SMS Update

Team Curry Favour has arrived at the finish line! After a crazy day culminating in a mad border crossing into Nepal, we rocked into Pokhara this afternoon to find we're the 7th team to finish the run- not bad for a team of 4 :) a crazy, wonderful time had- now time for some well earned R n R! ** some text is missing **

Viva Varanasi!

And so the mighty Curry Favour Rickshaw (now lovingly nicknamed 'Marlene' - for reasons of little logic..) has rolled somewhat gingerly into the city of Varanasi. Our journey has been filled with a myriad of sights, smells, noises and spectacles - all of which have combined to leave an indellible impression.

Our most recent travels have seen us progress up through Jabalpur, and through Rewa on our way north to Varanasi and the sacred ghats on the the Ganges. Our arrival in Jabalpur was particularly stressful, as we got horribly lost trying to find a hotel. Fortunately, our plight was eased by a friendly 'government official' - who kindly jumped in alongside Kev and led us through the chaos to our destination. Our delight at this escort was exceeded only by our curiosity in the vast forest of matted hair bursting forth from the man's ears. If he ever falls out of favour with the Jabalpur constabulary he surely has a career waiting as a rug maker...

The driving is now beginning to feel like hard work - and the roads seem to have taken a turn for the worse. The road to and past the small town of Rewa was particularly severe; giving our backsides a real pounding. Having said that, the smiling faces and goodwill we've received more than makes up for some discomfort along the way.

Yesterday, we decided to give the smiling kids something in return for their generous smiles - delighting a local sweet whaller by buying a whole tub of toffees - which we then proceeded to hurl at grinning children as we rumbled past in our trusty steed. Despite striking a few youngsters with errant missiles, we curried a lot of favour with our gifts - and got even wider smiles back in return.

This morning, we crow-barred ourselves out of bed at 5am and made our way down to the ganges for a sunrise cruise along the ghats. The rest of our time here in Varanasi will be  rest day, before we head on again, this time towards Gorakphur and the Nepali border. Our rickshaw is in need of some TLC and so we're hoping to get her serviced here today. The roads ahead are likely to deteriorate further and so Marlene will need to be on her best form in order to get us through and onto the last leg of our journey.

We've now bumped into a couple of other teams, all of whom seem to be experiencing the same crazy driving and eventful banter with locals. The trip is tough, but so far, so good!

More to follow in Nepal (or before depending..)

Aching in Jabalpur

We're all very tired and sore now after some epic driving over the last few days.

In a heritage hotel here in Jabalpur. Spirits are still high but we need (another) good night's sleep!

More to come

The Wrong Trousers

We've made it to Nagpur, a bustling city that marks the centre of this fine country!

We've been stopped by the highway police almost every day now! Today their excuse was that the driver had the "wrong attire" for rickshaw driving and that he should be wearing khaki and a name tag! This was gonna cost us 1000 rupees until we told them we were on a "Honeymoon Tour" which they seemed to like and then the kettle was on and the posh cups came out! Hilarious :)

We had a couple of muslim guys try to sell us some machetes too - which was nice... needless to say we took off at full throttle fairly promptly from that situation.

Been having some nice Chai conversations with the locals, met some really nice people,

 

Til next time,

 

Curry Favour Team

SMS Update

Arrived in Akola in one piece..Just about! Was an eventful day- escaped 5k police fine, nearly lost rickshaw in craters of potholes, lost map (thankfully brought 2), got lost, found dodgy hotel and ended in yummy 3 course meal for a fiver:)

Update for Now

Greetings all you hungry bloggers!

Here is our second update.

We powered our way through the hills of Goa, caught sight of a beautiful peacock, a bright green tree snake, a mongoose and a small group of silver langurs we descended on Belgaum in one piece. Found an adequate hotel - full of bugs - and then pummelled our way through the agricultural plains of Karnataka to reach the city of Solapur.

Left Solapur this morning and arrived at a beautiful hotel in Aurangabad - which is where we come to you from!

We've had such an experience so far. So many people, in what we thought were mere villages, you literally can't stop the shaw for a second and you have a gaggle of curious villagers peering in and asking for photos!

Lots of brightly painted cows and humping dogs.. also finding it very difficult to get used to the sight of people defacating on the side of the road...!

We're treated like celebrities when we arrive at a town, people are smiling and waving and given half a chance, inviting us for a cup of chai and ultimately for dinner and to stay for a night!

We're having an amazing time so far...

Stay tuned for more...

Only disaster so far... Anna got stuck by a wasp today, also had a few near misses with marauding cows and wayward goats :)

 

Til next time...

 

Team Curry Favour

SMS Update

First day completed! Successfully negotiated the hills of Goa;-) what a way to travel!

Update

Well after several attempts to get the look of the site right, we've gone with the yellow and brown theme involving the galloping horse and sticky desserts in an effort to link the unlinkable.

We've been working hard on our route and trying to incorporate a visit to a national park, a cool retreat and a holy festival. So far we've found the parks are closed, the cool retreat is 1000m above sea level (not conducive to rickshaw running) and the holy festival involves dancing through the night, which I suppose might be fun... must remember to pack my dancing shoes and learn to dance...

We shall post our route map in the coming weeks to let all of you sitting on the edge of your seats know what were up to.

Luckily the date with the injection lady can be put back until July! But in the mean time, I must renew my passport and see how I'm gonna get my sweaty paws on an Indian visa.

 

Laters

 

Hoops