Rickshaw run April 2013 part two

Enjoy the second week of our adventure here.

Monday 15^th April 2013

We woke up this morning to find the army sitting on the lawn outside our room what had we done now? Thankfully they weren’t there for us and smiled and waved to us as we packed up our babies. We decided to take an hour or so on the beach before heading into Ballasore for repairs. The tide was so far out we had to walk a good 20mins to reach it the beach was so flat you couldn’t even see the breaks until you were right upon them we paddled for a bit until we discovered that the water was full of some weird wormy fish that liked to wrap themselves around ankles we walked back with the tide chasing our tails. In Ballasore we found a parts shop and brought spare ignition cables just in case and the boys had their exhaust welded as it was loose. By midday we were on the road but it was a short drive day we arrived in Midnapore and as the roads were getting bad we decided rather than push our luck in the dark we would set up camp there. The town was quite nice and we found a cheap hotel, internet and a restaurant that we knew must be good as there was soap in the bathroom.  Back in the hotel we relaxed in front of children’s cartoons which made a nice change from the only English programming we had got so far… the IPL.

Tuesday 16^th April 2013

Today was fairly uneventful drive wise the roads had narrowed from four lane motorways down to just two so it slowed us down a bit as well. We decided to take a smaller road to see if the driving was more interesting but after creeping along at just 10km/hour for a while we decided  it just was worth it and retreated back to the main road where we were blocked by a train  anything small enough to go under the barrier does so  right up until the last minute whilst the rest of the  traffic built up  around us, Indian road users have a hilarious tactic of when confronted with a blockage drive around it into the other lane meaning when traffic can move you have four lanes of traffic looking at each other and  no one willing to budge thankfully as a small vehicle we were able to weave through the jam not great was the fact that our clutch was on the fritz and so we only had 2^nd gear and higher making not stalling extremely difficult! We drove on  looking for Siuri the place we intended to stay that night and were slightly concerned when we stopped to ask where it was and the response came back “you’re in it” even more concerning was that when we asked for a hotel they just laughed at us and walked away. We needn’t have worried though as we drove into town we bumped into another team who were at the mechanics they were also staying in Siuri and after just 2mins driving we had seen many hotels. We pulled into a posh looking one where the fare was more then we wanted to pay the boys swiftly checked in for a bit of luxury and we continued looking after accessing the situation we concluded that for the small amount extra it was worth it to stay in some comfort other than the dives we had seen. We checked in and had a beautiful meal with the other team down in the restaurant and then drinks outside on the balcony. Our room came complete with a view of the local dump and the many pigs that lived there so all in all was a delight filled stay.

Wednesday 17^th April 2013

As we drove out of Siuri this morning we stopped at an atm where we soon attracted a crowd amongst them was a group of girls who all spoke beautiful English and gave us sweets. the day should have been great we woke up refreshed and had breakfast for the first time on the road but once driving we soon encountered a problem we had just pulled out of a petrol station when our baby decided to pack it in the clutch was gone completely and as the guys had motored on ahead there was nothing more we could do then wait for them to come back. As usual we were soon mobbed so we say communicating with wild gestures for a mechanic there wasn’t one in the town and the next one was a long way off. The boys didn’t take long to come and collect us and soon we had hooked up some town ropes and were away, we didn’t have a spare clutch cable as we had already used it but the boys decided they could use an accelerator cable instead they could get it in but without a 6mm spanner that couldn’t tighten it so off we went to try and find one. Eventually after many attempts we gave in and went to a mechanic he couldn’t fix it completely and when we left we were still without a 1^st gear and neutral was almost impossible to find. We decided to crack on without it as it was getting dark we must have been near a border because suddenly there were trucks everywhere we did some crazy off roading and on multiple occasions almost tipped over we decided to call it quits in Malda where we parked up outside a hotel to check it out. We attracted an even bigger crowd then normal and so caused a traffic jam we needed to move the Rickshaws off the street and the crowd practically lifted them up and carried them into the underground car park. That night we had a bizarre meal in which we were joined by some Indian body builders who challenged the boys to an arm wrestling competition and promptly lost and a waiter who played Shakira at full volume and danced like Michael Jackson eventually we just sat and ate whilst our many admirers posed for photos with us.

Thursday 18^th April 2013

Today was hugely productive we set off at 6.30am in order to make up the time we had lost whilst broken down yesterday.  We didn’t have a destination in mind rather we aimed to just drive as far as we could. The scenery was a lot more interesting as we drove alongside tea plantations with the sounds of sprinklers and cicadas in the air. We also drove past loads of army bases and army personal. We even had a lookout for elephants as we had seen signs for elephant crossings.  We even drove for a short time through a mountain pass crossing over a bridge we could see the river stretch for as far as the eye could see. We then turned a corner and there were monkeys everywhere all over the road just chilling out looking like little people. Back on the other side of the mountain we were back into tea lands and night was coming in quick we drove for a while in the dark before decided to call it a day there was only one hotel in town called heavenly hotel for your pleasure but there were no rooms available (and looking back I actually think it was a brothel) we drove on in the dark until we came to a truckers hotel it was only 400r/s for the night and since we were going to be back on the road early again we decided it would do, we checked in and then bundled back into one shaw to drive back into the town for a feed, we ate at a family run eatery and then got roti from a stand across the road the food was lovely and the boy serving us was so cute that Ayla brought him a chocolate bar which made his day. Just as we were leaving a massive fight broke out we watched for a bit but as it started getting huge we decided to was best to go. Back at the truck stop we crawled into bed and hoped nothing would crawl into bed with us.

Friday 19^th April 2013

The penultimate day and we had one goal in mind to get to Guwahati and from there in would be just a short push to the finish line tomorrow morning. Despite driving on some horrendous roads in the morning we were making good time, we saw a man crossing the road riding on an elephant and another two elephants just chilling in the bushes on the roadside which we stopped to take photos of. During the bumpy nasty roads in which we were almost turned over in several  potholes our roof rack finally gave up the ghost completely and shattered so much that all we could do was remove our bags and tie it onto the roof. This made for a squishy ride with all the bags piled in the back with us. But this was to be the least of our worries as today was double breakdown day.  We were on the highway when the boys rickshaw started to fail it kept cutting out without explanation, after over an hour tinkering with it on the roadside the decision was made for us to tow them to the mechanics the tow ropes were attached and we attempted to take off in 2^nd gear we just managed it and were rumbling along when suddenly our rickshaw also died we pulled over to the hard shoulder and the boys concluded our gearbox was done for with only a day to get to Shillong this would put us out of the race. We flagged down a local rickshaw and travelled 7km back to the last town in the hope of getting a mechanic out to us we got one and he set to work on the boys machine whilst we sulked and tried to flag down a truck that could take us and our shaw to the finish line, thankfully we didn’t have any luck doing so and while the boys were test driving their machine we persuaded the mechanics to look at ours thankfully it wasn’t the gears at all it was merely the clutch cable and after some adjusting not only had he fixed our beast we also has 1^st gear again we were so happy and danced around with the many other teams that had arrived to the scene of our breakdowns.  Eventually the mechanics solved the boy’s issue it was a baby wipe in the air filter that was the second of the ridiculous time wasting breakdowns. Back on the move we had lost four hours sitting on the side of the road so got our speed on we had hoped to still make it to Guwahati that night but by 10.30pm we were shattered and driving in the darkness was becoming too dangerous we pulled into a little roadside hotel and crashed out immediately.

Saturday 20^th April 2013

We were 85km outside of Guwahati and from there it was a trek up the mountain we had estimates in time ranging from 2 hours to 10 hours so we were fairly uncertain if we would make it for the party.  Within a few hours we were in Guwahati in a traffic jam but thankfully it didn’t take long to get through unfortunately 1^st gear didn’t actually last very long and by the time we were through the city it was gone completely. We reached the bottom of the mountain and there was a car driving towards us on the wrong side of the road on the hard shoulder being that I was in the right I continued to drive when at the last minute he pulled in front of me we both had to emergency stop and I sat there glaring at the driver him and his entire family glared back at me as though I was the one in the wrong I was to fuming to drive and so a few minutes later pulled over for snacks and Alex took over. We also used this opportunity to go to the low your mind wine shop and get some booze for the party that night. We didn’t know where in the pack we were as we hadn’t seen any other teams we only passed one on the way up. Driving was hard going as every time we stopped we had to hill start in 2^nd gear until eventually every start was a push start. We stopped in a petrol station for a wee and I ran to the toilets as usual I left the door slightly ajar suddenly someone on the outside pushed it shut and slid the bolt I was trapped in a smelly hole in the ground toilet thinking it was Alex or Ayla I yelled at them to let me out when that didn’t work I threw my weight against the door I tried this a few times and it flew open bending the flimsy bolt, there was no one about and its still a mystery to me who locked me in the loo. We continued up the mountain as the clouds closed in and it began to get dark suddenly the skies opened up and we were caught in a torrential rain storm of course our windscreen wiper didn’t work so visibility was almost zero but we plodded on luckily the heavy rain didn’t last long just long enough to soak us and most of our belongings. We got to a sign that said welcome to Shillong and rejoiced in the fact we were almost there. With just 3km to go our shaw yet again packed in this time the ignition cable had come loose I jammed it back in and off we went this happened a few times then the spark plug died a guy from another team helped us out and we were on the move again. After getting lost following someone’s satnav we were finally going in the right direction by this stage there were five teams in convoy and together we limped across the finish line. Our official finishing place was 38^th out of 75 with 4 teams not completing. At the finish line it was all fun and games and cake and beer before finding somewhere to stay and getting ready to party hard. The party that night was quite unreal with everyone letting loose after two weeks on the road we had an amazing buffet dinner, won a prize for best tale form the road (the man with his knob our) and danced our arses off (me so much so that I split my pants) after the party came the after party in a team’s hotel room with Hubert the keyboard player from the band. We eventually made it back to our hotel but this is where this post ends.

After 4500km 2 weeks on the road and 14 different towns slept in we were glad that we went one of the many runners who had to return to normality in the next few days. I will soon post about our adventures since the run but for now peace.