the time we hitched another ride on the back of another lorry
a crazy few days and we're knackered!
We made little progress once our baby had broken down and ended up staying in Sanchore an extra night whilst our mechanic got the parts he needed to make her work, but with a lot of hoping and praying, Shawly Knot was back on the road!
But this meant we were a full day and a half behind the other teams so our new plan was to rag it to Deesa and get an overnight lorry to Surat.
Our journey to Deesa was eventful. We got stopped by the police and this is the ID that got us past...
As usual, with a little help from the locals..
Tom looks like the picture, right?
We made it to Deesa on our newly fixed rickshaw and waited eagerly at a premeditated meeting point for our lorry to arrive to pick us up. 9pm turned into 10pm, 10pm turned into 11pm...
We were finally loading our Little One onto the lorry at 1am, with the help of several Indian men.
The journey overnight from Deesa to Surat in the lorry was maybe the worst night of my life. Indian roads are not smooth and Indian drivers do not drive carefully! But we got to Surat in one piece with a story or two to tell.
We were unloaded onto the highway and started our journey to Daman with 0 hours sleep, but we met a couple of other teams along the way to help us through...
And finally we were on the coast! Although the beach wasn't everything we'd expected...
What a few days. Next stop; Goa!
Matt, Rosie and Tom
xxxx
the time we averaged 0km a day
No progress yesterday after breaking down the day before. Had a mechanic working on Her for 5 hours and no luck.
Stuck in the same hotel waiting for some other guy to go get parts.
No idea when we're going to get out of this place!
Spirits dropping. We want to get back on the road.
Hopefully some progress today...
xxxx
the time we hitched a ride on the back of a lorry.
What a first day.
We left Jaisalmer surrounded by all the other teams and tuktuks and headed south for Barmer.
Our little machine was going faster than we expected; a whole 40km/hour so we thought we'd make it there in no time, which we did after stopping for a drink on the side of the road.
We hadn't eaten until we got to Barmer so the three of us were very hangry and ready to sit down with a cold Kingfisher!
BUT then came our first breakdown. Completely our own fault to be fair...we hadn't been smart enough to pick up oil before heading out on the road so we ran out of fuel. We stopped in the middle of a busy road and immediately, a swarm of people surrounded our tuktuk wanting to lend a hand.
We flagged down a fellow rickshaw run team who lent us some oil and then we were on our way once again - HUGE shoutout to the team with the blue tiger on their machine, so sorry we didn't catch your names but you saved us!!
Once we sat down, had a beer and looked at the map. We thought we'd be able to make it to the next big town, Sanchore, where we heard lots of the other teams where headed.
We got cocky and our little baby didn't like it. Just as the sun was disappearing, she stopped working.
Again, we had a swarm of locals come to our aid and before we knew it Tom and Matt were helping four other men lift our tuktuk onto the back of a lorry...
They gave us a lift into Sanchore (30km), and as we pulled up to our hotel we saw a parade of other rickshaws waiting in the car park. A heavenly sight after our little ordeal!
Currently sat waiting for our tuktuk to be fixed so we can get back on the road
the time we met our rickshaw
Hello you lovely lot!
The last couple of days have been a bit mad. Yesterday we got introduced to our beautiful rickshaw (yet to decide on a name), a 7 horse powered machine which will take us the distance from Jaisalmer to kochi. The paint job was a complete dream (thanks to me and 0 input from the boys)
The rickshaw is harder to drive than originally thought, and it turns out I am the best driver of the three of us! Although only after a couple of beers...
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We've learnt a lot from being here so far..
1. Tom is not the third wheel. I am.
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2. Beer in India is not as cheap as everyone thinks.
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3. India is bloody awesome.
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Massive love as usual.
Rosie, Matthew and Tom xoxox
the time we got a 19 hour train to Jaisalmer
There isn't a great deal to say about today, other than we spent 19 hours on a train.
Our train was at 4.40 this morning so the obvious decision was not to sleep and stay awake until our driver was to pick us up at 0300. Tom wasn't originally on board with the plan, but a game of bullshit involving vodka persuaded him otherwise...a quiet night in before our train journey turned into handstand press ups and veg thali.
When we went downstairs to meet our driver, it turns out he had waited outside the hotel and slept in his car overnight.
Before we came we decided against getting the rabies vaccine and said we'd stay away from stray animals...day two? Meet tom's new friend.
We got to Old Delhi station 2 hours before our train was due to depart, the drinking and staying up proved a little too much for the boys who fell asleep as soon as we found a spare piece of floor.
Finding our seats on the train was a challenge, but when we found them it was comfy enough and we had a four bed cabin thing to ourselves.
Uno and bullshit kept us entertained throughout the journey and we eventually made it to Jaisalmer.
Matt struggled with the concept of shitting in a hole and somehow managed to get crap on his thumb but I think it's something we're going to need to get used to!
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A quick tuktuk ride has bought us to Ganesh Guest House which is where I'm writing this post from.
But no worries, we've found beer even at midnight in the middle of a fort in the desert in the region bordering Pakistan.
Thanks again for your continued support.
All our love,
Matthew, Rosie and Tom
xxxx
the time our plan didn't go according to plan
Hello all,
We arrived safe and sound into New Delhi last night and stayed in a Holiday Inn next to the airport. Our train tickets were booked for the next day from Delhi to Jaisalmer on an overnight train so our plan was to stick it out in the hotel, get the metro, and hit up the 5.35 train from New Delhi railway station... sounds easy?
The part at the hotel was simple; lazing around the pool until checkout time, drinking beer and catching rays.
It's a hard life!
We got to the station via the metro and were immediately turned away to go to the DTTDC (yep, no idea either) to get our tickets for the overnight train. A tuktuk ride bought us to an office where we were told there was 0 chance of us getting on that train...not ideal.
We've discovered in India that offices/bars/restaurants are full of people. Just people. Who knows who actually works there...the guy helping us sorted us out with another train tomorrow morning. So the plan for tonight? Stay in New Delhi, get the train in the morning to Jaisalmer
the time when we got boris bikes to paddington and started our journey to india
The boris bike journey to Paddington only made me realise how unfit I am and how the rickshaw run will probably not change that fact...
We arrived 5 hours before our flight time, arranged by the ever punctual, ex military Matthew who insisted we have 'plenty of time' and have a beer of two before our flight.
"A beer or two" slowly turned into 4 beers and 2 jagerbombs each, swiftly followed by a full English breakfast. Probably the last meal that won't give us the runs for at least 2 weeks.
Nearly missed our flight but I filmed every minute - video to come. Hahahaha.
Thanks in advance for the sponsors and for everyone for following us and supporting us on our little adventure. The charities we're supporting are so close to our hearts and we are so proud of what we've raised so far ❤️
We'll check in again when we've arrived in India. Massive love to everyone.
Matthew, Tom and Rosie xxxx
that time we had one week left to get our shit together
...just out of interest.
