JLR Kings Sanctuary
Day 15
Waking up at 0500hrs in prep for a quickie shower then for our safari. Oh no we are running 2minutes late and Danny is stressing that we have definitely missed the safari - calm down, calm down!! As expected they hadn't left and were still chilling munching on tea and biscuits!
After a few minutes we are ready to roll, so in the jeeps we go alongside the Indian safari equivalent of crocodile Dundee/indiana Jones and another chap. Very excited and really hoping we see tigers and elephants!
The first animal we see is the highly elusive animal native to India - the wild dog!!! Obviously I am being sarcy as there are tons of these roaming around every corner of India but to be fair this pack of savages are different to the normal stray dogs, they have big bushey tails & don't look as feral as some of the other dogs we see each day.
Next up are bisons, packs of bambi's and lots monkeys.
We are now off pathing it hunting for elephants for blumming ages, sadly however Indiana Jones has let us down, no tigers or elephants. We do however see lots of mahusive giant squirrels that look very ferocious.
Now back to JLR Kings sanctuary and ready to scoff down some breakfast before a quick dip in the pool and peruse around the 'gym'. The gym is not like anything I have previously seen, its basically got nout in it - has a bit to be desired for to be honest and considering the plushness of the rooms with outdoor baths, luxury lounges and huge beds I expected better but hey ho.
Now ready to roll, back into Ron, Hermoine and Cece we get. We don't have a specific destination today (just southward bound!) however we are planning to ensure that we don't drive through any animal nature reserves as I definitely don't fancy breaking down amongst with the giant squirrels lurking around (and tigers!).
After all that safari shizzle this morning, Danny has only gone and spotted an elephant in the nearby watering hole - pretty awesome, we do a quick U'eee to get some snaps of it and some standard selfies with the locals.
We are now pushing on and seem to be progressively climbing uphill, Ron is typically struggling but still ploughing on. I can see tons of bends approaching so Danny is at the helm for this bit, I thought it would be uphill but boy how wrong was I. This was the most mammoth downhill you could imagine. The type whereby every corner and moment you are fearing for your life as you peer over the edge... It's a bloody long way down and considering cars are going down at 5mph you know Ron, Hermy and Cece are going to struggle. After, what feels like, holding our breath for over an hour descent with my (very helpful) running advice on every corner to Danny of 'Slow down!' we have finally made it - somehow - thank God. Also thankfully this wasn't uphill as Ron is currently not in good shape - the exhaust is now clunking, the carburettor is leaking, Ron is stalling in first and neutral with clutch down and the brakes are rather warm and smelling. I'm taking the driving seat for us to push on for another hour to find a hotel.
It turns out hotel actually means restaurant, so we are now driving in the pissing rain in the dark, in this pile of poo (known as Ron) to try find accommodation. This is easier said than done considering we either are blinded by oncoming headlights or the oncoming cars/trucks don't have any lights whatsoever - on blind bends this is fun to day the least. We also can't find any accommodation online and aren't close to any main cities. We've pulled over and are all a bit irate but I think I've found some accommodation 8kms away in Vennakkad so onwards we go.
Wow... this accommodation is very expensive (they blatantly know we are desperate!) and not too nice to say the least - however on a positive note we do have free pets in the room (giant spider), a pair of wet Y front panties in the bathroom and a half open pack of tablets - not all bad haha. I'm defo using mosquito net and sleeping bag liner here I recon!
Day 13 - O3 Beach Resort, Palolem Beach to Hotel Shivaprasad Grand, Kundapur
So, after a relaxing stay on Palolem beach in a lovey resort of beach huts we thought that it would be a good opportunity to have a well deserved lie-in, so after a lazy breakfast of a variety of breakfast styles and avocado lassi we set off around 10:30 aiming for Udupi, instead of our original plan of Hampi and Bangalore.
We were aiming for a lunch time spot around Gokarna, as had heard that this was a good spot. On arrival we paid the parking fee, without protest this time, and wandered down the road looking for food. Unfortunately for us we picked the place that could only serve one dish at a time! So, about an hour and a half later, fully(ish) fed we left to continue en route to Udupi.
The delay from lunch meant that by the time it was getting dark we were still around 60km out, so we decided to look for a place around Kundapur, 40km outside of Udupi.
The place we found was a swanky (for India) business hotel, which had no ac rooms, so boiling hot fan rooms it was! After a quick gaffer taping of the mosquito net to the window frame, so we could open the window, we went in search of dinner, despite all our efforts it appears Kundapur does not cater for carnivores and we settle for the place originally recommended by the hotel receptionist.
The place was quite fancy, however, appears to only have one third of the menu! A uite uninspiring Cashew Masala later and we manage to settle the bill within 10 minutes, convoy record! After a few drinks and ice creams from the near-by cornershop and the biggest Maaza you have ever seen, the land of nod was waiting for us.
Onwards for Kochi. Love you all, Harry Potter Crews.
Day 11:
This morning in Rajwardi we waited for the Canadians to catch us up in our hotel as they broke down the night before. We set off around 7ish heading towards Goa.
We needed to get some distance done today as we were behind schedule. We drove for around 2 hours over gravel, roads and mud paths until we were hungry for breakfast. We saw a street stall selling dosa. This is kinda like a heavy potato crepé with some spice (cost roughly R40/ 40p).
Back on the road again over some rough roads through small towns and villages (lots of roadworks being done). It was pretty heavy going to be honest in 40oc heat . We managed to get 246kms done in our little rickshaw lawnmowers reaching a max speed of 50kms. That’s including breaking down a couple of times, easy fixes luckily.
As we were approaching north Goa you could definitely tell the difference. Proper concrete houses, more people around and hippy style westerners which it’s been rare to see any white people.
We arrived at a hostel called Craft hostel it was very tranquil with beautiful flowers and fairy lights in the garden porch. We stayed in a dorm of 6 with air conditioning, thank god. The married couple got a double room and Brad wanted some space for himself also. We got a bargain for the dorm 500Rupees for the night (£5). Don’t worry the hostel was very clean and including hot water in the showers yay.
We decided to all go out for dinner as we had a full on day. As we were standing outside the hostel waiting for everyone we heard a massive thud on the ground. What was that? A coconut had missed Alan’s head by literally a inch. The locals ran over and laughed given us a hand gesture meaning very close and tapping Alan on the arm.
We strolled along the beach to find a Cool Moroccan style seating area where we ordered our dinner and sneakily got some beers in which we had to hide due to the elections (dry state until elections are over).
Came back to the hostel with some really swanky music playing. Few of us had showers and the others spoke to other people in the hostel.
Written by
Esmee
Day 12 (Anjuna Beach, North - to South of Goa, Palolem Beach..
After our late afternoon arrival to Anjuna Beach yesterday, we decided to spend the morning here too. Most of us walked along Anjuna Beach, trying to catch some sun and sea air....whilst at the same time we was being reprimanded by ladies trying to sell us jewellery or henna tattoos. We spent most of the morning at the beach and had a quick pit stop at Janet & Johns bar along the front for some food and drinks.
Come early afternoon, we decided to pack up the rickshaws and head down further south of Goa and go to Palolem Beach. Roughly 80km south - we made it there in good time.
We rocked up in time for a relaxing few hours on Palolem and watched the sunset on the beach.
The evening consisted of a lovely meal with all 9 of us on the beach.
Day 10
Up today at 0600hrs and ready to shoot off from joy hotel and banquette hall in Neral at 0650hrs. Pretty happy with that start. Now time to ascend the extremely steep, mammoth winding road to reach Matheran. Slowly (very slowly!) & surely we are creeping up this hill, stalling a couple of times as we go - standard. 7kms in we have pulled over and think that poor old Ron, Hermoine and CC have probs had enough. We are nearly at the top and the views are still awesome from even here, so pretty sure that we will certainly win photo of the day (unless we are trumped by something incredible like a cowpat and a rickshaw or a dog walking around by a rickshaw or Carol watermelon and a rickshaw). All joking aside it's pretty nice looking deep into the valley beneath us, hopefully we won't end up in there after our descent!
Bloody hell that descent was like an unintentional, shit scary roller coaster, the type where you are hanging on for dear life! Anyway we made it and are giving Ron, Hermoine and CC well earned little breathers to cool the brakes off a bit.
Onwards we head, aiming for Janjira. Our plans have however now been scuppered considering every friking road appears to be a hill or have diversions with crappy road surfaces or both. It is literally like we've bought cheapie massage chairs from china with serious faults on and no buttons to stop them.
Now pitched up at a local shack for lunch, the options are veg platter, chicken platter or fish platter. This is decent as the food is very quick and they have plenty of other stuff so Rea can replenish her snackshop stocks!
We are now heading more towards Ratnagiri instead of Janjira as it's taking forever to go even short distances with these roads.
Oh no Ron has just broke down, the carburettor has completely come off, quick reattachment and off we go. Now Ron's friking gears have gone again. We've unscrewed the top flap above our handle bars and clipped back in the little greasy peg. All seems good.
CC has now broken down at the start of a hill, looks to be another blown spark plug but it's taken all the threading as well so this will need some assistance, we (Ron & Hermy) are midway up the hill so agree to continue on and either meet up later or tomo morning.
Now for the interesting part - night time driving. We now understand why they say "Don't do it'! All incoming vehicles seem to either have no lights at all or blumming full, proper bright beams on - blinding us as we approach on this bumpy shit that they class as a road.
Finally some accommodation called होटेल संगमेश्वरी कट्टा for the night near Rajwadi - thank god!
Day 9 surat to joy hotel
Cained it down the motorway from near Surat to a small town at the foothills of Matharan. Unfortunately Alan was not concentrating and we shot over a speed bump causing a fucked front brake, to our amazement the roadside mechanics fashioned an extension cord from lengths of metal poles! After 500R and sparks flying everywhere we then departed. We passed through outer suburbs of Mumbai, chaotic driving and we parted a street festival crowd like Jesus. Saw a beer shop and were all pleased to be in the non-dry state of Maharashtra! In evening we bought our first beer in a few days (oddly a Tuborg strong) and joined a Hindu street festival. We lost Nik amongst the madness as he was intent on leading the procession with his dance moves which the locals seemed to appreciate- he later reported having been offered wine and some precarious warm yellow liquid! Chicken wraps for dinner accompanied by foul, unexpected sour chai yoghurt!
By Klaus
Day 8 Champaner to Surat, via Statue of Unity
The day started with a short early morning drive to a little place called Champaner, the old Gujarati capital (briefly). When entering the town it didn't look like there was anything particularly interesting to see, but after a few wrong turns, narrow streets and weird looks we found the old fort and a world heritage site; a picturesque mosque from 1508. Very cool and unbeknownst to us it was world heritage day to boot! Such a contrast from the dirt and rubbish in the town itself, when you walk into the immaculately kept green lawns with no signs of rubbish. I guess it's the same as the Taj Mahal and surrounding area of Agra....spend all the money upkeeping the tourist attraction and neglect the poor people around the area.
After snapping some pics with a group of local lads with the old fort ruins and of course the rickshaws in the background, we were ready to head onto the Statue of Unity; the largest free standing structure in the world! I can tell you this is one large chap (Indian statesman and independence activist Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel - didn't Google that honest). If anyone is visiting and you havent got tickets (we didn't realise we needed one) all you need to do is say you want the food court and seemingly you're allowed to go wherever you want! It's strange but it feels like they have built this massive monument but are still building all the infrastructure surrounding it.
At this point, Ron decided that only one gear would be sufficient to drive around in; I can tell you it's not. Luckily Danny used his mechanical skills, learnt within the past week, to yank the gear cable back into its proper home. And viola, Ron was back to full gears and ready to carry on with the others!
The traffic heading towards our destination for the night, Surat, was insane. 4 lanes of trucks, buses, rickshaws, motorbikes and us vying for any gap that they can fit through (and some they definitely can't but will still try to!). After the stressful experience of Indian driving/roads and almost a week of Indian food we managed to find a Maccy Ds to 'treat' ourselves. Handily there was a reasonable hotel just down the road so we called it a night.
Day 7 - Ceasar's Palace Resort, Barapal to Hotel Sara Palace, Halol.
After a lovely night sleep in our remote (spookily empty) resort, which the "new" owner told us had been closed for 2 years, the first task of the day was to check in on the FukTuk, as Patrick had now aptly named it.
Unfortunately, it was still no nearer being resolved and the helpful owner was now nowhere to be seen and wasn't answering his phone. At 8 o'clock it was decided that the three "working" rickshaws would go on ahead and Patrick would wait to see if he could get the FukTuk on a truck and on to the stop we would reach in two days from here. Sadly that meant that we were now down to a convoy of three!
After bidding an emotional farewell to Patrick we started with some vigour to try and make our next scheduled stop of Champaner.
We started with lots of roads through the mountains, heading back along the same route that we were caught in the storm yesterday. The road appeared to be in a constant state of repair and we therefore we were having to divert off the main road constantly. This didn't help us with the distance that we needed to travel.
After stopping off to top the Rickshaws up and have a bite to eat we settled off for the final stint of the day. We made the decision try and head as far as we can to try and gain back some of the day and half that we were behind. Cue, the first night time drive of the trip! Stopping to ask a local where we can rest our heads we ended up settling with Hotel Sara Palace, opposite what we assume is a wedding in progress. This meant that we were only 10km off Champaner, but still a day behind.
We also realised that Gujarat was a dry state which didn't help our Canadian friend, Brad, in his 100 beer challenge.
On to the next day, Harry Potter Crews.
Day 6: 16/04/2019
Leaving Udaipur - was a bit of a stale mate...it consisted of breakdowns - being caught up in a horrific storm, then staying at hotel that’s been closed for the past 2 years.
The morning in Udaipur was for us to get Ron to a mehanic & have a few issues sorted, then set off towards Champaner. We left Udaipur around 1pm... then all
of a sudden Patrick’s rickshaw conked out 23km into our journey. We pulled into a petrol station and tried to fix it ourselves - but with no luck.
We was losing daylight so decided to find a place to stay for the night. On the way, we crossed paths with a whacking great storm. Strong winds, dust and rain hit us all in the rickshaws - to the point we could feel the rickshaw was going to topple over. Looking around, peoples stalls were losing metal sheeting and tiles from their roof! The struggle to even see out of the rickshaw was proving difficult and the winds got stronger. We decided to stop and hide the rickshaws and shield ourselves behind a lorry that had also pulled over because of the storm.
Once the storm had passed, we found a hotel to stay for the night. It seemed quiet... and soon realised that no one else was staying there, it felt abandoned..like a ghost town. After speaking with the owner - we find out he bought the place a month ago & it was previously closed for the past 2 years. So technically we was his first customers! Due to the storm there was no power in the area - he soon solved the problem by sorting out a generator and even brought in dinner for us. As a bonus he got a mechanic to take a look at the broken rickshaw - hoping it’ll be fixed by the morning.
All in all.. it was a non-productive driving day, but instead a stressed out one and a scary experience with mother nature.
Emma
Alan
Danny
3 girls, 3 boys reliving one last trip whilst we are not too elderly.