Victory!!

So we have made it to the far eastern corner of India and the misty hill station of Shillong, after 2 weeks of pretty continious drivinwith more then one near death experience and more crazy moments than we can rememeber. Here is a quick day by day update since the last update.

Day 8 (On the road again) 

 After a day off in Puri we set out early doors to get to baripadur and th nearby national park and tiger reserv. Leaving Puri we had our first encounter with early mornng mist that reduced the visabilty to about three meters and was not a nice experience especially when you are completely exposed to the freezing cold and trucks emerging from the mist. However this gave us time to perfect the "spotter" driving techniques of having both people in the back with their head stuck out the side shouting updates to the driver. The day was good though with a fairly easy drive (10hours) to Baripadur.

Day 9 (No tiger park)

After trying to arrange a trip into the Simlipal park the previous evening we were told the park was shut in order to count the tigers, however the next morning we met another team of 2 americans that had met some one who could take then into the park, we decided to jump on board and go with this dispite the cost. However in our relief of being able to get into the park we did not ask any questions about the tour which turned out to be rubbish and we saw nothing(nuf said.) Spent more time in the car and pretty much 24 hours of driving

 day 10 (laters tour)

We woke up in the national park and pretty much forced our tour guide to drive us back to the hotel to get our rickshaw so we could get back on the road. After being able to go any where under your own steam, getting hearded about on a tour does not go down well! about 2 in the afternoon we were blasting down the highway which desolved into pot holes and broken down lorries, after some mental driving moves from paddy (Under taking down a dirt path off the side of the road then poping over the curb in front of the lorry) we rocked up in another identikit off piste indian town and used our useuall ploy off finding the railway station to find a hotel.   

 day 11 (Mist and the first dose of cold)

after an early start and topping the engine oil up which comes staright back out the crack, we were on our way to Suri the next destination. It was freezing in the back of the rickshaw which is totally open sided so mist and 60 kilometres an hour adds up to chilly con carne. We were all totally unprepared for this so all freeze untill the sun comes up. must get some winter gear as this is only going to get worse. When we got to suri we got our worst hotel room ever, ants every where dirty with rock hard beds however it was the only one in town. Spying a massive tent with booming hindi music coming out we set out to find out what was going on. After getting a tickert we were inside a 5000 person festival with some really wierd acts. We could not understand the indian tastes as the dancing girls didnt even get a clap however there was a near riot after a fat man with his face painted white did some strange dancing. An early night and early rise in order to get out of Suri

 Day 12

after another early start and more mist and more layers of clothing we set out to get as far up the western side of bangladesh as possible, however the roads were terrible with pot holes in pot holes which had then been filled with rocks. Rickshaws have tiny wheels so you feel every bump and hitting pot holes at speed is a real back breaker. I am still amazed our suspension held up. We only made it to Raigang and a fairly decent hotel.

Day 13 (we meet the police )

we set off early to get through the gap into east india, the local people started to change looin appearance looking more south east asian than indian and the dirt and rubbish of the plains started to dispear once we hit Assam. After being stopped by some frendily police we let them have a nose through our document, however they could not read english so i could of given then my copy of dj mag that is at the bottom of my bag and they would of been happy. After hours of driving we pulled in to a 1 horse town called Doubri. We where then told to register with the police or special branch. when we walked into the police station and explained what we where doing the police nearly wet them selves with laughter and we were escorted to the big chief of the special branch. While Alex guarded the rickshaw and drank spicy tea with the locals, matt and paddy where taken to the big chief and collection of mad staff with the oddest collection hats ever seen (who wears a suit and a balaclava in the office ). after an hour trying not to laugh we where escorted to a hotel and we could finally hit the hay.

Day 14 (Victory)

after an early morning escape from the police we where rolling up one of tte best roads yet through stunning scenary, lilly ponds and misty hills in indias far east. after a few hours of this we were pulled over by some very unfirendly police who went through all our bags and documents pointing out start dates and saying things had expired.They were blatently after cash from us however after wasting an 1/2 hour of our time he gave up and let us go, the only agression we have had on this whole trip. After a few break downs and replacing the fuel filter we were rolling up the final road to shillong and the finsh line. Yony the tiger was in serious trouble and was looking very ropey with new neutral gears between 2rd and 3rd and 3rd and 4th, steering all over the shop and new rattles and noises appearing all the time. Loosing power we were all excited to see the finish line and a massive banner welcoming us to shiliong. All filthy covered in dust, oil and grime we rolled over the finish line at the pinewood hotel absolutely buzzing to have finshed this massive journey and to have covered over 3500km in a tiny motorised skateboard!! We walked to the bar to the cheer from the other teams and got on with the serious business of drinking till we fell over to celebrate our victory!

to finsh off here are some stats for the journey 

Distance : over 3500 Killometres

Days taken : 14

Hours driven: 99 1/2

Average speed : 35 Kph

Currys eaten : 28

Route taken: east coast.  

I used these blogs extensively to plan this trip so in the next couple of weeks I am going to add some info that I would of loved to of known before we set out. We are all delighted to have compelleted this and it was a once in a life time adventure hard work but incredible rewarding  so we are now going to take a well earned break in darjeeling!

Alex Matt and paddy 

half way heroes

well its been a long time coming but we have finaly found some internet so here is a quick day by day update.

Day 2 (chennai, batteries an crazy driving) mallupurapram -> gudur

After waking up early we got on the road to vist the 5 rathas temples in malapurapram before hitting the highway, 5 temples all cut from 1 rock from the top down made for some impressive early morning sight seeing. We then hit the road, we missed the turning to go around chennai so decided to go for a head on against India's 4th largest city. After driving for an hour or 2 our rickshaw (now christened tony the tiger) came to a grinding halt in the craziest traffic. After pulling the back off we found the battery had fallen on to the exhaust and sprayed battery acid all over the engine. with some help from some locals we pushed off in to the traffic devoid of all power (indicators, lights, horn, radio etc) and with the feeling the engine was about to fall out. 5 hours later and about 400 hand shakes, head wobbles and laps of Chennai we emerged victorious before blasting down the high way stopping in a 1 horse town called Gudur.  More importantly we foun a dark drinking den where we found that end of day beer.

 Day 3 (4 stroke oil and off piste india ) gudur -> chiriala

 after an early start we blasted off down the highway, however tony was lossing power rapidly and cutting out every 5 minutes. After pulling into a petrol station we found out we ha been sold 4 stroke oil for our two stroke tiger. After an early morning call to Alex's Dad we were back on 2 stroke and the tiger was slowly improving. A final swing off down some small roads and just as the sun was setting we pulled in to Chirila and found a local man to guide us throught the traffic to a hotel and another indian drinking den to toast the night with a few well earned kingfihers.

day 4 (one way streets and convoys) chiralia to rajamundry 

 after blasting down the road after another early start (knackered!!) we encountered some of the other teams (the boys in tweed and the mystery machine) after a quick chat and a catch up we convoyed for a bit dowm the highway. The sight of 3 rickshaws, one painted in tweed one as the scooby do van and one with tiger stripes baffled and amused all the locals. After a few break downs and a bit of action with the tool kits we were up and running however we had to abandon the convoy to make Rajamundry by night fall. In Rajmundry dispite Matts good advise he was overruled and the tiger was taken down the main pedetrianised shopping street at peak time. After getting to the end of the street we found a nice road block with concrete pillar so had to push the beast backwards through 1 K of glastonbury style crowds who were not hppy to say the least ... definitely the funniest / stressful moment so far!!!

 day 5 rajamundry -> viskpatum

 cut this one short and stopped in a dodgy indian beach resort. We found beach, beer, sunset and some rest as all exhusted.

 Day 6 (The big one)

we managed 520 k yesterday however it was mental, loads of bad directions we had to drive in the dark (Never again). The roads went so far down hill massive pot holes gravel, dirt sand you name it. 

 

we are having the day off in Puri after yesteray today as we are all shattered, this is a lot harder then any one thought it would be, but is an amazing experience. The indians are brillant however the directions are crazy (imagine some one doing the hokey kokey while wobbling their head at you). The roads are just mental with people regularly going the wrong way down the motorway, goat herders and the odd holy cow thrown in the mix, making it all heart pounding stuff.

Big thanks to my dad (its alex writing) for the mechincal advice in the early morning, to keep you up to date the piston housing is cracked and we are leaking engine oil every where, however the repaira will take too long so we are pressing on adding more oil regulary, hoping not to blow the tiger up!

off for an early night as more to come tommorrow over and out

 Aex Matt And Paddy.

On the road again

Happy new year everybody!!!

Well we all woke up with a slight hangover following one too many warm beers last night at the party and went running around Pondicherry for oil and spark plugs. By midday we had arrived at the port to collect our rickshaw complete with amazing tiger stripes and newly fitted soundsystem which Alex had work on yesterday.

Paddy won the coin toss and led the way out of Pondicherry by immediately crashing in to another rickshaw but no damage done. The rickshaw is running really well and all of our luggage fits well on the back shelf so no need of the roof rack thank god as fellow drivers look very unstable and destined to tip over.

The first days driving has gone really well with no major hiccups and after just over 3 hours driving and around 150km we arrived in Mamallapurem (easy for you to say) just south of Chennai. The scenery was amazing and made the time fly really quickly and everyone who passes (dangerously overtakers) seem to enjoy the tiger stripes 

We thought it best to start slowly with a short trip and plan to hit the road with a few early starts over the next couple of days to get some milage on the clock. Hopefully we can continue to keep you updated.

Happy new year once again and enjoy your return to work

Alex, Matt & Paddy 

 

 

 

 

Going no where fast

quite an eventful few days have passed since our last entry, we are now on our merry way to the start of the race (4 days and counting) in pondicherry.

trying to get out of goa turned out to be more difficult then we first thought. After purchasing a bus ticket and making our to the station and waiting for 2 hours the bus finally turned up only for a massive ruck between the driver and the local constabulary to kick off, before we knew it they were driving off down the road with 20 angry passengers waving their tickets from the road side, slightly deflated we made our back to the beach.

 the next day after much arguing we got our money back and rented a taxi for the journey as we were running out of time to get to the start line. After 7 hours of the crazyist driving we have ever seen (over taking 5 trucks on a blind corner with no gap in between them up hill) we arived in hampi bazaar. After half an hour of trying to cross the river we were told to walk to the down to the river (pitch black) and shout "hello boat". amazingly out of the dark a man appeared rowing a round boat that looked like a soup bowl made out of reeds and shopping bags. After loading all our gear in we managed to get about 5 metres before the boat started taking on water, quickly re jigging every thing to get the stereo and cameras out of the drink we managed to ground on some swampy land on the other side just in time with all our bags, legs and arses pretty wet.

off to bangalore tommorrow, and then pondicherry so more from the start line!

 Alex Matt and Paddy 

Ho ho ho merry christmas from Goa

 Hello everybody,

 Just a quick update to say happy christmas from us all in Goa (but if you are reading our website on Christmas day then I think you have some issues).

Matt and I joined up with Paddy in Palolem (Goa) after a pretty painless flight from the UK. We have been here for four days and have settled in to the relxed lifestyle of having a curry for breakfast, throwing the frisbee, a bit of swimming, more curry at lunch and then loads of fresh seafood in the evening. The adventure has started with a bang (more like poop from Matt and vomit from Paddy) and team 'tuk tuk a wrong turn' are ready to go!!!

Tomorrow (boxing day) we are heading east to Hampi to check out some temples, ruins and random boulders. Hoping to have two nights there before heading to Pondicherry via Bangalore. Already we are dreading these three bus journeys however are all starting to get very excited about the tuk tuk race.

 We will update you from the start line and will try our very best to report back as often as possible however as you can imagine the broadband in India is not the best.

 Hope you have all had a great christmas and have eaten and drank as much as us.

  Alex, Matt and Paddy