Shillong, Meghalaya, India

Well we made it with Chris driving us across the finish line at 10:10am yesterday coming in 23rd place. It was then left for Phil to drive us on a police escort parade around the cities streets along with 35 other teams who had by then crossed the finish line and around 70 bikers. It was one of the highlights of the trip having a clear city road while locals watched in amazement and it was all very civilised until a few teasm (including ourselves) turned it in to a race and it became a mass game of dodgems. We finished the parade at the cities football stadium where a local football team was waiting to take on a team of rickshaw runners. Heavy rain just before kick off made for a comical match with the rickshaw runners winning 3-2.

It was then time to hand back Sheila to Matt and we said our goodbyes before he drove her off into storage. Chris then went off with a few other teams for a wet shave whilst the rest of us got ready for the evenings finishing party. We set off into the country riding buses Indian style (which means we were on the roof) and it was obviously a low key event with a couple of beers and there were a few awards handed out. For some reason this morning there seems to be a few people nursing a hangover which is bizarre but we all having a relaxing day discussing our trip at the finish line as teams are still crossing it.

 

Chris & Phil

Guwahiti, Assam, India

Sheila had her first wash of the trip after we caught the end of a fantastic thunderstorm as we left this morning. I don't think she was impressed mind as she was screaming at us all day! We spent most of the day on slow bumpy roads or going down the wrong direction of a dual carriageway trying to find something like tarmac. So we haven't been able to reach top speed too often although that wasn't helped by Phil driving 30km with the handbrake on and the 200km of roadworks (I kid you not). We stopped off in a village for some chai and attempted a conversation with a gathering crowd which was fun but not sure we were talking about the same thiung. The good news is that we have started seeing signs for shillong and set up camp less than 60km away with the plan of a nice gentle ride to the finish line.

Bihar, India

How do we sum up today? Well it started with the brick workers arriving for their daily duties at 1am to our surprise and probably to theirs as well finding two men in a tent. We set off at 5am aiming for Purnia but were soon trying to make up time as it took nearly 2 hours to get through the Patna traffic. Then it all started to go wrong with our brakes starting to fail and Phil blaming that for the reason he ran over a kids bucket. We then proceeded to hunt down a mechanic to fix our brakes as we were currently driving without any, which was fun. 8 hours of labour and 7 mechanics later and we have finally (fingers crossed) got our brakes fixed so it's a hotel and room service instead of the tent tonight.

Bihar, India

After a morning boat ride on the Ganges and a stroll around we had to sadly leave Varanasi. We first decided to get Sheila checked over as there seems to be a number of small issues and she's not sounding her best so we stopped at the first mechanic for about an hours work costing 100 rupees (about £1.25p). We finally got on the road by 1pm and started heading towards Patna. Unfortunately we had to keep stopping due to numerous problems and also our top speed seems to have reduced to 40kph so we have pitched the tent some 50km away from Patna in what appears to be a place where they make bricks.@

Uttar Pradesh, India

We have lost count of the number of times we have had to stop today. We had a puncture after 10km and then had to travel over 100km with no brakes which was fun. We also picked up our 1st passenger today so Chris & Phil's tuk tuk taxi service is officially up ad running. Despite the delays we have still reached Varanasi which has to be one of the maddest places either of us have ever been too. Currently sat in a rooftop restaurant over looking the Ganges with a couple of cold ones sharing some tales with fellow rickshaw runners

Madhya Pradesh, India

What a frustrating day. After going in the tiger reserve we were looking forward to heading back on the open road but in fact we couldn't even get out the hotel car park. With the exhaust already on the back seat it soon came apparent that our rear wheel bearings had also gone. So Sheila spent most of the day up on bricks whilst waiting for a mechanic to come from 30km away. He finally turned up at 7pm and she is now fixed as well as having 2 new tyres. Now sat having a cold beer with the guys from Desert deserters comparing our journey so far.

Why are we doing this? Because it's so much fun

What a day what a day. Started bright and early as was the plan but we were scuppered by a combination of a fuel blockage and typically abysmal Indian roads. We still managed to do over 400km mainly thanks 150km of good quality unpotholed roads but with our destination in sight our exhaust fell off. This resulted in us travelling through a tiger reserve at 8kph sounding like a bunch of hells angels. One local flagged us down to warn us of a tiger in the bushes, we thought he said our tyre was flat and we went to have a look much to his horror. Your auto is open he screamed. Off to see some tigers in the wild tomorrow but slightly disappointed we can't do so on an elephant as planned.

Maharashtra, India

We had an early night yesterday with room service and home alone 2 so we could get on the road early today for the 475km to Nagpur. Unfortunately not everything went to plan with it taking us an hour to navigate our way out of Hyderabad & then shortly after we broke down with fuel pump issues. We finally got on the open road by 10am. Thankfully the roads have been fantastic and we are managed 502km and have currently set up camp in a field somewhere north of Nagpur. We did get a little lost heading through Nagpur but 4 kind policeman kindly gave us an escort to the right road and before we left they insisted on a photo for their troubles.