Down but not out

We may be close to 2000km from the fabled city but Delhi belly has struck team Hurricane Run here is Palolem. The culprit- a nasy batch of Tom Yum (or not so yum) soup served up by the Thai speciality restaurant (Thai is definitely NOT their speciality!)

Subsequently progress has stalled over the last couple of days as the boys do their best to lose half their body weight and try and keep as many re-hydration sachets down as possible.  A couple of trips to the hospital for shots and some serious antibiotics have helped though and we plan to be back on the road heading out of Palolem and back down the coast tomorrow, fingers crossed!

From our calculations, if we cover around 200km a day for the next three days, we will still make it to Cochin by the 15th for the official finish. Here's hoping Hurricane Run (the beast and the team) can hold it together until then!

Keep on rickshawing!!

As Scott & Julia have done all the blogs so far I thought I'd have a go at this one!

 When AC/DC wrote their song "Highway to Hell" they must have just visited India & gone through Mumbai!!

 

We started day 6 well (apart from trying to stop our exhaust rattle & nearly starting a fire in the engine bay!) and aimed to get past Mumbai & well on our way to Goa. About halfway our roofrack packed in and snapped. Luggage down and all in the back meant a tight squeeze with me and Scott cuddling up in the back. After passing through 2 toll booths, one of which had a Indian transvestite wishing us good luck, we saw another team who had broken down earlier so showed us the local garage. 20mins and 80rupees later (about 1 pound) we were back on track.

Getting into Mumbai wasn't a problem, apart from us not wanting to go there! No signposts whatsoever for the road we wanted resulted in us nearly going over the sea connection highway to downtown Mumbai (Rickshaws are not allowed into the city or on this highway!). Time to turn around and head out looking for the route we wanted, all this in rush hour! After several stops and asking directions I'm convinced the people of Mumbai have no idea themselves of how to get out as they were looking a little amused at a Richshaw with 3 westerners in.

I've also learnt the 3 modes of head wobble. 

 

No.1 a slight wobble means I have no idea what your talking about

No.2 medium wobble is possibly if you follow what I say you may or may not get what you want.

No.3 long excited wobble is a definite or guaranteed yes

 

Back to our ride out of Mumbai......

Sunset fell and we covered about 5km in 30 mins. Feeling a little tired and stressed we decided to pit in for the night, not so easy! Most places said they were full but I think they are just sceptical of why we are actually here and cant imagine crossing India on a Rickshaw (Rickshaws I imagine are mostly owned by taxi drivers and in India a taxi driver is probably not the best status in society) they also think we have ulterior motives for being here I suspect! We finally found a slightly pricey but clean hotel and at last got a warm shower! After our long miles through Mumbai today we were all covered head to toe in dust. Headed out to the golden arches (McDonalds) for a much welcome break from spice's and oil.

 Up late the next day and back on the road, daylight has done little to help our plans of heading south and it's a hour before we finally find the road we want, after taking the toll road inland and turning around mid motorway as it's another no-go zone for Rickshaws! A uphill struggle later in the afternoon proved too much for the mighty beast to handle and we had to stop for a cooling off period, upon further inspection we have also been losing gearbox oil going up the hills. Managed to get to a small town halfway to Goa and found a decent hotel and a Richshaw mechanic. We opted for a oil change and a tighten up of the exhaust which took longer than expected due to the bolt threads being worn away, but all fixed up we were ready for another long day to Goa.

Good start to the day with only 1 overheat on a hill, then the exhaust fell completely off! Rather loudly we putted along for about 1km and had it welded back on, great, to Goa we ride!! No such luck, another 40k later and some of the worst roads on earth and it fell off again! Found a roadside Rickshaw workshop and for the price of 100rupees we are away again as quiet as a mouse!

10hrs later we rolled in Anjuna, Goa, and arrived at "Peace Land" our chosen hotel for 2 days as we are due to take a break.

Today is our day off and we hope to be in Cochin by the 15th for the finish party, exhaust or not I'm sure we'll make it, but hopefully it's plain sailing from here.

If anyone has any suggestions for songs on roads or motoring about hell or death (Drivers in India are the worst in the World by far!!) please post them on my facebook page or send them on a postcard to my home address.

Until next Blog it's rattle rattle bump bump beep from our Rickshaw...... enjoy!

Holy Cow

Let's start with the numbers;

 

- 1146km driven - Lost 6 times  - Indicators used once - Zero is how many times all the other road users in India have used their indicators since we've started.   - Exhaust has fallen off twice (we reckon it's not coming off again)  - Number of warm showers: 0.    - Diverted onto the other side of the road for roadworks 9 times (oncoming traffic has been warned with signage once) - Near death experiences by NZ or UK standards: 374  - Near death experiences by Indian standards: 92   - Near death experiences involving cows: 27

All of that said, things are generally going well and  we are moving steadily towards Mumbai. We left the state of Rajasthan yesterday and entered Gujrat, home of Gandhi and also apparently a dry state.  Needless to say, the Kingfishers have dried up which is not a good thing after driving a tin can on Indian roads for 10 hours at 40km's an hour.  We actually feel relatively lucky to have our tin can as we are sure some other teams have had  more problems than overheating and lost exhausts, some didn't even manage to get themselves out of Jaisalmer. As we write this we're on National Highway 8 hoping to stay somewhere around Surat for the night.  We will however be endeavouring to stay out of the city centre which has been said to be India's "noisiest and most exhausting." We have been lucky to see some of the much talked about "incredible India."  After Jodphur we managed to make it to Udaipur.  After a little help from a local Rickshaw driver and a few tight squeezes, we found a beautiful Hotel that overlooked the lake and surrounding fairytale city.  It was one of our favourites and a breath of fresh air from the frantic, fast paced India we've been trying to get used to. Thanks so much for all the donations still coming in, sorry about the lack of photos so far, they are on their way!