The finish line...

After travelling some 4374km over 13 days, we finally crossed the finish line at Shillong a little after 2pm. Korma Chameleon showed its extra pace on the up to overtake the hapless Tuktukonfire and take the title of 42nd (out of 70) finisher in the Spring 2011 Rickshaw Run. Of course it never was a race, was it Bob!? And as we pulled out of the finish line to finally park the shaw, Raj managed one last stall, we're going to miss that tuk.

Was a huge feeling of relief to cross the line and lay Leroy to rest. We had our doubts about him on the first couple of days, but from that point forward, he never put a foot (paw?) wrong. Up and down some pretty steep terain in Darjeeling, through the sandpit that was supposed to be the National Highway 57, through the jungles, deserts, forests, tea plantations, coconut farms and down the many footpaths that enabled us to make up so much ground at truckstops, Leroy was a champ. The auto-rickshaw has definitately won a few fans from us on this trip. I suspect Dave and Rossco from the Bunny Chow Express may not be feeling as much love, having spent some 40 hours with their tuk getting fixed at various mechanics finally to put the vehicle out of its misery some 1000km from the finish line.

We became known as the Tuktukonfire Pit Crew due to their continued need for the tool kit we possessed. They may have mocked the tool kit at the start, but all was taken back pretty quickly into the trip. 24 pounds from Argos. Bargain. They had their fair share of troubles too, mainly losing all brakes on the way down from Darjeeling. I've lost count of how many times we got the signal to pull over, and that they needed some more welding done. On the way up to the finish line, we were stuck in some pretty hectic traffic, then the heavens opened. We've never seen rain like it, of course this part of India is actually the wettest place on the planet. The rain was horrendous. We had tuktukonfire in front of us... with petrol... then no petrol. Next thing Baz jumped out of the car to push, Bob... a little slower behind, to get the vehicle off the road. We probably could have gotten out to help, but the rain... you should have seen the rain!

We did manage to see a wide variety of animals whilst we were on the road. Unfortunately for them, they were too. "Sleeping Dog" became a common call along the way, some dogs were more asleep than others. We also managed to see some not so sleepy monkeys, dolphins, elephants, water buffalo, plenty of cows, rabid dogs, chickens, goats and some massive bird of prey we have no idea what it was. Lets call it a Central Indian Bird of Death. The final party didnt hold as much energy as the starting one. People were truly shattered after some very long days on the road, some teams driving 30 hours straight to make the finish line. We did manage to get properly Indian and travelled to the event whilst riding on the top of a bus. Pretty sure our insurance didnt cover that one. Was great to see some of the other teams and hear some of the stories. A couple that spring to mind:

- one team arrived late into one town, and got befriended by some locals who helped them out, took them around town to help them get their tuk fixed and find a hotel etc. They exchanged details and waved goodbye the next morning. 2 hours down the road the realised their $2000 camera was missing. So they called their friends to see if they had seen it. They hadnt, but suggested they drive back to make a statement to the police for insurance purposes. They arrived and their friends took them to the police station. The police were friendly and asked if they had any suspicions of who might have taken it. They said the werent sure, but suggested it may have been the locals that had been so friendly. The police took one of the friendly locals away, interrogated him, and he admitted to having taken it. I'm not sure what interrogation methods they use in India, but they seem to be highly effective. 

- many teams told stories of being driven off the road, into ravines, getting hit by truck, rolling their tuks, the worst injuries were broken colar bones, and missing skin, so not too bad on the whole. 

- a few teams made it to the Karma Sutra Temple. Enough said.

- a poor fella (not Taj luckily) got bitten by a dog. 

- we were curious on the first day to see the three teams from Hong Kong (the first ever Chinese team to take part, they were extremely proud of this) had no luggage... we asked why... and they said it was all in the 4x4 support vehicle they had to help them along the way. Totally against the spirit of the event, but turns out they only made it as far as Mumbai and gave up, pretty poor effort if you ask us.

Overall its been one hell of an epic adventure. Tuktukonfire were with us the whole way, Bob, Baz and Tex, we salute you! Unfortunatly we didnt see Dave, Chris and Ross from the Bunny Chow's after the first corner (literally) so we look forward to seeing them in Kolkata... sounds like they've had about as much adventures as all the rest of the teams combined. They even made it on TV.

If you go to: [http://goo.gl/mn2Zn](http://goo.gl/mn2Zn) and click on "updates from the road" you'll find a good little montage (we need a montage!) that Bob has put together of the trip. Emotional stuff.

A big thanks to all those that have donated on the just giving site (theres a link on the left if you havent yet) its a great cause, and the money donated will make a difference, and the charity, Urban Search of Rescue, is close to both Raj and Taj, given the events in Christchurch earlier this year

And thats it. Done. Bring on the Adventurists African Rally.... who's with us?

, Teesta, West Bengal

Doing the alternate route down from Darjeeling...it's steep...very very steep...so steep in fact that we dropped 1000m in less than a hour, and then Tuk Tuk On Fire lost their brakes...quite a bit of panic ensued, Tex was screaming 'Put it in the wall! Put it in the wall!'... but some good driving from Baz saved the day...discussion now is centreing around who would jump out first and would Baz be prepared to go down with the Tuk if required...Taj just gave a local kid a pen and some paper and had a small written chat with him...all this whilst we wait for the brakes to cool...still 10km to go before we're down...hmmm@

Rehydration Sachets...

After the thrill of the sunrise over the mighty Himilaya's, we visited a monastry and watched 200 Monks in prayer, their incantations were captivating and gave us a small amount of insight into an ancient religion. And afterwards... it was time for some sleep. And in Taj's case, it couldnt come soon enough.

The wonder of Rehydration Sachets... the definitely perked Taj up for an afternoon visit to a Tibetan Refugee Centre to show some solidarity with the Free Tibet movement. The whole time Taj would have just settled for some solidarity in his own movements.

Interesting place, intially set up for some of the 85,000 refugees that fled Tibet in the 1950's when the Chinese took over the country and began destroying the Tibetan culture. 

Some interesting stats about the Chinese takeover of Tibet:

- More than 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed

- More than 6000 monastrys and institutes have been destroyed

- 7.5 million Chinese have since migrated into Tibet and now outnumber the current 6 million Tibetans.

- Tibet is now used for dumping of nuclear and toxic waste by the Chinese. 

- The Chinese language is now mandatory and the Tibetan language is not encouraged and not recognised in government service. 

- India was attacked by China in 1962 and still hold 2500 sqkm of India territory. 

There's more, but we'll leave it there for now. We did buy some shawls to make our contribution to the centre. Not sure what they're made of, Llama perhaps. Dalai Lama that would be. See what we did there?

Taj then caught up with a work friend who was in town, staying with a girl from Masterton that has made Darjeeling her home... and has started a cake making business. Its a small world. 

Early start tomorrow... 4am kick off with some ground to cover to make up for our well deserved day off today. 

Raj & Taj

 

 

West Bengal, India

Big talk today whilst sat around a pot of tea...how cold it is in the mountains...26degrees...brrr. Other news, Taj tried to kill himself last night by ingesting a cocktail of drugs before bedtime...Bio tablets, antibiotics, anti-malaria pill, a dram of whiskey and a beer...resulting in a 2:30am bathroom evacuation. Poor fella is not in great shape today but struggled out of bed at 4am to come with the rest of us to Tiger Hill to witness a sunrise over the Himalayas, Mt Everest and several of the other highest peaks in the world covered in a glorious orange/white glow...not a bad way to start the day! Off for a explore of the city shortly...Taj unfortunately remains in bed for now...

West Bengal, India

So we didn't make it by midday, not even surprised. We were at the bottom of the road up to Darjeeling by 10am, on target for destination at 12, it took us another 5 hours to make it to the top. We had to deal with pot holed roads, running repairs to the tuk tuk's and we even helped move boulders off the road as a team of locals worked to clear the way after a rockslide 3 months ago! Even after the delays, today was still a day to remember, the people are possibly the friendliest we have met yet. As we drove up every person sitting outside their store or house or walking waved and smiled at us. People yelled 'Namaste' 'Hello' at us as we went past, and all the school children stopped in groups to cheer us. Truly amazing. The view...wow...we drove through the clouds up to 2100m where we finally made it to the mountain city of Darjeeling...Mt Everest awaits us in the morning...

West Bengal, India

After the dusty offroad experience of yesterday, today is proving a breeze. We were all up early to head to Darjeeling, plan is to get there by lunch (we always say that, but this time it could actually happen) and then spend two nights in the mountain station that is famous for it's tea plantations and breathtaking scenery. A welcome and well deserved break before the final two day push to Shillong. Early discussion on what we might do whilst in Darjeeling has included a sunrise visit to Tiger Hill to catch Mt Everest and several more of the highest peaks in the world at dawn...have to say we're all looking forward to a day off the road.@

Bihar, India

Alive and safe in Purnia...amazing day. Tomorrow a mere 200km to Darjeeling for a well earned day off the road. Plan is to spend 2 nights there so we can actually see something more than petrol stations at places we stop.

West Bengal, India

What a day. They said it couldn't be done. Today has by far been the most interesting of the trip so far. This is what the rickshaw run through India is all about. We headed off from Patna early with a view of getting across the Ganges, driving a couple of hours north before hitting National Highway 57 and taking it for 5 or so hours into Purnia. There by lunchtime for a quiet and well deserved beer. The map made it look oh so easy. What the map didn't tell us, was that National Highway 57 hasn't been completed yet, and to be fair, most of it hadnt been started yet either. We only found this out 4 hours into the trip when a well armed policeman told us we werent allowed to cross this river and the following area in a tuk tuk. He said it couldnt be done. Our options: 1) Backtrack for 4 hours. No chance. 2) At his suggestion, head up into Nepal, which at one point was only 20km to the north and go around. No visas for Nepal. 3) Convince the man with the gun and no English to let us go past. He wouldnt have any of it. Finally a 4x4 came past and convinced the policeman to let us go through. They spoke a little English and explained they had told him they would give us a tow, for a price, if we got stuck. We rushed through quickly before he changed his mind. The 4x4 disappeared into the distance also. The next hour we spent driving through what felt like one big sandpit. Not a piece of tarmac in sight, and nothing but sand. We were now properly off road. And it was scenic. As it says on the tin, the rickshaw is the perfect vehicle for long distances off road, despite being designed for short distances on road. This is surprisingly true. We did get stuck, numerous times. Which means numerous times we had to get ourselves unstuck. But boy it was fun. We haven't had so much fun in a sandpit since we were 4. This fun all came to an end and we back onto a section of road which was alternating new tarmac for 1km, sand for 1km. We did drive through some clean and tidy villages, unusual for India so far, but the North is definitely a lot less developed than the south. It's all relative. This has all put us hours behind, so now it's 18:30, it's dark and we're doing what we swore after the first night never to do again, driving at night. 40km to go... Fingers crossed on this one... And we couldn't be more covered in dust from out off road adventure. Looking forward to a shower tonight, if we can find one. Taj & Raj.

Bihar, India

(cont) Raj started a futile discussion about the extra weight slowing us down and the urgent need to stay in contact with our compatriots, slowly it dawned upon the local that we weren't prepared to take them all the way to Dharbanga (50km) and he hoped out...we all waved goodbye and headed off into the dust...@

Bihar, India

(cont) him at the front. 'Dharbanga?' He asked...Raj looked at Taj...they both shrugged again, 'Sure thing'. Tuk Tuk on Fire pulled up what was now Korma Chameleon rickshaw runners moonlighting as a local autorickshaw with their two extra passengers. A look of bemusement that said 'what the **** is going on over there?!' Shot across Bob's face. one thing to note, the performance of Leroy dropped greatly, top speed of 55 disappeared and the bumps became even more dangerous, Tuk Tuk on Fire disappeared into the distance. It quickly became clear that we needed to ditch the passengers...this proved a little bit of a challenge. As we pulled up to the next town we both tried to clearly explain why we had to push them out...slowly it dawned on them, Taj being a little more forceful, simply sliding across to the left and apologising as he did it.