So the safari yesterday was a tad underwhelming - a mongoose, giant squirrel, and some deer were not quite the same as the Tigers and elephants we were expecting. Though of course on our drive out of the region we saw some elephants alongside the road!
We were headed for Ooty but the rickshaws were now tired of mountains and we changed course back towards the coast. A thunderstorm and very steep slopes downhill delayed us further and the darkness of the night forced us to find a small hotel in a town called Arambram.
After some more rickshaw repairs were needed this morning (the hotel proprietor managed to summon a mechanic at 8am) we decided that instead of our intended stop along the coast for a riverboat tour, we'd just go straight to Kochi - and after about 100km and a ferry ride, here we are! Enjoying the historic town and hotel swimming pool tonight then crossing the finish line tomorrow!
Some beautiful driving inland through mountains and jungle today, and slightly scary night driving when we fell behind schedule, but made it to the national park and booked for 6am safari tomorrow! Then away to Ooty or somewhere nearby. Just a few days to go!
Made it some ways down the coast! Hit by a little rain yesterday which made driving interesting but it was also pretty refreshing. Today we're off towards Nagarhole National Park, hopefully in time for a 6am safari tomorrow then Ooty the day after.
It was a slow drive through smaller roads today (~3 hours to cover 80km!) but after stopping for ice cream we made it to Palolem Beach! This is more like it
Rickshaws were not designed to go up and down mountains. So naturally, we spent the last two days driving up and down mountains. The "good enough" spark plug thread tape melted yesterday and it blew up again - fortunately some locals were quite helpful in getting us to a mechanic. Got ourselves fixed up and rejoined the convoy early this morning. We're all in Goa now; only planning to drive 80km tomorrow after getting the rickshaws serviced, then going to enjoy some more beach time! :)
Drove 321km today! Lots of highway but also some fun going through smaller farm roads. Met lots of curious locals and shared smiles. Bit of a rest now then on towards Goa tomorrow!
Pretty good day! Saw some old ruins in Champaner then drove down to the Statue of Unity, the tallest statue in the world, near Nandod. It was colossal!
We blew a spark plug on the way. Had a spare on hand which worked but most of the socket threads were gone. Got some thread tape in a nearby town and made an unplanned journey back west towards the nearest big city (Surat) to have it looked at properly by a mechanic. Perhaps these will be famous last words but we only made it to the outskirts of Surat, and don't fancy driving in a big city, so we've decided the tape will be "good enough" for the rest of the trip. Tomorrow we're planning to go south about 300km towards either Sangamner or Murbad.
Looking forward to relaxing a bit once we reach Goa in a few days! Also bit the bullet and tried Indian McDonald's tonight. Not bad!
We're alive! The last ~30 hours have been interesting! After some repairs yesterday morning we finally departed Udaipur in the afternoon, but one of the vehicles in our convoy broke down several times along the way and finally gave up altogether about 30km out of the city. We spent a couple hours trying to fix it to no avail and were looking into acquiring rope from some locals for towing, but started to run out of daylight and got hit by a wind storm. We left the tuk at a petrol station and walked up the road to a very empty hotel - feels like we were the first guests there in months!
The hotel manager tried to have the broken tuk repaired but in the end we decided to carry on without it. Patrick plans to arrange a truck to transport it to Kochi. The rest of us made up quite well for lost time and crossed the state border into Gujarat. We *almost* reached our intended destination for today (the 8th century city of Champaner) - currently in a hotel about 8km away and planning some actual relaxing sightseeing tomorrow after the last few days of excitement!
Broken down for a couple hours but eventually managed to get shoddy clutch R-clip and plastic doohickey (technical term) replaced. Made it to Udaipur! Not sure where we're headed tomorrow. Vaguely south.
By some great divine miracle - we all survived day one! Shortly departing Jodhpur for our next stop, Udaipur.
