Finish Line!

Finish Line Party! Saturday we bummed around Shillong and went to the epic finish line party. Sunday we travelled to Guwahati to sightsee and buy custom made suits. Monday we saw rhinoceros and water buffalo in a great nature reserve. Tuesday we lost Mike and Wednesday we lost India. Goodbye old gal, we miss you already. Can't wait to come back.   Here's the blog Matt, the man in charge, has put together. Good stuff

Driving Day 13

Driving Day 13, Friday April 20. Shillong. Expecting the roads to continue to resemble the surface of the moon, we woke up early the next morning and briefly debated getting another chicken for breakfast while loading the spaceshaw.  After deciding it would be bad form to eat all of the town's livestock, we said our goodbyes to our hotel family with Mike starting us off for the day.  Our goal was to make the northern town of Guwahati by nightfall some 400 kms away, and then mount a final attack on Shillong the following day.  After the first two hours, rubbly roads improved to smooth 1km sections of highway separated by short sections of broken pavement, no doubt put there for our protection as a means of slowing down traffic.  As confused as we were by the Indian Department of Transportation's construction strategy, we were grateful to be picking up speed.  Still tired from the late drive and monsoon the night before, Mike and Fred switched in the early morning with Fred making good speed for the next 100kms.  Having driven all morning, the fuelshaw was starting to get thirsty so we kept our eyes peeled for the next petrol station.  Fortunately, we happened to be driving through the large town of Assam, so getting our little drinkshaw a sip should not have been a problem.  Unfortunately, the entire town was on strike, with every pump closed - a fact we suspected after getting more confused stares than usual at the three petrol stations we visited and they had confirmed when we were stopped by an officious looking officer at the next police checkpoint.  The good officer informed us that he would be giving us an escort through the rest of town, and after pilling five more police We rattled into Guwahati as the sun was getting low. It was team meeting time. 65km farther to the finish line or get some much needed sleep? We chose beer and party. Will and Mike shared the drive up the mountainside and our exhausted rickshaw finally wheezed across the line at 8:20pm in total darkness. Worn out and elated, we grabbed beers with the teams that arrived earlier and tried to get a room. Apparently the team before us got the last one. We stayed on the manager's office floor behind the front desk on pull out matresses. Classy, gentlemen. Classy. Daily stats: Who cares, we're done!

Driving Day 12

Driving Day 12: Thursday April 19. Getting out of Dodge. Hashimara. We woke up at 3:30am for a 4am taxi to Tiger Hill. It is the highest peak in the Darjeeling area and the Himalayas light up in succession followed by Darjeeling itself. Fortunately we got to see the third highest mountain in the world, Kanchenjunga, light up in a pale pink morning glow. Unfortunately the cloud bank was too high to see Everest. Despite chatty onlookers and children (everywhere) it was a meditative delight. A featureless cloud bank below us gave way, releasing the town from it's grip in finger-like strips to reveal a lush hillside of tea, town and jungle. As we descended our driver took us to an ancient Buddhist monastery and a war memorial with breathtaking views. Finally we saw Everest just peeking above the cloud deck as they retreated. A quick spot of breakfast and we were rolling by 9am. We can't imagine anyone being happy to leave that magical place, but it served us a double dose of sadness knowing we would have to descend the mountain we fought so hard to climb.  The trip down was as much an exercise in patience as it was on our ascent. Surprisingly effective brakes saved our bacon as Fred kept us out of trouble and off the cliffs. Engine braking wasn't an effective tool so we had to rely on our poor little drum brakes all the way down. Descent complete, we hit the worst roads we had seen to that point. We fought tooth and nail for every mile, finally getting caught in a rain shower. It kept getting worse, so we stopped under a gas station awning. As the actual storm rolled in we realized this was no shower. Gale force winds threw debris into the wetshaw and the wetshaw into a parked truck. Trees and power lines snapped like twigs and left the roads a sloppy mess. As night descended we fought on to grab a hotel for the night. In darkness we came upon a clean albeit powerless establishment and took station for the night. The family was incredibly accommodating and asked if we wanted dinner. Naturally we were famished and agreed. They took us to the roof where we watched a man deliver a chicken for us to consume. And kill it. And dress it. With remarkable efficiency, our chicken was ready for the skillet in 5 minutes. Unsurprisingly, she was delicious. The family had us upstairs to hang out in the kitchen, take photos and just exist as part of their family and their world. The experience was moving. Daily stats: 300km, 11hrs

Driving Day 11

Driving Day 11. Wednesday April 18. Darjeeling We finally hit some decent roads, an actual divided highway and didn't hit anything else. As a result, we made good time to the base of the Himalayas. The plains leading north were remarkably flat, especially considering they form the "foothills" of the mountains. There were no foothills. We stopped and took photographs in a tea plantation. Wading through slightly fragrant waist-deep plants, we got some great shots of the top half of the teashaw. Continuing north, every square inch of available land became dedicated to tea production. It was a continuous hedge to the horizon with sporadic trees diffusing the light above like a big green bed with a side light. Then it got interesting. From 300ft to over 8,000ft in a rickshaw was a lesson in patience, weight distribution and deliberate gear changes. Shocked, I'm sure, but these mountains are huge. The taxis to get to Darjeeling are massive SUVs with big diesel engines and they were flying past on unthinkable grades as we struggled to keep 10kmph. Understandably, the locals were laughing and waving at us on our climb. Everybody encouraged us to the top as we went. Go, slowshaw, go! Every few bends up the mountainside, Mike and Fred had to hop out so the poor machine could make the grades without dying. They ran alongside until it flattened out before hopping back in. At least the hillclimb road was in good repair. The same cannot be said about the road that continued north from the first mountaintop town. Badly pockmarked with entire sections missing, the road got challenging. We were still climbing, albeit more slowly, and it was getting dark fast. Suddenly, Darjeeling emerged around a sharp bend. There it was, a town larger than expected clinging to life on an impossibly steep mountain; just a mess of uncomprehendable lights and streets. We stumbled upon our hotel around 7, and let our amazing (if foolhardy) accomplishment sink in over a fantastic dinner. Perched in a restaurant in our personal verdant mountainside wonderland, we sipped local Darjeeling tea and ate perfect fried dumplings. Afterward we met a couple of the half dozen teams for a drink and strategy to tackling Thursday.  Daily stats: 350km, 11hrs

Driving Day 10

Driving Day 10; Tuesday April 17. Malda So, Calcutta, huh? We went across all of the bridges over the Ganges and they were all insane. People everywhere, smelly river below and somehow it was calmer and much more orchestrated than we ever expected. Neat scenery in town enthralled us as we drove through bazaars and some relative slums while we navigated back to real roads. "Real roads" found, they soon turned to approximate the surface of Mars. The rover had better terrain to navigate. In the middle of our increasingly long day, Mike hit a girl on a bike. Not really, she hit us and is fine. Just scared. The roads then turned to the approximate the surface of Mars' bad roads, meaning that it sort of just disappeared for a while. 360 hard fought kilometers later we were in bed happy to just have all of our fillings attached. The locals promised that the roads would improve as we headed north. They better. Daily stats: 360km, 13hr

Driving Day 8-9

Driving Day 8, Sunday April 15. Calcutta was the goal from the onset, we were drawn to see the city so widely storied. 250km was the distance to make and we were optimistic. Unfortunately, the Aussies' brokeshaw wasn't having it. We came across them early and tried to help. Fixes, checks, work and 6 stops later, we decided it was time for professional help. We left them to find a mechanic and pressed on for Calcutta. Bizarrely, the traffic was unexciting and we made it easily. We decided to stay at the Taj Bengal and took station by the pool for gin and tonics and relaxation. The next week headed north promised to be much more difficult. Pool time satisfied, we had a nice dinner and met the other two teams staying at the Taj for drinks. Somehow one night at a five-star hotel turned into two and we worked strategy for seeing the city over a nightcap. Or two.. Upon waking on Monday, we did breakfast with our Australian compatriots then set off walking to see the Victoria memorial gardens. Quickly we realized we'd die in the heat from walking ten miles and got the rickshaws to tour in. We saw some churches, old English squares and various breathtaking sights before we turned our sights on Mother House. Unfortunately it was closed but the sisters at the orphanage down the street let us come in and tour and see her classroom as well as meet some of the kids. It was a very inspiring afternoon, especially after finding out that they do not give tours. Soon after, we met a reporter back at the Taj for interviews and photographs of the three teams. Look for it in the India Telegraph! We told our stories of adventure and charity and then reconvened at the pool to get some more pre-happy hour rest time. It turns out the Calcutta nightlife is confusing and loud. All for the best, as we had an early Tuesday to look forward to if we were going to make Darjeeling. Goodnight, Calcutta.

Driving Day 7

Driving Day 7: Saturday April 14. Balasore.

So yesterday really was Friday the 13th. We slept well and grabbed some coffee and food before going out the fill up the packshaw. During our preflight checks we were delighted to see that we weren't leaking oil today. Naturally that meant something was wrong; we noticed that a bolt was missing from the sump. Fearing that we drove all day without oil, we made a frantic attempt to find a replacement bolt on the rest of the rig. One of the secondary headlight mounts was close enough so we popped it in and beat feet to the gas station. Once there, it wouldn't take more oil from the top so we tried the sump directly. Oddly enough, it wasn't really low on oil at all. Kudos sturdyshaw. We wrapped the bolt in high temperature tape and made it snug in the sump hole. It wasn't quite as gross as it sounds. To prevent future issues, Fred affixed a protector spirit to our rear bumper. Tuk Nasty "fixed," it was time for temple viewing. Will dropped Fred and Mike off to inspect the largest of the temples in the complex and took the tourshaw to find the rest. Needless to say, they were stunning. Temples to gods, the devil and a central bathing and ceremonial pond made for some dramatic scenes. Mike took over to drive as Will navigated us out of the city and up to a nature reserve to the north. As we entered the city of Cuttack, a nice elderly lady asked for a ride across town. It was our first fare! Except there was no way we would let her pay if she wanted. Safely delivered, we continued north. There better be elephants. There were no elephants. we drove across beautiful savannah and over a monstrous bridge, but our 100km detour came up bust. Thankfully it was worth it. Vibrant, helpful(ish) locals and stunning scenery made up for a decided lack of pachyderms. By the time we made it back to the highway, it was decided that Balasore would be our stop for the night. It would put us within striking distance of Calcutta and we would get there just after dark. Shortly after joining the highway we passed the Vikings, they were elated that they could hit 45kph today. A vast improvement over 40, they assured us. We gave them biscuits and bananas and sent them on their way. Next were the Aussies. They mistakenly named their tuk tuk and it immediately started breaking down after. Tsk tsk, mates. We fooled around with it for a while and then decided it wasn't getting good ignition. New spark plug installed, the situation improved but wasn't fixed. We made a caravan to Balasore and they went to a mechanic to see what they could do. Balasore achieved, we bedded down at the first hotel we came to and went for dinner. It was kind of like old western movie towns where every storefront is on one strip and the taller buildings have awkward balconies. It certainly wasn't the Taj, but it filled a need. Daily stats mostly irrelevant due to the tourism and detour.  280km? 10hr.

Driving Day 6

Driving Day 6: Friday April 13. Bhubaneswar.

After a quick breakfast with our Aussie friends we tried t figure out why they have no brakes. Hydraulics looked good and the lines were in good shape. We figured their master cylinder piston lost its rubber seal. Or never ad one. Since we couldn't help either way, we sent them on their way and went to photograph the submarine. It is amazing it ever worked. This particular sub was used when India elped Bangladesh win independence from Pakistan, then it was East Pakistan. History, get into it. Since ten it has been patched and welded to an inch of its life.

Our admittedly ambitious goal was Bhubaneswar, about 450km north, so we didn't wait around to wax poetic about Indo-Soviet relations. Traffic was thick heading out of Vizag but soon cleared. Around 1PM we came across the Danish team The Vikings on the hard shoulder. They couldn't get their slowshaw above 40kph without it losing power and overheating. We chatted and changed drivers, Fred taking over for Will, and wished them luck. They're going to need it. Wth an impending threat of rain, Fred worked smartly north, only 800km from Calcutta! Fortunately the rain held off for Fred, but after a quick fill-up and body swap for Mike we were in the middle of a torrential downpour. Mike commented that it wasn't all the bad up front but Fred and Will were soaked through their rain jackets. Shortly thereafter we hit a state border and 3mi of trucks waiting to go through. It must take them days. A quick spot of night driving and we reached our goal. Good night, exhausted travellers! Shillong Dreaming...

Daily stats:

425km, 11hrs

 

Also, I updated our route on the map to the left! Check it out!