Stroke of luck (ish)
So with our trigger-happy bowels and a very late start, we only made it a third of the way to Jodhpur. Fully expecting to end up in some thoroughly dodgy roadside lodging again, we were pleasantly surprised to stumble across a beautiful old ranch / hotel in the middle of the desert.
Upon arrival we were greeted by a friendly owner and a lovely dog that accompanied us on a sunset stroll of the surrounding hills. So far, so good. We really thought this was going to be a highlight of the whole trip. And then...
We got back from our stroll and ordered up some food. We were told it would take an hour (which was absolutely fine, we had some pakora which arrived quickly), but three hours, countless "two minutes, two minutes" and innumerable head wobbles later, no food materialised and we fell out with the owner who had the audacity to take a phone call and fuck off while we were talking to him.
We went to bed hungry and really quite pissed off.
Hitting the dry state with a (un)healthy supply of whiskey.
Having spent most of the last three days in the middle of nowhere we decided to abort our plan to go around the dry state of Gujarat. After a remarkably smooth 11 hour journey covering the best part of 400km, we have checked in to the Hampton in Vadodara for a bit of well deserved luxury.
Hopefully with a similar run tomorrow we can get back to the beer, but in the mean time we have a plentiful supply of whiskey.
Randomly saw team Thunder from Down Under on some unfinished road off the the highway checking out a lake. First other team in a couple of days!
No bits fell off today (that we know of), but then we are getting low on bits that can fall off.
No idea where we are.
Once again in the middle of nowhere and 100km short of our destination. After too much driving in the dark we finally found lodging just off the highway.
The room is grim to say the least but despite the language barrier the service has been impeccable. Check in was much smoother than the Holiday Inn in Pune yesterday. We had to randomly point at things on the Hindi menu but what arrived was great and there's a steady flow of cold Kingfisher.
We were off to a shakey start this morning when the guts of our tuk started falling out of her back like a prolapsing rectum. Luckily about 50 selfies later she was fixed.
Once back on the road again, we started to make good progress until darkness fell and we did this at a level crossing:
All in all the day has redeemed itself and we made reasonable progress, all things considered.
Half way. So much vomit.
Brutal 14 hour day today. Covered 400km, mostly in the afternoon as tuk broke down in the morning.
Had to do almost all of the driving myself as Lee was busy projectile vomiting in the back. I do hope he didn't cover anybody - unless it was caught on film. He also shat himself in a bush. The rickshaw now stinks.
Now roughly half way to the finish line with 6 days to go.
First post. First shithole.
Having spent too much time jumping in the sea along the coast of Goa, we have arrived in our first shithole 100km short of our intended destination and in the middle of buttfuck nowhere.
The good news is that almost everyone here is lovely and we've just had a skinful in a local boozer. Bad news is the hotel owner is a dick, the room stinks and we couldn't find anywhere for a proper meal.
Our tuk also needs some love.
Day 6
After 3 days chilling in Palolem - having terrorised the locals with a street race and a lot of off-roading - we made a short 80-90km journey up to Vagator in north Goa.
Another off-road detour to a stunning little beach where we jumped in the sea near Cabo de Rama:
We rolled our tuk on to some rocks just before arriving at the hotel and then headed straight to a cool beach club where we met up with with 5 or 6 other teams for drinks and some fantastic food.
Day 3
First team to the pit stop location in Palolem, arrived by midday and straight on the beer.
Day 2
Kozhikode to Kundapur
Day 1
Fort Kochi to Kozhikode
Start
Start line - crashed in to another team before we even crossed it.
