Meghalaya, India
Day 15 THE FINISH (22/4/12)- After a massive day yesterday we were determined to make the final 100km dash to the finish line. Our first challenge was to find a welder that was open on a Sunday. It was crucial that we did, as the rickshaw was pretty much in two pieces and the suspension mounting had snapped. After about half an hour of getting the run-around and watching jimbo try and explain what we needed by doing some creative impersonations of a guy welder, we finally found our man. A few dodgy tack welds later, we paid the man a bottle of sprite and the equivalent of $2. Both parties were happy.
We started our climb to Shillong not overly confident the welds would hold. Our engine has been so reliable the whole time but by the sound of it, she was on her last legs. We really do pity the poor team that gets our rickshaw next.
The road to Shillong was undergoing widening works, so not only were we dodging the usual potholes, trucks, busses, people, cars, dogs, cows, goats we now had to contend with falling boulders.
We see the finish line banner and limped over it.
We arrive to a sea of battered rickshaws and an aftermath of what looked to be a good party the previous night. We were greeted with a manly embrace from Matt the event coordinator and a warm Ganges Water (or Kingfisher lager as the locals know it. )
As our finishing time was put up on the board, we realized we were one of the last teams to arrive.
Although it seemed we missed a good night, we were assured there would be some more festivities in our honor.
We hit the bar and exchanged tails of adventure with other teams. There were broken bones, flipped rickshaws and cow collisions just to name a few.
As the band was setting up, we started tuning or air guitars.
A good night was had by all. ** some text is missing **
West Bengal, India
Day 10 and we are back on the road heading directly north. With no real goal in mind for tonight we are reluctant to leave the Taj but the rickshaw awaits. We power out of Calcutta With cracker picking every possible gap and a few that he creates himself in the traffic. Rather than stick to the dual lane freeway we go after the scenic route on national highway 34. It must be the worst national highway I have ever seen, a ** some text is missing **
West Bengal, India
Day 9 starts out very slowly. Having not done any exercise since hitting the road we decide to walk to a few nearby attractions. We make the short walk to visit the Victoria Memorial, but on the way we have our first experience with professional child beggars. The memorial ** some text is missing **
West Bengal, India
Day 8 sees us try and make a push to Kolkata (Culcuta), but rather than take the main highways, we decide to try the path less beaten and take some backroads. Before we can leave town, the roof rack breaks again, we find a welder and get it fixed. Take the back roads through some villages, which then give way to dirt roads with potholes the size of creators. Predictably, we break the roof rack again in a different spot, stumble across a village with a welder. 20mim later, some stinging hot chewing leaves, a crowd of 20 people and with some creative welding we are back on the "road". The road gets even worse and you guessed it, we break the roof rack for the 3rd time today! We decide to seek out the smoother highways again and come across the ultimate welder that provides some super reinforcing which has bomb proofed the roof rack. Back on the highway we have our first engine trouble. Doc pulls out the tools and is swapping spark plugs, pulling the carbie apart and basically dismantling the engine. During this doc took a squ ** some text is missing **
Odisha, India
Day 7 comes to a close with a further 380 done and us seeking out the sea side village of Chandipur for the night but with about the last 2 hours being night time driving we don't actually get to see much. On the way we make a planned stop off in Bhubaneswar to visit the zoo w ** some text is missing **
Odisha, India
Day 7 and we are pushing further up the costal highway into Orissa. We discovered that the roof rack has taken a beating the previous day and has split in half across the back but it will be right, so we continue to use it. The highway stops suddenly, and we are detouring through towns all over the place. We cross paths with both the "Goshtbusters" at a mehcanic who give us a tip for a place for breakfast and on the way back the "Tuks of Hazzard" at the same mechanic. Both teams tell us stories from other teams, apparently some Australian girls had their front sheen drop off while driving and flipped their rickshaw over. The are apparently fine and back on the road somewhere. Doc sports an opportunity to get some more credit on his Indian sim card, so spends 30min trying to figure out how while cracker and I go exploring and get the roof rack fixed. That one break has turned into 4 within 80km. Took the Indian blokes 15min to have it welded together and cracker and I were back waiting for Doc who was none the wiser. More to come as the day unfolds......
Odisha, India
Day 7 and we are pushing further up the costal highway into Orissa. We discovered that the roof rack has taken a beating the ** some text is missing **
Andhra Pradesh, India
Day 6 sees us put roughly another 350km of Brocken Tarmac behind the rickshaw as we wave goodbye to Kumar and his family and aim for Berhampur just over the border into the badlands of Orissa. We we originally hoping we might be able to head back into the mountains and cut inland to get away from the boredom of the highway as we aim for Varanasi on the Ganges River in the top centre of India. After doing some homework we discover that some Italian tourists had managed to get themselves kidnapped along the route we were hoping to take by the Maoist Communists. Since t ** some text is missing **
Andhra Pradesh, India
Day 4 and we have punched out roughly another 450km in the rickshaw. Made it to Rajahmundry further up the east coast. With about 12 hours on the road, we only ended up driving the last 30min in the dark.
We get up to find that the all girl team "2 posh 2 push" had ** some text is missing **
Andhra Pradesh, India
Decided on a slow start to the day giving us time to go for a walk to find some breakfast.
Puducherry has some strong French influences all over it, with it's pastry bakeries and the like, but is still very much in India. Checked out the Bay of Bengal for the first time before mounting up once again and heading north up the coast.
Left the "Team Chaos" boys behind but did hear that they spent the best part of a day with a mechanic trying to get their electrics fixed. During the convoy into Puducherry they managed some tail lights but had to strap a torch to the front of their rickshaw for a headlight. It's India, more lights than some of the trucks on the road.
Heard some horror stories about traffic in Chennai, so decided to skirt the edges. We have quickly figured out that if you drive like an Indian, everything will move for you. Causes the passengers some discomfort at times as who ever is driving is "creating" the gaps in the traffic.
Managed to put another 350+km behind us but the nighttime driving is an exper ** some text is missing **
