Judupi
Got the rickshaw fixed this morning in Ganarta. Gearbox issue. Went for a quick swim at Om beach. Amazing place. Headed south drive for 6 hours no problems. Stopped to refuel got mobbed by 100 guys on motorbikes waving orange flags. Turns out they were local Hindus on the way to the opening of a new temple. We couldn't get out of it, they insisted we attended. Treated like kings we were taken to the town to witness the completion of this 30 year project. Was colourful and modern, fine if you like temples. We were shown around the village which backs onto a beautiful beach. Suddenly children playing pointed at huge grass sour 20 metres from us. Our new friend yelled snake, snake. I'm shit scared of snakes so it what I wanted. Over the garden wall from me there was a green yellow snake 10ft in length, head up two feet off the ground. Couldn't get my GoPro on as the battery was wasted on the bloody temple, gutted. Our guide picked up some sand and threw it at the snake. This got his attention. Suddenly a rat it had been eyeing up made a go for it in the opposite direction and the snake pursued at speeds I never knew possible for a reptile. The rat made it to the children's house and ran inside. The snake followed. All normal stuff here. Crazy. Turns out it was a rat snake, none venomous. But still amazing to see for real in the wild!
Bribes
Left vagator at 12pm 180k push to Gokarna down the coast. Rich slept and nursed his hangover so I took command for the 7 hour drive. Stopped for KFC I Goa's capital. It was amazing! At the border the police wanted a payout as usual. We joked as usual and tried to get out of it. Eventually he settled on a Aston Villa football shift I had with me. We had a selfie then her added me to Facebook. Quite bizarre! Continued until around 6pm when suddenly we couldn't change gear. Managed to find a gear and stopped in at half a dozen grease monkeys on the highway, none of which wanted to look at it. Decided to continue to Gokarna. Good decision. What a great town. Just what had imagined of India and my best site to date. Colourful, fragrant, beer on sale, bustling, winding coastal streets. Rich found a hotel whilst I spoke to local richkshaw drivers and asked about mechanics. They were very helpful. I've arranged to meet one of them at 9am tomorrow who will show me where one is. Failing that it's 25 to the next big town. I think it's a gearbox, gearcable issue but the engines not ticking over properly either. Gonna go to a street carnival tonight and have a beer. It's out of my hands now.
A whole lot of nothing
Bit of a mix up today on destination for a party. We'd booked accommodation for the night in pallolem beach south Goa, two hours away. Getting ready to leave we were told it had been moved so we were staying put. Great news. We can have a total day off. Called by the pool, swam at vagator beach, drank some beer, had a nap, washed my clothes, ate some food. Recharged the batteries. Went to the organised party at waters, was pretty tired so didn't rock the dance floor but listened to cool transe music, great light show and share tales with other teams. Our story of abandoning the rickshaw to the hill tribes had made its way round people were interested in the tale. It's the 11th today so we need to shake the hangover and get down to Kerala. It's 840k according to the map but who knows what lies in the way....
Going to Goa
Left at 7am. Plan was to drive 6 hours, the first hour down coast roads before linking up with highways for the rest. Hopefully end up two hours north of Goa. Wrong. What looked like a nice coastroqd turned out I be 4 hours of relentless mountain hill claims and dangerous switch back descents on pot holed sketchy roads. Slow progress for the 140cc lawnmower affectionately now known as little jubilee. Made out way to a ferry crossing which was cool, for 71 rupee we crossed the estuary much to the fascination of the locals and Indian tourists. We nailed the highways as best we could but realised by 5pm we weren't anywhere near our destination. The decision was made to push for Goa. Yes it would mean a 15 hour day driving, in bad night conditions. It at least we'd wake up in a great spot and back with the pack of other rickshaws. Good decision. Arrived safe and sound. Stopped at a beer shop and had a Budweiser in the street. Had good banter and selfies with the friendly locals. Continued another 12k and ended up at vagator beach resort. A tourists town similar to Bali of Thailand full of hippy, cooler than cool yoga practicing weed smoking tie die wearing trance listening yuppies from around the globe. Gosh I feel old I was living this life 8 years ago! Found a great little gem of hotel, little
Bungalows with a pool down a quiet side street. We've travelled 1500k in our little tuk tuk through some hard terrain but sitting on the terrace now makes it all worth it. Go on Goa.
The beautiful south
I the road at 6am. The first time in three days we've. Even able to hit it early which felt great. More time to stop and take in India without the pressures of time. The industry turned to brick making, piles of bricks lined the highways bellowing smoke as they were being cooked from underneath. Mainly women in coulorful clothes did the heavy graft. What a contrast. Asked around for a mechanic and was recommended a guy 20k away. Was a wizard. A real mechanic not one of these road side tinkerers you are often. He was working g on three local taxis when we got there so we knew he must be trustworthy. We gave little jubilee a full engine overhaul she much needed. We waited two hours whilst the entire engine was took apart and put back together. We drank sugar cane juice and ate ivecream whilst we waited. Back in the road the destination was Dapoli. We got there for 6 then headed back on our selves up the coast to Hanoi. I was worried as we followed an offline map that we'd ended up on the middle of no where, but soon discovered we were in a secluded beach resort we'll know to Indian tourists from Mumbai. We stayed at silver sands resort (sand actually black) which was very Indian no thrillls but we loved it. Swam in the sea at sunset, drank beer, ate curry. The beautiful south.
Bypassing Bombay
Managed to get of Jawal by 12pm with a fixed rickshaw. Plan, head round the outside of Mumbai and head to the coast. Google maps said there was time. An hour and half in we found a mac Donald's on the highway, and bumped into the Norwegian team we'd towed on the first day. Was great to see another tram it's been days. They'd had mega engine issues whichblut them two days behind. We ate then hit the highway. 5 hours of pollution led us around the outside of Mumbai. Amazing city, huge. Super modern India in contrast to the village life we'd seen the day before. We encountered two bent coppers who stopped us and issued us out first fine. Wrong lane, carrying fuel, not correct license etc they said with a smile on their faces. They wanted 4400 rupees. I asked for a receipt so I could show my law firm in Delhi who would pay me back. It soon dropped to 2000 which I wasn't happy with but rich handed it over. We're just not making enough progress, we didn't arrive at our destination and had to pull over 30k out due to being dazzledby incoming lorries. We pulled into a hotel/ restaurant just as a car crash had taken place opposite. Mental. The driver of a lorry was pulled from his cab by half a dozen witnesses who pushed him to the floor and kicked the crap out of him. More people arrived to join in. It turned into a mass brawl for a while I couldn't tell who was on whose side. It's so hot and polluted here it feels like anything could spark a fire. Got the rooms for half the asking price. Can't have beer here even tho they advertise outside as selling beer. The toilets don't work I was told after we'd all used them. The longer I'm here the less polite I am in these situations. He apologised for his deceit. At least we won't hang around here in the morning we've got two days to make it to Goa if we want to join the party. I'll bewailing the others up at 6!
The hangover
Stinking headache. Got up at 9. Ate breakfast. Back to bed. Woke at 11. Still a headache and getting worse. Puked up. Still worse. Combination of dehydration, beer and sunstroke I think. Sleep in the. Ack of the rickshaw, usually an impossible task. Think noisy, hot, bumpy roads combined with the worst hangover, that was this day. We were heading to nashik thinonly 120k so mentally I was ok at the thought of a bed by 3pm. Unfortunately the guys decided to take a small detour on the way to see a waterfall. Bad idea. Ended up taking roads only fit for a motocross bike into the middle of tribal no where. The district of Darta Nagar Havel. The people were different here, we weren't welcome, they really hadn't seen white faces for a long time, maybe never. The guys followed an offline google maps which kept showing the way deeper down dirt tracks. Clearly something was wrong. 6 hours later still no waterfall. Couldn't get a signal, the odd local lady with tattoos faces shouted something in an aggressive tone. By chance we found the waterfall at 6pm. It was dry. The whole place was dry and we had ran out of water. No where out here to stay I tried to force the urgency of the guys that we had to find a main road. Their relaxed attitude was frustrating me especially with the hangover. Tensioned mounted when on the way back out the Americans rickshaw gave up. The gear box had gone from all the hills. Usually at this stage you find a local, make a scene and somehow all gets sorted. Not here. And cars we saw got angry that we were in the way. The locals didn't look happy. It was going dark. Map said 17k of dirt road until tarmac. Starting to get nervous. Towed and pushed the rickshaw for maybe 5k before were stopped by two indian men in a motorbike. Has helped arrived? No. First thing was he pointed at each of us, "you, you, you and you" he said, and gestured that we were going to get our heads cut off. Also our feet and tongues. Random. Ok we said thanks anyway and tried to continue on. They kept getting infringed of us. Blocking the narrow road. Shouting very aggressively and pushing us clearly we were in trouble. Four of us, two of them, doni just wack em both? Didn't fancy that out in tribal country with no way of outrunning them. They wanted money, 500rupee was handed over and all the cigarettes. Surely this would do it? No. One of the stages behind, he had one eye and a scarred face like a pirate. His accomplice tho wouldn't leave it. The odd bike came past I asked for help but they spoke no English and didn't want to get involved with the highway men. The tow rope snapped and we were still being chased by this maniac. The hills were getting bigger and it was now total darkness. The decision was made to get the bags off and load onto our whilst Rich help him off. 4 onboard we struggled for another 10 k up off-road tracks completely isolated. I was expecting to squeal like a pig. Praying we didn't take down somehow we made it to an intersection on a bigger road. The silence said everything. We we so happy at the site of street light off in the distance. The game was up and our assailant new it. He shot off on his faster motorbike. We turned round, dimmed the light and headed in the opposite direction. 10 minutes later we found water and a hotel. The receptionist spoke perfect English! He had been to university in Mumbai. Owe didn't barter for prices as usual, we excepted his offer and finally felt secure. Once we told him he story he was really angry, his pride for his area damaged. He made some calls, soon a group of men on a truck arrived and took jake and mike back out into the bush to retrieve the rickshaw. They found the one eyed guy on route and the Indian blokes bundled him onto the truck to bring him. Back to deal with. The rickshaw was taken to a mechanic. The service levels in India are incredible! We found out lots of info on the people who live out in the hill dirtict. A strange population who practice black magic, they are clearly a hinderance on the villagers of nearbye Jawal who wanted to call the police and get the local media to interview us. We weren't keen for that. All we could think of is getting around Mumbai and heading closer to Goa as we are now a full day behind. Worst hangover ever!
I do like to sea he seaside
Met mike be jake at 9am after hitting the highway for three hours. Got lucky. Mobile signal is poor but glad to see familiar faces. The plan was the hit it down to Daman via the coast road and get off the highway. Went over a 2k bridge built by the briticj in 1884, tyennbeaded to a small town with no name. Got a beaut cut and shave for £1.59"0, danced
With 290 people for ram festival, found a McDonald's in Surat. Real nice city. Clean and vibrant, 5 million people. Daman we hit by 9am. Getting fed up of arriving in the dark and bartering for good rates in a hotel room. Called home, told doing well on time. Gonna get drunk and have a wel deserved lie in
Off to sea the sea
Best day so far. 5am start left Vadodara aiming to reach Daman on the coast, an old Portuguese port. Met the Usa team at Marian (they were staying in the worst accommodation I've ever seen
Early morning push to the coast
6am and we're on the road to Vadodara. Gonna meet the lads from USA and push on to see the coast. Spirits are high in the tuktuk today. Found out first supermarket last night, strange India doesn't seem to have any. Had an on the road brekky of mcvitties digestives and dairy Lee corners! Need something half familiar in my stomach today
