day 1

Today we left Jaisalmer around 10 am and ended up 157 kilometers later (100 miles) at 5 pm. The road was a grueling journey and judging by the other teams success rates we did fantastic. The temperature was a cruel 107 degreesg. I started to get early signs of heat stroke. I've drank almost 2.5 gallons of water today, hoping that tomorrow will be better on me. About 20 miles outside of the starting line we came across a Norwegian team that was left for dead in the middle of the desert, we tried to help them fix their rickshaw, but none of us knowing any thing about engines, it didn't go very far. We ended up spending a half hour figuring out the best way to tow their rickshaw another 20 miles into the next village. About half way our mates from the U.K's rickshaw lost 3rd gear so we towed them the remainder of the way. I haven't heard from them so who knows what happened. We crash landed at our hotel, its plush with air conditioning, and a cold shower has never been such a luxury. After a cleansing in room temperature water we now refer to as cold, we went to the bar of course, where we kicked back a few brews and waited for the restaurant to open that sold meat. A lot of places here are strict vegetarian only restaurants. Me being corn fed, I wasn't having it. Over dinner we had a beer and stared at a map wishing we knew what we were talking about. We got a game plan for tomorrow. 300 kilometers, (200 miles) which should be 12 hours of driving. That is, if we don't have any breakdowns. We have no clue what our route will be the day that follows but we will worry about that when the time comes. It is currently 10 past 11 pm. I am exhausted. Our plan is to wake up at 5:30 am and leave by 6:30 after the biggest free breakfast we can stuff in our guts to last us 6 hours until lunch, or the next village that serves food worth a damn. Whatever comes first,

This is jake peters signing off. Till tomorrow!\

over and out.