In leaving Kolhapur, we drove up to the waters edge of Rankala Lake, observing the local activity and water buffalo moving swiftly past.
A local man caught our attention asking for a lift down the street. Before we knew it, he was seated up front and directing us where to go.
Moving on, we then finally ventured towards the coast making it down to Anjuna, Goa by mid-afternoon on day 9. We were rewarded by the stunning sunset over the Arabian Sea.
En-route, we ran into a team that had their shaw on a truck overnight to try and catch up to the rest. Apparently they were caught up at a wedding of some sort holding them back.
Apart from a couple of roadwork diversions and hitting a few holes in the road with zero shock absorption, the drive once again did not disappoint. Must admit our shaw took some punishment on the roads, but handled well. Will need to give some TLC over the next few days.
We were also politely reminded with wreckage alongside the road how dangerous they can be.
Some of the picturesque mountain views en-route.
Upon arriving in to Goa, we finally caught up to some of the other teams and were able to catch up a bit. Ended off with a much needed relax sesh chilling out next to the wave break, thinking where to next?
We have learned to keep our route simple...well simply put stay off the main roads. We took the mountain route again and wow it was breathtakingly rewarding. Through all the twists and turns, our shaw pushed through like a champ.
A few km outside Chouk, we happened to find the die hard aeroplane which another team had posted about before. Random find. Needless to say we had to go and take our shot with it too.
Turning off from the Expressway, our selected route had plenty diversions for roadworks, making it a strenuous morning drive to say the least, but it all worked out fine.
Stopping for some water and snacks we made a new friend who wouldn't let us go.
The route saw us take on the pass up through to Mahabaleshwar.
We eventually powered through and after 11 or so hours on the road, Day 8 saw us clock 385km; our most in a single day and certainly not easy ones. This takes us up to 2,100km a milestone in itself.
What started off as a drive down the expressway through towards Mumbai for day 7 with mountains only in the distance, soon turned out into our most challenging road yet or lack of road as we ventured off the beaten track towards the base of Kalavantin Durg.
We had some fun 3x2'n the Mystery Machine up onto some rock faces, places you wouldn't think a shaw could go. Forget a rock hopping cruiser, use a shaw instead.
Reaching there late afternoonish, we still wanted to climb the peak, but somehow we found ourselves driving onto the villages local cricket pitch and who could resist playing a bit of bat and ball. Word quickly spread and we were soon joined by the locals playing until dark and could not see the ball any longer.
This was probably not the smartest of moments, since we were in the middle of nowhere and needed to find our way out and also a place to turn in for the night. All worked out well in the end.
Back roads were the order for day 6, keeping it rural all the way. Found team "Kicked in the face by a monkey" heading in the same direction and flagged them down to hang for a lil while and take a photo before going our separate ways. Awesome meeting briefly.
Moving on from there, seeing some large pipes nearby, we had a bit of fun wondering how big a pipe would need to be to fit our ride through it. 2m Dia. proved to be the answer to and we found just the right pipe. With millimeters to spare we managed to get the Mystery Machine up and into the pipe. Challenge successful.
Driving on through the Purna wildlife sanctuary, it had many twists and steep sections, but our beast managed to make it over the pass, rewarding us with some stunning sites. Again enjoying some local sugar cane juice en-route.
All the stops along the way and visiting the stunning view points from Saputara came with a price, including the couple of stops by locals and coppers to get their pic taken with us and the tuk, meant that we lost daylight fairly quickly and soon found ourselves navigating narrow rural roads in the dark for the best of 2 hours to reach our end point for the day, Nashik. 310km squeaked in for the day and up to 1,500km for the trip.
Leaving the Statue of Unity late afternoon (18 Apr) we still had about 2 hours of daylight left and therefore decided to push onwards and eventually made it all the way to Ankleshwar and turned in for the night.
Leaving the Statue of Unity, we still had about 2 hours of daylight left and therefore decided to push onwards, eventually making it to Ankleshwar.
Leaving early before breakfast on day 5 (18 Apr) we conquered some serious mileage, covering about 380km. Grabbed a quick light bite alongside the road, again super tastey and made it all the way through to the Statue of Unity, the World's largest. Pretty impressive.
Following the breakdown, we recovered well by the end of Day 4 to add an extra 170 clicks to the clock all the way to Banswara. Our Tuk made it officially past 30,000km thanks to all the drivers that have gone before us, we've added only about 820km.
Had some fun taking the shaw up onto an unfinished bridge and getting stuck in the process. Talk about making it more difficult for oneself.
We were so overjoyed from moving forward again, that we jumped and danced in the streets along with the locals.
With a couple of stops in between, we enjoyed some freshly squeezed sugar cane juice alongside the road.
Shortly before dark and trying to find a place to overnight, we met Arvind who invited us into his home for some chai and introduced us to his family. Word in the neighbourhood spread quickly and we were soon joined by his friends and extended family.
All in all today reminded us of the helpful and kind nature within humanity itself. Truly special and unexpected.
45km into day 4 and the Mystery Machine had it's 1st breakdown. A quality 700km completed up to this point. Staring at each other almost helplessly, we figured out that the carburetor was clogged and needed to be opened up and cleaned. Having had a brief mechanical session prelaunch, we knew it was best to get local expertise to help. That is when mechanic Raju arrived on the scene by chance and like a doctor with surgical precision took it all apart, cleaned it out and put it back together. What a legend. Wouldn't accept anything in return other than taking his boss picture with us. Seriously taken aback by his kind helpful nature, which without we would have been stranded next to the road.
A lil late with the Day 3 update from yesterday. Must've been due to the meet up at Natural View Restaurant yesterday after the storm with the other teams. Our back seat was made home by a watchful K9 friend taking shelter. We made it through to Udaipur to see the island palaces, taking the road lesser travelled, a mountain pass between Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur with sites of impressive forts and sacred temples.
