Day 2- after a night in Thrissur and a tasty Chinese (recommended after spotting naan 0210) we spent two incredible days exploring the blue mountains passing through: The Silent Valley and many tiny towns. We had some minor mechanical set backs along route which eventually resulted in us pushing our rickshaw 12km through national parks. Eventful to say the least.
We stopped for the night in Agali where there was a wonderful mechanic who helped us on our way.
Day 3- An early 5am start which was totally worth it. Words can not describe how beautiful our views were today. We climbed to a whooping 2200m in our Tuk- Penelope the peacock did us proud! While crossing the boarder we encountered friendly police officers who warned us of the dangers of continuing along our path in rickshaws. They told us to watch out for wild animals including elephants, tigers and money's and also flooding roads. We decided to persevere and headed for Ooty. The colourful towns and tea fields were unreal- What a day!!
Day 4- From Ooty we headed for Tumkuru. With another early start under our belt we were able to enjoy the open road, down hill driving passing a grand total of 3 cars. More outstanding views back across the blue mountains and the rain forests! BLOWN AWAY! We stopped for lunch in Mysur and luckily caught the palace parade which included 8 beautifully dressed up elephants and lots of festival music! We were back on the road minutes before a motor bike drove straight into the side of us. Penelope and all 3 of us were left unscathed apart from a small foot cut. The driver of the motor cycle however, was not wearing a helmet and was flung across the road into on coming traffic. The police were on scene immediately and as most of you are probably familiar with by now, our tuk was surrounded in seconds. through some kind of miracle he survived. We had to go to the police station to fill in a report and then finally we were back on the road. After some electrical issues caused by rain and the target being a little ambitious we decided to push on anyway, experiencing night driving for the first time. Crazy really considering we had no horn nor lights.
Day 5- As we felt we needed to give Penelope a slight rest from hills we decided to take the highway to Hampi. We had no complications today, however, our fellow teams clutch broke so we ended up playing football on the side of the highway while, yet another, wonderful mechanic came to the rescue. We made it to Hampi by 7pm and went to an AMAZING restaurant- Mango Tree. Morning temple tour coming up, can't wait!! (Sorry for the essay)
