On the road again…

Thursday 1^st January 2015

This morning I woke up fresh and full of beans thanks to the lack of spirits at the party. We had to be at the Cochin club at 10am and the idea was that the launch would be 11 Am., but as usual things did not go according to plan and 11am came and went and everyone was still farting about. We had our shaw all packed up and ready to go from about 10.10am so were a bit bored.

Eventually we all clustered together for a group photo and then clamoured into our machines for the go ahead. We were stuck in the back and so it took a while for us to get moving, and whilst stationary another team drove straight into the side of us leaving our back right wheel slightly wobbly. When we finally got out of the Cochin club we met three other teams (Curry eating Kiwis, Intrepid brothers and Tuking Disaster) by the parade grounds to convoy out of the city.

The drive out went fairly quickly and we passed an elephant along the way chilling in a park waiting for the first of Jan carnival to kick off. Between the four of us we had seven break downs today and unlucky for us three of them ours and four of them another team. They had their first at an intersection in town always an awkward spot to stop.

Our first breakdown came early afternoon we were cruising up to some traffic lights when the engine just died I thought I’d stalled but when I finally got it to go again we were losing power fast and it was hard to get any momentum so we pulled over and took it as a sign to have some lunch where we bumped into a few other teams.

After we had eaten and the engine had cooled down enough for us to touch we enlisted the help of Darrin from Tuking disaster to have a wee look see in no time at all he had the carburettor apart and found that it was full of dirt we flushed it out and he put it all back together but as he was doing so he realised that one of the bolt holes was completely stripped in the inside making one half lose and that’s how all the dirt got in. we tightened it up as best we could and hit the road again.

Unfortunately for us it wasn’t long before the same symptoms occurred and upon opening up the back we found the screws had now fallen out we sputtered on to a mechanic who thankfully wasn’t too far away and he soon had it tightened up and ended with a double bolt which I’m told will work to hold it in place even though the screw hole is stripped.

But soon enough we were losing power and struggling to get moving so we stopped at a mechanic but he only did bikes and pointed us back the way we came but being the lazy westerner’s we are we couldn’t be arsed turning back and instead rocked up at an auto rickshaw sales showroom. At first they told us there was no mechanic but next thing you know an Indian dude vaguely resembling a tall super Mario appeared and started tinkering away. He adjusted our carburettor which improved things somewhat but not completely and after a few minutes he deduced that our starter coil was fucked. He did what he could and speaking through the auto salesman as translator told us that it should hold out for a day or two but we needed a new one ASAP. The whole time the rickshaw was being worked on we had a huge crowd around us all lending a hand at the end when I asked how much they said it would cost us some happiness in the form of a handshake! They were absolute sweethearts.

By this stage it was getting dark and so we pressed on with haste to find a bed to rest our head. Along the way no one would take us in so on the first day (yet again the same thing happened last year) we were stuck driving in the dark. Luckily for us Maezee is a machine and drove with fine skills. Along the way in the dark somewhere Tuking disaster broke down again their starter wire had fallen onto the exhaust and melted away but some local stripped it and botched it into place with a stick. Maguiver could learn a thing or two from the people of India!

In the end we had to drive longer than we had hoped to reachGuruvayer as we couldn’t find anywhere else to stay. We checked into a somewhat questionable accommodation where our shower didn’t even have a tap ditched our bags and headed across the road to dinner. By this time it was about 9.30pm and we were all knackered so headed to bed soon after.

Friday 2^nd January 2015

This morning we were going to get up and do some wake up yoga on the landing but the fates would not have it firstly there was no power so we couldn’t see a thing and secondly due to the lack of power and the boys all sharing a tiny room (with all their petrol) they were all awake as their room had turned into a hot house and they were all light headed from the fumes so we ended up packing up our beasts and hitting the road.

Despite the early wake up by the time we had refuelled checked the shaws over packed up and headed to the petrol station to refill our Jerry cans in was already 7.30am. On the way out of town we spotted several other teams but didn’t stop for a yarn.

The plan was to stop at an auto parts store or mechanic ASAP to pick up a new starter coil but unfortunately for us none opened until about 10am we passed several but they were either closed or didn’t service rickshaws. When eventually we found somewhere it was mid-morning and getting warm.

The mechanic didn’t trust us when we asked him to replace the coil and instead did his thing checking everything out only to come to the conclusion that it was the starter coil. Only problem was they didn’t have a part for our model rickshaw! But this being India the land of fix it jobs the mechanic managed to rewire it so it would fit in our machine and for about 50km or so the thing ran like a dream.

But the dream ended and it was back to limited power. We stopped for some food to give the engine some time to cool its shit and when we got going again it had improved a bit. First and second were absolutely struggle street to drive in and third wasn’t much better but once we got up to forth we seemed to be able to chug along. The only problem was the roads were winding and hilly so we had to keep moving through the gears in the end we had to listen and feel our way up hills and put it into forth and coast downhill which seemed to work.

We made pretty good time today and had no actual breakdowns which was a good result. But we did have several near crashes (not our team personally since obviously girls are such awesome drivers…) with buses hurtling passed to overtake and then pulling back in before they are fully past and several U-turns into oncoming vehicles. Going around a circle a policeman tried to pull us over so I waved and we continued on and all four teams accidentally ran a red light. But we did cover 192km and get into a town before dark.

We arrived into Thalassery not long after 6pm and found a place to stay. The check in process was ridiculous and long and we had to take a photo “for their records” we all pulled faces and I pulled peace. The hotel has a carpark and security guard so I asked if the rickshaws would be safe “yes yes yes safe safe safe” then I asked if we could leave our petrol in the rickshaw “no no no no no” lucky for us we only had half a jerry can and a large room.

Once we had ditched our bags we went to find food then back at the hotel showered away the layers and layers of grime before getting an early night in.

Saturday 3^rd January 2015

Today we visited Mangalore, the only place in India that I dint like last year (due to the fact that no one would let us stay at their hotels and we slept in an alleyway, then went to the beach and met a ghost named Patrick) before the run started I told every team that would listen not to go there and yet we did but I’ jumping the gun a bit so ill rewind back to the start.

We had aimed to be on the road by 6.15am but were a bit behind schedule leaving at 6.40pm it’s nice and cool in the mornings and the roads are quiet so it’s a lovely time to drive. We managed to get up and running pretty well and settled into a smooth pace doing about 215km by the end of the day.

I started driving this morning and we hadn’t been on the road long before we stopped at a petrol station to refuel. When we went to restart we had no power so we opened up the back to find our ignition cable had fallen onto the exhaust and had melted through. Lucky for us Darren (always ready to rescue us) cut the wire and shoved it back into place but it’s now ridiculously short and just reaches where it needs to.

Not long into the drive we got stuck behind a petrol tanker and I jinxed the matter by saying I hope we don’t have to go uphill next thing you know we round a corner and not only was there a massive hill but there was also a second petrol tanker we struggled upwards and were doing ok until I got a bit close and we had to slow down too much and I stalled I knew I was beaten and quickly pulled the hand brake and swapped places with Maezee who got us going in no time although we did spend a long time behind the tankers as there were too many bends in the road to pass “safely”

The roads today became quite riddled with pot holes so we were bumping around quite a lot and to add to that today was some sort of celebration and every town we drove through was having a huge parade. We came to a build-up of traffic and slowed to a crawl soon realising that all the cars were a part of a parade. After crawling along for so long our Rickshaw kept cutting out in first or second gear and so in the end Maezee ran alongside the rickshaw pushing it while I steered and waved like a pageant queen. There were heaps of people handing out sweets, biscuits and drinks to the parade goers and pretty soon we were swamped with snacks. We even had a car full of what looked to be 12 year old boys (including the driver) throw a lollies at us from their car and a dude on a motorbike throw a bottle of apple juice at us. Eventually we got through and luckily the shaw started without too much of an issue and we were off. 

Although there was lots of crazy traffic on the road we had three guys on a motorbike hell bent on talking to us even if it did mean they kept almost causing accidents. They kept pulling alongside and trying to chat then going in front but slowing down loads then waving us past then appearing beside us again but never really looking at the road and they seemed to take huge delight in me telling them they were dangerous drivers.

After the parade we sopped to regroup as we had become separated in the masses and we cut the engines to give them some breathing time, when we went to start about 10mins later we had no life in our machine, we opened her up to find that all the bumping had shaken our start coil loose and it was just hanging free with the metal piece to hold it in place missing. Again lucky for us Darren came to our rescue and managed to cable tie it in place which solved the issue.

Our next big challenge was the massive hills we had to chug up at the start there were huge signs saying “steep inclines and sharp bends no overtaking” but almost everyone ignored them in their aim to get up the hill first buses and trucks kept roaring past to overtake on blind corners and at one point we had a bus overtaking another bus overtaking us on a blind corner on a steep hill luckily we were on the inside but we had to slow down massively and swing right in.

We reached Mangalore by about 2pm and lucky for us we just drove around the city itself on the ring road but we were still too close for my liking. We stopped in a bizarre highway side bar that was banging out the tunes and may or may not have played the Savage “hip swing remix”

Not long after lunch we were cruising along a straight bit of road when a crazy truck sped to overtake us and then pulled in right in front of us causing the mad wheel spin and us nearly rear ending him completely which would have been a disaster as he had a whole load of steel poles hanging off the back of his flat bed.

The rest of the afternoon passed without too much drama after refuelling it took a while to get our baby back up to speed but we think the oil must not have mixed into the petrol well enough so Maezee took us over some pot holes to get it mixing in the tank and that seemed to work as the rest of the afternoon we were flying along the straights.

We pulled into Udupi at about 5pm and soon found somewhere to stay and realised there was an awesome ice-cream shop just down the road. By the time we had unloaded and checked in it was about 6pm and after a walk up and down the road without much success of finding a restaurant we headed back into the hotel restaurant which also had a bar much to the delight of everyone else who indulged in beers. Then it was a trip to the ice-cream shop where I ate 300g of ice-cream and felt pretty good about it. Except when I tasted Frasers (from intrepid brothers) Butter pecan ice-cream and it literally tasted like butter!

Back at the hotel we showered in our prison like bathroom and packed it in for an early one.