A much needed sleep on the way back to reality
The Final Leg of the Challenge!
Well, it's the last day and a relatively short trip, 106km, however we face the mountains of Indian and its pouring with rain!
It's the last day and we all just want to get this finished, the Rickshaw isn't sounding to clever but we set off into the rain and started to climb the mountains for 4.5 hours and mainly in 2nd and 3rd gear and on occasions, into 1st, but our little 148cc tin can made the last leg and we achieved our mission!
We've had some great laughs and the memory of this will be with us all forever. After meeting the other teams at the finish we realise how lucky we've been, whilst most crossed the finish line in one piece, there were stories of those that had rolled their Rickshaw, with cuts and bruises to prove it, others had been flown home for emergency operations. Another lady with her husband had been hit by a truck coming out of a toll, stitches to show the damage and that she may need plastic surgery on her return to the states.
We were told it was dangerous, however really took this as a pinch of salt. It was dangerous, but it was an amazing achievement to arrive at the finish line after so many challenges and feeling so broken we felt we might give up. We have raised money for two great hospitals and for that, we thank all those who have supported our team.
Well that's about it from us, we have a couple of days now to get out of here and back to our world, it's been a roller coaster and we are stronger for it.
BIG thank you to all for the support, most especially to Kerri who has been on-call throughout the trip!
Shake and Bake from team 'Lost in Spice'.
Check In - Guwahati!
Good journey today only taking us five hours to get to Guwahati. No drama apart from the standard cows in the road, pot holes only a huge bomb could create (!), cars and lorries coming head on to us down the wrong side of the dual carriageway. All good with team Lost in Spice!
Check In - Manas National Park!
Arrived at our destination safely, quite a smooth run here after an early start.
Speedo now broken - never a day with out something happening!
No phone signal at all in the region we are in so no communication with home.
Hotel is a small jungle retreat -good to be away from the horns and craziness of the last 13 days!
Almost at Manas National Park
Nearly there...!
Repair Day
Up early this morning and wondering where the hell we left our Rickshaw! After a number of calls we soon found the guys that helped us last night and were on our way to their village with a mechanic we found on the street (I promise this is where we found him!) he told us he was a mechanic so we went with it..!
After replacing the head gasket, the Rickshaw started and we headed into town, some work currently being carried out on it and hope to be back on the road tomorrow.
Nima and the troops!
Lost in Spice team most grateful to Nima, a local maths and science school teacher who went out of his way today to get the troops back on track!!
Check In - Siliguri!
Where to start - the worst day we've had to endure yet....!!!
After getting up at 4.30am getting all prepared to hit the road for 5am and what should have been an 8 hour trip, in fact saw us on the road for 14 hours... It all went wrong within the the first km of leaving Bhagalpur when we missed a left turn to go over a bridge taking us over a river that divides the state into North and South. 50kms into the journey we come to the realisation that our trip has now extended to 379kms as there is no way across the river...arghhhhh!!!!!
100km's in, still traveling SE as apposed to NE, we need to re-fuel. Somehow we manage to get a message across to a local who can't speak or understand English that we need to get across to the north side of the river. Low and behold, he jumps into the tuk tuk and directs us to a ferry! As we are high-fiving each other with cheers of joy, we soon get hit with another Mike Tyson punch that the ferry journey will take 2.5 hours...
Finally we exit the other side and we are off again with 215kms to tackle, another 8 hours on the road. With 115kms to go our engine starts to whistle to us, so we immediately stop and try to mitigate some potential issues. We get going again and seem to make some progress until 9.8kms (to be precise!) from our accommodation, the engine blows up. We find ourselves pushing our tuk tuk at 9pm in pitch darkness down to a local village. The people were magnificent and have kindly agreed to keep an eye on the tuk tuk while we jump in a car to the hotel. Upon arrival we immediately get the beers in, in celebration of Donalds birthday, certainly a birthday he will never forget...!!
Gary, Donald and Adi
Update on today's journey
We have been travelling south of the river all morning - we went the wrong way...
Having luckily found a very kind Indian man who took us to a boat, we are now on the water heading to the correct side of the river! This should cut our mileage down as we head north to Siliguri.
and we thought day one was bad....
Bad choice of stopover
After a night in the hotel of horrors, from howling dogs to banging on doors, we decided to leave at 04.30-05:00.
What could possibly challenge us today...?! It's Donald's birthday and we thought we had a shortish trip at 259km - how wrong we were... we now need to cover 375km and after hitting 30 miles of parked lorries which we eventually fought our way through, the road ahead is just one big pot-hole.
At a rail crossing everyone just goes for it, I accidentally catch a motorcyclist by the foot, the next thing we knew, we have approx 30 people around us shouting 'CALL THE POLICE', we end up giving them £10 and are back on our way...!
Been on the road for five hours and only covered 100km so far. This is by far the most trying day... in fact it's a nightmare.
Gary
Adrian
Donald
Now Careers Managing Directors, Gary & Donald, are travelling 2,700 km's across India to raise vital funds for Birmingham Children's Hospital and Sydney Children's Hospital. Click on the link to read about their adventure and contribute to the cause: www.lostinspice.org
Birmingham Children's Hospital
BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1862 AND LOOKS AFTER CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS FROM ACROSS THE UK. OVER 240,000 PATIENTS VISIT EACH YEAR, OVER 100,000 PATIENTS VISIT FROM OUTSIDE BIRMINGHAM EACH YEAR, THERE ARE 344 BEDS ACROSS 22 WARDS, 61 PARENT AND FAMILY ACCOMMODATION ROOMS - THE LARGEST FACILITY IN EUROPE, EMPLOYS 3,330 STAFF. MENDING BROKEN HEARTS AT THE HEART INVESTIGATIONS UNIT:- Centre for excellence for complex heart conditions, In 2010 Birmingham Children’s Hospital became the first hospital in the UK to open a hybrid operating theatre for heart patients, placing them at the forefront of cardiac surgery in the UK. This was made possible by a fundraising campaign, 12,000 to 13,000 patients visit the Cardiology clinic each year, 10,000 to 12,000 patients visit the Unit for heart related tests, Largest Pediatric Cardiac Centre in Europe. HEART INVESTIGATIONS UNIT The unit deal with patients from birth to the age of 18, and treat both cardiac and non-cardiac patients, for example, heart murmurs, complex heart conditions and patients with pace makers but also are in charge of monitoring and tests for cancer patients whose chemotherapy treatments can damage the heart muscle, respiratory and neurological conditions as well as new born screening. WHY ARE WE FUNDRAISING FOR THEM? Unfortunately, the NHS is unable to fund all equipment but there are lots advances and new equipment which would mean that the unit would be able to function better and give their patient's better care. One piece of additional equipment could lead to an early diagnosis and save a child's life or make their treatment easier and this is where fundraising comes into play.
Sydney Children's Hospital
Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation exists to promote the prevention and treatment of illness and injury in children. Our core purpose is to provide significant financial assistance for the support of equipment, research and clinical services at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick. Our vision is to be world-class in our operations and a catalyst to inspiring better outcomes for sick and critically-ill children. Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick is one of Australia’s leading specialist medical centres for children, offering a safe and friendly healing environment for children from Sydney, rural and regional NSW, and beyond. Each year, our Hospital cares for more than 45,800 critically ill and injured children. On average 104 children a day come through the Emergency doors. Our award-winning, world class Hospital is a leader in its field and continues to work to improve the treatment of, and care for, this and future generations of sick children. As the principal fundraising body for the Hospital, the Foundation works with individuals, businesses and organisations in the community to support the Hospital.
Cool Earth
Cool Earth is the charity that works alongside indigenous villages to halt rainforest destruction. We know that saving the rainforest isn’t a new idea. Managing to do it is. Over the last 40 years, half the world’s rainforests have been destroyed. That’s why Cool Earth decided to go about things differently. We don’t create reserves or put up fences. We don’t buy land. Instead, we put indigenous people back in control of the world’s most endangered rainforest. These people have lived in the forest for countless generations. Their homes are now on the frontline of deforestation. They have the most to lose from deforestation. By building better incomes, better schools and better clinics, we give our partner villages the resources they need to keep their forest intact. Cool Earth is now working alongside 113 rainforest villages throughout the world. These partner villages are protecting over 500,000 acres of forest that lie directly in the path of chainsaws and bulldozers. The clever part is that this forest is forming a shield to make the neighbouring forest inaccessible to loggers – saving millions of acres of further forest. At least 90% of each donation to Cool Earth goes directly to our projects. With this support, Cool Earth can put in place the simple steps that change the fate of at-risk rainforest and the lives of our indigenous partners.
Now Careers
With over 20 year’s experience, Now Careers has an enviable reputation for delivering a personalised careers service to clients throughout the UK and Australia. Our main objective is to improve your overall business performance by recruiting talented employees on your behalf.
Maddison Group
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Magma Chartered Accountants
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P&R Morson
P&R Morson & Co Limited were established in 1993 to offer a ‘fresh’ approach to the ever increasing demands of the Mechanical & Electrical installation marketplace. The company, formed and owned by Paul Morris, now employs in excess of 60 team members whose ‘user friendly’ approach has helped to establish numerous long standing relationships with end clients and main contractors alike. P&R Morson are also extremely proud to run our own apprenticeship scheme where, to date, more than 75 apprentices have successfully completed their apprenticeship.
Now Education
Now Education specialises in assisting teachers to secure supply teaching jobs at primary and secondary schools in Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley and Sandwell