DAY 2 (29/03) - Rickshaw Run
Left the hotel at Coimbatore at around 9.15, eventually managed
to find the road to Bangalore. Enroute we had our
first mountain climb, to about 1200m (so higher than anything
back home!) 27 harpin turns and a few interesting occurences
with larger vehicles going the other way!? There were monkeys
on the mountain funnily they were giving us strange looks
to like the locals! Saw our first Elephant sign, shortly
followed by our first Elephant. Ran out of fuel for the
first time, refill was fine. We got stopped at the top
by an official, quick chat and we were off again.
The road then got rough and slowed us down alot so changes plan
and went towards Mysore rather than Bangalore. On the diversion
we ran out of fuel for the second time, quick refill
was OK except our fuel cap got ran over by a truck :( Managed
a bodge to get us to Mysore (only 20km). First hotel in
Mysore was very expensive but the manager actually physically directed
us to a nice cheap one instead :)
DAY 3 (30/03) - Rickshaw Run
On the road at 8.30 again took us a while to workout how to
get out of the city, ended up on a different road (smaller
but finished so made good time), 25km on we pulled over to check
the 'repaired' fuel cap and found the air box and filter hanging
off, only one bolt remaining! More tie wraps seemed to
fix it. Drove through some smaller towns and one terrible
road.
Hours later we finally made it to the out skirts of
Bangalore. The road we planned to use to get to the
Airport didn't allow Rickshaws so had to head straight into
town. After another hour of driving around Bangalore
trying to navigate (lots of closed roads!) we pulled over
almost ready to give up when a local, Mr.White Helmet Man (WHM)
informed us that we were actually on the correct road (God knows
how?!) and within 3km of the factory and that he was going
to the same area! He said 'you follow me, eh?' we
said 'ok!' What ensued was like a car chase for a very
low budget movie involving our Tuk Tuk at top speed and WHM
on his nippy scooter darting through the Bangalore traffic, lots
of horn blowing!! Once we were within a km he left
us, so we pulled over again. This time Mr.Helpful Rickshaw
Man tried to give us directions to Goshala Rd, in the end we
again followed this guy (a bit more slowly) to said Rd. After
3 or 4 zigags (left, right, left, etc) to our amazement we drove
staight past the factory! We actually made it, spent around
2 hours there with Vrata, had some coffee and talked about Microlights. The
factory gave us a custom made funnel (to aid refueling) and some
stickers.
Finally it was starting to get late. Vrata recommended
some places at which we could stop. Following his
instructions we made it to the first, but is was FULL! So
back to the road on which we had spotted a Premier Inn (apparently
the first and only one in the whole of India!?) and that
is were we stayed as it was starting to get dark and we
had had enough of the traffic. We managed to negotiate
discount due to our charitable cause in return for putting some
posters on the Rickshaw! :) Had a great evening the staff
were incredibly nice and extremely helpful.
DAY 4 (31/03) - Rickshaw Run
Up at 06:45 as we actually had some for a change. On
the road for 8.15, managed to negotiate the Bangalore traffic
fairly successfully in order to head East towards Tirupati. Not
a massive amount to report, the roads were generally very good. Drove
through our first bit of serious rain and survived (fair amount
of thunder and lightening too) and reached our destination in
good time. Tonights room is the cheapest yet (approx
2.50Pd each or 175Rp), off to try and grab something to eat know.
DAY 5 (01/04) - Rickshaw Run
Early start on the road for 07:45
Managed to get ourselves out of Tirupati which wasn't the nicest
place we've visited so far to be honest!?
Hit the East coast after 2hrs and got onto the main road heading
North to Calcutta (only 1500km away!!). After travelling
on the road for a while we spotted to other teams :) first since
day 2 so it made us quite happy! One of them had been having
problems with a blocked carb limiting their travelling speed
a little. We continued on, talking to random locals (whilst
in transit!) everyone is very keen to ask us questions about
what we are doing, they all seem to think we are American's too? They
normally smile a lot when they find out we are English though! Towards
the end of the day we saw another different team parked up at
the roadside so we stopped to chat. Apparently yesterday
they had to have a piston replaced due burning a hole in it :( They
said that they were considering replacing the whole engine in
order to try and reach the finish line, ouch!?
At about 16:30 we arrived at Ongole, we decided this would be
a good place to stop and managed to find a lodge for tonight
:) Hopefully no cockroaches in this room!?
Planning on a early start tomorrow as it gets very, very hot
by midday and early afternoon. The hottest we have experienced
so far! Lots of water required.
More soon...
Team Lock Stock & One Smoking Tuk Tuk
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