Day 4 – to Goa

Pleased to leave our hotel early again, especially as we find Brian tied to other rickshaws in a ‘prank’, and our multi-tool missing, we drive through the stench of fish and chicken guts to get away from this town.

Back on the national highway NH66 (or NH17 on some maps) the roads continued to be better than the ones we started out on, so good progress was made. Since crossing the state border from Kerala into Karnataka the differences were pronounced, with more rubbish, apparent poverty, and many more cows, goats, dogs and cats on the roads, both alive and dead. All the way through the state the coastal highway was being renewed section by section. This meant we had 2 km sections of nice wide, smooth Tarmac, that would suddenly end, tipping you onto a potholed and rutted nightmare, or alternatively sending both duel carriageways into one for a white-knuckle game of chicken. Regardless of what the authorities want them to do, many drivers use the closed lanes that are still being built as their own ‘private lane’, which is fine until that lane is blocked by building materials or heavy machinery, when they are forced to swerve across the ‘central reservation’ (used in the loosest sense of the phrase) back into the contraflow traffic lanes. When I get the chance I’ll write a separate blog about the full experience of driving on Indian roads, but it really needs to be accompanied by video footage, and even then doesn’t do it justice.

By mid afternoon we were seeing signs for Goa, our next destination, a point which marked approximately one third of our journey completed, and a planned rest day, so spirits were very high. However, the sting in the tail was me being pulled by the Police just over the state border and fined (all of £2) for driving a rickshaw that was not the same colour as on the ‘log book’ (apparently Brian the snail isn’t a standard paint job for factory models), and also the final 20-30 km of the run into
Goa involved loads of hills and hairpin bends that slowed progress to such an extent that I drove the final leg to the hotel in darkness, not a nice thing at all with Brian’s pathetic lights.

Finally, apologies for my very basic Geography error in stating in an earlier post that we swam in the Indian Ocean; on this site of the country we were swimming in the Arabian Sea!!!

Day 3 -on the mend and on the road

The plan we hatched the night before was to get up early, leave before breakfast and head back to the previous town where we had seen motor repair shacks. Unfortunately though, upon arrival at reception we were told that being a Sunday, all the repair and spares shops would be closed. Seeing what a problem yet further delays would cause us, the hotel staff pulled out all the stops to get us out of trouble. Offering us food and use of their wonderful facilities until we were on our way again, the receptionist woke up the local mechanic, who drive out to us with a friend, and found that we had a burst brake cylinder. So back they drove into town to wake up the spares store owner to get the parts required. Undertaking the repairs, while we were swimming in the ocean, Brian had new brakes and all for less than £8. Seeing how delighted they were, I’m sure we were charged way more than just Sunday ‘double time’, but for us it would have been cheap at 20x that price!

 

Back on the road by midday, we were soon making good progress and the roads were different, slightly wider and being Sunday, quieter too. Apart from one section, where a flyover was being replaced, meaning that all traffic was diverted over a very steep and narrow series of man made sand dunes, I can honestly say that I was beginning to enjoy the driving.

Following a recommendation, we arrived at our ‘luxury beach resort’ accommodation just as dusk was falling. The drive into the ‘resort’, passing chicken processing and fish drying plants, both of which filled the air with pungent aromas, prepared us for the quality of the establishment perfectly, but at least there were some other rickshaws from the event there, so despite delays totalling 1 day, we at least weren’t last. Another 159km under our belt

Day 2 – Brian breaks again!

Keen to be out of the weird hotel as soon as possible, and make up time and more importantly distance lost yesterday, we agreed to be on our way by 6am, so at 5:45 I walked into reception, waking the night porter in bed on the lobby sofa, and walked outside into pitch darkness! We would have to wait until 6:30 for it to be light enough to be safe to drive

On the road we made good progress in the light traffic , and stopped around 8am for a driver change and hopefully a coffee. Finding no coffee (like most of India) we settled on a chai house, which although very basic made amazing, if very sweet chai, and the owner and his friend were lovely. Like most people in India, they are very engaging and want nothing more than to ask you your name where you’re from, discuss cricket, and having mentioned our adventure, ask “you’re doing what?” When we left the chai house it felt like most of the village came out to see us off and have pictures taken with us, and the crowd surrounding Brian was so big we couldn’t see the road to pull away

As the morning progressed, the roads got busier and more treacherous, with the national highway resembling a UK ‘B’ road in many places, and the scale of the task / horror we would face for the next 14 days dawned on us all. When I have time I will try to write a separate blog about the experience of driving in India, as it would take up too much time now

Regularly swapping drivers to prevent nervous exhaustion, it was my time in the driver’s seat when we hit out first city, Calicut, and the permanent feeling that you’re about to be crushed by a lorry / bus on the open road, was replaced by the mayhem of negotiating major junctions with thousands of pedestrians, motorbikes, rickshaws, cars and busses coming at you from all directions, puts different kind of strain on you, and on Brian too. Within 40 minutes or so of stop / start city driving, I was finding it almost impossible to select 2nd gear and neutral, resulting in a lot of stalls, usually when you wanted them least, half way across a major junction!! This would appear to be a permanent (and unfixable) problem with our and other rickshaws, and doesn’t bode well for Mumbai!

Finally leaving the city, the road became hilly and twisty, and not far into her stint, Clair announced “we have no brakes”, a little experimentation confirmed that pumping the brakes furiously gave a small and brief amount of stopping power, and Clair did an amazing job limping Brian the final 40km to our rest stop for the night. With 260km covered it was a fruitful but very very tough day. As we sat on the verandah of beach house beside the Indian Ocean, we toasted Clair’s birthday, and planned what to do about Brian

A few pictures that didn’t upload before

   
   

Let the adventure begin…. or nearly not!

‘Headquarters’ was a frenzy of activity this morning with all the Rickshaw teams dressed in their team regalia, and making final tweaks to their ‘Tucs’ before the 10 am send off, but unfortunately not for us 😦
News from the head mechanic when we arrived was not great, as they had established overnight that Brian had a worn out differential. This couldn’t be fixed, and the only solution was a complete engine transplant, but the only spare engine they had was also broken! So as 10am came, 101 Rickshaws tore out of the compound to a cacophony of noise, 2-stroke smoke and a sea of grinning locals, but left inside was Brian, and one other Rickshaw, whose occupants were so hungover from the New Years / launch party the night before that they hadn’t shown up.

   
 Highly embarrassed, the organisers took us out for brunch, while their team of uk and local mechanics stripped and rebuilt the spare engine, before removing our engine and fitting the fixed one, quite incredibly they did this in 3.5 hours! So four hours after the rest of the entrants, our solitary rickshaw was loaded onto the ferry to the mainland, totally rammed with kit and useless paraphernalia for our adventure to begin.

  
With his new engine purring beautifully (well like a very loud lawnmower actually) we were finally on the open road, rather than the cramped and crowded city streets of Cochin, and it was a much better driving experience all round. Don’t get me wrong, he handles dreadfully, like a top heavy shopping trolley with no brakes, and the Indian drivers are still lunatics, but a breeze (albeit hot), the ever changing scenery, and a plethora of gobsmacked Keralans smiling, waving and even cheering as you zip past them is just lovely. 

   
 With our late start, and still getting used to driving Brian, the 96 km we made today was good progress, and as darkness fell we found a very odd hotel in Guruvayur, which is massive but we appear to be the only guests, has frequent power cuts, and the hardest beds in the world. However, I’m knackered and we have a very early start tomorrow, so I should sleep well nonetheless 

New adventures (& years) eve

Today has been a bag of mixed fortunes. Getting to Brian early in the morning we made a good start on ‘pimping’ for the trip, and if attaching the maximum number of neon plastic buckets, bins, brushes and ‘stuff holders’ to the rickshaw, with cable ties was the plan, we exceeded expectations. In fact we even have 2 buckets spare that we don’t have room for, and that’s before we even attempt to load the 3-4 enormous holdalls of personal kit!
Also, during the process of reupholstering the back seat with flowery fabric, the 2 bolts holding the seat on sheared off, so we now have a pretty, but unattached seat; hopefully that won’t be a problem over the next 2,500 km of driving over rough ground!
By early afternoon, having established that we didn’t have enough already, we went shopping for yet more plastic containers, and it was decided that we should take Brian out for a decent run to collect the supplies. I elected to drive, and the good news is that it all went pretty much ok, and by the end I think I had the hang of Indian (mad) driving; the slightly less good news is that early on I hit a local rickshaw with a glancing blow. Fortunately the owner took it in good spirits and charged me 200 rupees (£2) for the damage, which is about half the amount they normally charge for a ride back to our hotel!!

Ouch! Sorry Brian

The worse news however is that the engine trouble we were told was fixed yesterday, has not been fixed, and although we’ve been assured they will look at tonight, in all likelihood we will be starting the adventure with an engine that is already running very badly. Fingers crossed what it needs to sort out the problem is a 2,500k journey with people who don’t know how to drive or repair it 😉
After the launch event tomorrow morning we really don’t know where we are going to end up, when and whether there will be any kind of mobile / Wi-Fi connection, so I don’t know when I will be able to send any further updates, but I promise you that I will try.
Until then, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy New Year, and I’ll raise a glass to all of you tonight
John x

The rise of Brian

Starting to get an understanding of how ‘Indian time’ works, we knew full well that Brian (the Rickshaw) would not have undergone his carburettor transplant by the morning, or probably even by their lunchtime ‘guaranteed’ deadline. So rather than hang around at the base all day twiddling our thumbs waiting, we got up early and instead headed off to take a boat trip on the backwater canal system, apparently a ‘must see’ for anyone visiting Kerala. It didn’t disappoint at all, and the peace and tranquility, along with the cooling breeze was a fantastic change from the bustle of Cochin. The water hyacinth floating down the canal system were also so evocative of my backpacking trip to Asia in my early 20’s.
  

  
  

Arriving back at base mid afternoon we were delighted to find that Brian was out of surgery, and we could take him out for a run. I elected to go first on the test run on busy Indian streets, and you know what, it wasn’t all that bad at all. True, it’s like driving a noisy, smelly, uncomfortable skateboard that turns on a sixpence (not ideal for a top-heavy 3-wheeler) but it did work, and after an hour’s use in real world conditions I’m sure that all 3 of us will master the art. One issue that did come to light from the test drive though was a very marked ‘judder’ in all gears. Having had the mechanics check it over a number of times, they were able to improve it, by biting the connection of the throttle cable with their teeth, but it wasn’t fixed fully. Mentioning this to the head technician, his response was “well your rickshaw is probably the oldest one we have, and it’s a s**t one”! Just what you need to fill you with confidence before a 2,500 km journey, but we’re sure Brian will pull through
Because of the delays in getting our ‘wheels’ ready, we now have to get all of our pimping / customisation done early tomorrow, before New Year’s Eve celebrations and launch day!

Let me introduce Brian

After a leisurely breakfast we headed back off to the rendezvous point to see our rickshaw and get some practice driving it for the first time. Walking into the compound we looked around but couldn’t see our ‘tuk’ so initially feared the worst, that it still hadn’t arrived, but soon afterwards Clair noticed a familiar paint job tucked away in the corner of the yard, so at long last, I can now introduce you to our final and most important team member….. ‘Brian’, who will hopefully carry us safely for the next 2,500km  

A little background about the name. Every team entering this challenge is given the opportunity to give their team a theme, and have their rickshaw ‘pimped’ (painted / decorated) accordingly. Many months ago Tracy and Clair agreed on a Magic Roundabout theme for our team, and therefore the name of Brian (the snail) was set.

Unfortunately as well as being late arriving at the party, Brian is also still ‘unwell’, currently awaiting a carburettor transplant! Although we’ve been assured that everything will be resolved by tomorrow lunchtime, time will tell if that proves to be correct; but regardless, it’s valuable time we’re losing not being able to get used to driving him

Not all was lost though, as it light of Brian’s ill health the organisers loaned us a spare rickshaw to have a practice drive around the compound, with mixed results! To spare any blushes I’ll leave out names, but make what you will of the following summaries of each team members’ go:
Driver 1 – inched around the compound, ‘riding the clutch’, foot hovering over the brake, resulting in a no major dramas, but little ‘excitement’ either
Driver 2 – a highly competent driving performance, but insisted on going in the opposite direction around the course to all the other drivers on their practice laps
Driver 3 – tore off at a great rate of knots, eventually coming to a halt upon collision with 3 parked pushbikes.

Nothing could have more clearly demonstrated the the different personality types of the 3 team members, and the spare rickshaw was duly returned to the organisers in a non functioning state.

Shortly before dinner I went for a stroll near the hotel and stumbled upon this magnificent beast being put to bed for the night

   
 
What an amazing country India is!

Pictures from yesterday

  
  
  

Arrival in Cochin

After a long journey, including a very tedious layover in Mumbai airport, we finally arrive in Cochin from where our adventure will start. The taxi from the airport to our hotel gave us a very brief taste of what we have in store, as our driver ran the gauntlet of overladen buses & lorries, motorbikes carrying up to 4 people and assorted animals wandering around in the road.
With all 3 of us ‘running on vapours’ from the journey, we wait at the hotel for a couple of hours until some rooms are available and then catch up on a few hours much needed sleep. Mid afternoon, a little more refreshed, we head off to the colonial fort to rendezvous with the organisers and our rickshaw, only to find that it isn’t there and is still being prepared, which probably involves some careful ‘servicing’ with string and hammers. We are assured that everything will be fine and to come back tomorrow; which I suspect will become a common mantra during this trip.

A brief stroll to visit the Chinese fishing nets and a beachside market, followed by a supper of curry and Kingfisher, sees us ready to turn in as jet lag kicks in fully. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have a rickshaw!!!!

Due to some technical issues resulting from very weak wi-fi, I won’t upload many pictures on this post, but I’ll try to make amends tomorrow