why we would be driving a rickshaw, let alone across India! But when they know it is a charity event for Indian projects, they are both pleased and interested to know more. A few observations of India so far: there appears to be a national toilet paper shortage, as almost all the hotels we have stayed at offer you half a roll at best! Just because it is a national highway, it doesn't mean the shepherd can't walk his herd of cows along it. Two lanes on the road provides enough space for a truck, a car, a rickshaw and at least 1 motorbike! And the direction of any of those vehicles is negotiable. Indian tea is very tasty. Burning rubbish on the roadside is quite common. Staring at and taking photos of crazy foreigners driving rickshaws is both socially acceptable and common place. The maximum speed of a rickshaw is about 63 kph. Ricky Ponting is very well known. Blind corners are quite commonly driven into by trucks and cars. Cows really do wander wherever they want.

Goa, India

Day 8 Chiplun Maharastra to Panaji Goa. An incredibly long day, about 12 hours in the end. After a sedate evening at a 'country retreat' in Chiplun, we hit the road for a long 315km trek at 8am. The morning was slow going up and down the hills of southern Maharashtra. It took us about 3 hours to cover 100kms. The roads weren't always in great condition, with potholes and poorly laid/maintained bitumen. Poor Olive bounced around a lot on the shabby roads. A fuel/rest stop at 3pm gave rise to issues as we discovered the battery had basically broken out of its stand and was resting on the muffler. We were very lucky as a motorcyclist stopped almost straight away and led us to a welder who helped us fix it. We also discovered that the battery wires were fried and that the muffler was loose. A few locals fixed them for us and we were back on the road at 4.15pm. A mad dash was made for Panaji, in the hope of getting there before dark. This was unsuccessful and we broke our main rule of not driving in the dark. We then managed to get lost numerous times and our initial hotel was booked out, sending us back on the road again. By the time we got into a hotel room, it was 8.15pm, so a very long day. They say that doing the Rickshaw Run is dangerous and they are right. Some of the drivers are completely insane - the main road rule is 'only what is in front of you matters'. We saw the remnants of a number of bad accidents today, which led to our song of the day being 'Greg the stop sign' by TISM.

Maharashtra, India

Day 8 Thane to Chiplun. We had a rest day yesterday as Chris has been unwell and we wanted to check in with a doctor before moving forward. Nothing too serious which is great so on the road today. We covered approximately 235 kms, starting at 8am and finishing about 4pm. A long and uneventful day with no breakdowns! Still lots of waving and smiling, especially as I think we are now at the back of the rickshaw pack and locals have seen some of the other rickshaws go past already. We lost some time getting out of Thane and onto the right highway this morning. The majority of the day has been on country roads with a lovely tropical feel in an area known as the Konkan Coast. A couple of hours of hillside climbing and descending gave our rickshaw a workout but also provided some beautiful scenery. All this driving, done spectacularly today by Chris, inspired our song of the day 'driving in my car' by Madness.