Yesterday - the monsoons had dissipated, leaving clear skies and much happier campers in the tuk tuk. We took the scenic route from Nashik to Aurangabad and although the views were awesome the roads left much more to be desired.
Today we set off early, heading to Ahmedabad. Quite simply, it has been 'the day of the selfie'
A few we managed to get for ourselves amongst the chaos:
Yesterday started much the same as the day before and confirmed that our original welder did not have a clue what he was doing, as the welds snapped within a matter of hours.
200 rupees (£2.40) later and the roof rack was welded once again.
We arrived in Nashik early evening and set out to find a bar.
We'd had a couple of drinks and had seen a lot of people going in and out of this other door across the room. We asked what was in there and the reply was 'private party'.
After a few more drinks somebody from the 'private party' came over and started chatting. Eventually we were invited in and turns out he was a politician and the gathering was for his political party.
A picture of the carnage that ensued....
A rather interesting day today....
The chariot finally started to show signs of the punishing kilometres it's been put through. It started with a 9am pitstop to a 'welders' as the roof rack snapped - 100 rupees (£1.20) later and that was sorted.
An hour later, whilst cruising down the highway the exhaust decided that it no longer wanted to be part of our adventure.
Luckily it fell off right outside an odds and sods shop, so 30 rupees later (37p) we had a new bolt and the exhaust was back up and running.
We then turned our attention to making it towards Aurangabad and the Ellora Caves.
Finally, as we were making our way to the hotel we were pulled over by the police.
After a rather confusing 30 minute conversation with the police officer and a crowd of 20 onlookers, we were told we needed to be taken to the station as we weren't allowed to drive our tuk tuk this far north. After another confusing 30 minute conversation we realised what documents he wanted to see and were then free to go.
We've now arrived at an Indian Faulty Towers!
Our 7 hour drive to Pune was very wet! Taking the chariot through a drive-thru was the only highlight.
After an eventful last night in Goa, on board a casino boat, our mission today was to firstly stay awake and then make our way to Kohlapur. Our future looked bleak as we ran out of petrol high up in the mountains and surrounded by monkeys but our 'reserve tank' (a sprite bottle of fuel) was just enough to get us to the next fuel station. Tomorrow we head to Pune!
We're nearing the end of our 2-day stint in Goa. After doing just over 1,000km the Rickshaw has been treated to a service and so have we...
Yesterday saw the chariot challenged with a 300km trip including 80km of Jog Falls, mountains, wildlife sanctuaries and questionable 'roads'. After a hairy drive through the mountains in the pitch black and the pouring rain we arrived at our nesting spot for the night - a beachfront, tree house where we finally ended our long search for a beer!
Take two...
Cheeky pic from our lunch stop today. Just landed in Mangalore - now to search for beer!
Today we met our chariot and what a trusty steed it is (so far)
13 hours, 1 car crash and a failed beer run later and we are the hotel.
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A bunch of booty movin', soul groovin', tutti fruitin' apes!
They work alongside indigenous villages to halt rainforest destruction
