Day 13 - Below Kannur to Fort Kochi

Day 13 - Below Kannur to Fort Kochi Reading, breakfast, playing in the waves. In 12 hours or so we would be crossing the finishing line, our adventure complete, but for now the final morning was to be enjoyed like the night it followed. A final excitement was coming over us, we were about to join our first convoy, 13 days and we had travelled with no other teams, but now we were a three. We even managed to witness our first on-the-move driver change. Perhaps the excitement was foreboding, one breakdown would see our comforts shattered, but when it came we held strong and battled through. We halted on a bridge and had a painful barefoot rickshaw pushing spell to the other side. Thankfully it was only fuel. The other teams were not far ahead and despite us all taking different city bypass routes we remained close, we were passed as we rejoined the main highway but lost them immediately due to mass crowds, elephants and celebrations. During our final refuelling and driver swap all the lights decided to stop working. The sun had already retreated, providing its natural headlights elsewhere and we only had 40km left to do. Three very talkative gentlemen gave us a bag of curry while we planned our emergency lighting. This didn't help the lights but at least they had their priorities in place. We tethered a wire framed led halo lamp in place at the front and taped a flashing red bike light to the back window. We were certainly visible as we departed, waving good bye to our curry bearing, three, not-so-wise-men. The functionality of the LED as an actual headlight however left a lot to be desired. Our rickshaw was now blind and mute – all in all a very dangerous situation to be in. We did however manage to find the world’s happiest and most unstable fatman on a moped who proceeded to lead us through the suburbs of Ernakulum / Kochin toward the promised land. After 13 days of struggle, inhaling a lot of road we had made it. Of course nothing is straight forward though, we arrived at our home stay, needing showers, food and celebration drinks. Kummar our host said that local places would be closing soon and that local licensing laws were strict. Showers could be scratched off the list and we could progress straight to the important items. After trying a few local bar/restaurants it seemed that Kochi was dry, we put our dummies into our mouth and dragged our feet back toward the home stay, then something strange happened. Some teams called it luck, others were expectant, we had known neither of these things in weeks and just went with the flow. A local restaurant agreed to re-open and feed 15 of us, providing as much beer as we could drink at the same time. Victory now felt like it had arrived, it sat next to us in the bar, enriched our stories, walked us home then helped us sleep. The next day we handed over the keys, the documents and signed the arrivals board. 19th place out of 63 wasn't bad at all. We had a back river boat trip lined up with new friends, then the following evening would be the final party.

 

Distanced traveled: 305                                   

 

Time taken: 11 hours

 

Day 12 - Murdeshvar to Thaddador Beach (supposedly)

Day 12 - Murdeshvar to Thaddador Beach (supposedly)

An unusual tourist mindset came to us and we photographed the various stone statues surrounding the town, just as the dawn was getting fully settled. We spent a whole 10 minutes sight-seeing, which shattered our previous on the road record. We packed the rickshaw in an efficient silence and got back on the cratered road, determined to meet some teams who had just confirmed their end point for day 12, a lovely hotel which overlooked the sea, which definitely had beer (yes definitely). A largely untroubled run saw us arrive at our destination for around 9, well almost at our destination, first we had to be led to another beach hotel by some scheming locals after our business. This would not have been an issue if it wasn't 20 minutes of jittering through a vast labyrinth of very narrow beach footpaths. Thankfully the hotel owner was happy to help when he discovered we were meeting friends and he drew us a map. After 20 minutes back to the main road, then another 20 minutes down similar terrain, our rickshaw was not sounding very healthy at all. The rear right bearing issue seemed to be re-emerging, nevertheless we could not think about that now, we were beer zombies, out after our ounce of flesh, bumping along like pogo sticks in a washing machine. 'sorry sir, no beer.' It was not that they were unwilling to serve us, it was just that the other teams had unwittingly drank all of the hotel beer reserves, which were not ample, internationally not ample. We swiftly moved to Gin-con 5 and broke out our emergency Bombay Sapphire, the day's clean run had to be celebrated. The last of the Gin reserves were now gone. RIP Bombay, you served us well.

 

Distanced traveled: 305km

 

Time taken: 12.5 hours

 

Day 11 - Goa to Murdeshvar

Day 11 - Goa to Murdeshvar

After a much needed lie in/early night combo we had our first non-curry cuisine of the trip, engulfing the Goan interpretation of a 'Full English'. Despite some very odd timing issues we were well fed and ready to embark upon the final stage of the trip, Goa to Kochi. We had arranged to meet some other Rickshaw runners further down the road after 200km or so and the first couple of hours saw us having a good run, then we stopped and couldn't get started despite running through all the basic diagnostics we had learnt along our path of peril so far. The nearest mechanic was 5km back the way we came so we bartered for a foot push back along the road, this is where a local rickshaw taxi driver pushes you with one of his feet while he is driving behind you, surprisingly you can actually get up to a decent top speed. This was not the first time we had experienced the foot push. The taxi driver didn't want to go to Kochi. Another piston! This time it had a hole the size of a thumb in it, I suppose we had been making time. We bought the part, had it fitted and got back on the road. As the road surfaces were getting more and more interesting there were some odd noises coming from the rear left of our chariot, and there it was, heading toward a narrow bridge our first puncture was upon us. The day was challenging us now, mocking our initial ideas of maybe meeting someone else on the road for a beer or two. Due to a seized bolt our spare wheel wasn't an option. This we found out after tipping the rickshaw onto two wheels and throwing our rucksacks underneath to create a double bag jack. We figured that we were not far away from the next small village and as we bumped along with all our weight piled onto the right, a green rusted road sign confirmed our suspicions. Off we go again and due to lost time and morale we decided to head for a place called Murdeshvar as our rest stop. Our hotel was nuzzling huge stone Hindu deities (the biggest in the world by some stretch) and after some local fried seafood on the beach and a huge curry, we shared some super strength lagers, moved past the events of the day and retired with minds full of promise for the road ahead.

 

Distanced traveled: 211km

 

Time taken: 8 hours

Hurrah!

Well we made it, 2230 on the 13th January we arrived into Fort Cochin, crossed the finish line, and felt a mighty sense of relief. It only took two pistons, two sets of rear bearings, four petrol caps, a few carburettor cleans, new innertube, three spark plugs, a lot of duct tape and a trip to Pakistan.

The final days will be blogged soon but in the meantime we need to find somewhere to watch the match and take it easy. We have tried to get some photos up but the connections are very slow so they will all be uploaded in due course. Thanks to everyone who gave donations and for helping us make this trip possible. Brown Aid 2011 will maybe get us on the Mongol Rally?

 

Total Driving Time : 133hrs (not including rest time)

Total Distance Covered : 2771km

 

Brown and Sebs

Darwheeling Limited

Gujarat, India

day four and after 17 hours on the road, we managed only 260 km. You do the math.

Gujarat, India

day three and we made it to our (alternative) destination in day light for the first time!

Jaisal-beer

After an amazing amount of sleep on the overnight train we arrived into the desert station of Jaisalmer. Every organ in my body hurt from lying down for so long and I was convinced that Browny had lost his mind after a few passport mishaps and visions before bed, thankfully the 14 hours sleep sorted him out. 

We met another team in the shuttle (old land-rover) to the hotel and then had some cups of chai, rejected a safari trip, settled a litte and then went out for all the food and some beers on tap. Sadly there were no beers on tap but there were large bottles of Kingfisher. In a lovely little restaurant called Trio, I (Sebs), got mistaken for Matt Damon much to the delight myself and Browny, I have been telling people about the uncanny resemblance for years!

We spent the next day or two eating and drinking like kings, and the nights we partied at the Maharajah's palace meeting all the new teams. Too much partying on the first night saw us sleep in until about 3pm. Although we had to though as the constant barking from dogs prevents sleep during the night, I'm happier to blame it on that. On the 3rd day we met our Rickshaw, a bit late really but we both drove it okay. The paint job wasn't as good as it would have been if Browny had done it but it was okay, we did get a lot of compliments. 

Full moon, full power. The local Indian people seem to be obsessed by my bald head, most people shouted some derivative of 'full moon, full power' at me or call me Ghandi, not a bad thing I suppose. 

We saw the New Year in with a grand banquet and only a few drinks at the palace again, this time with the Maharajah, King of Jaisalmer. (see photos, eventually.)

We decided to have a reasonably early night so that we could be fresh for the big day.