Having debated heavily before stepping into our auto-rickshaw which one of us had better ‘spatial awareness’, Mel aka Ruby proved that she new the width of her rickshaw by promptly taking the wheel arch off trying to impatiently drive her way through a gated driveway. Tom aka Murray hadn’t even sat behind the handle bars before the three wheeler had had its first mishap. Argument closed!
Mel learning to drive
A more streamlined Rickshaw!
Fortunately this was the first and last accident that Ruby Murray experienced. We were the only vehicle that made it all the way to the end of the rally without breakdown or damage – or sabotage for that matter. Even the organisers support truck broke down!
Towards the end of the journey fellow rally drivers constantly pointed out that we’d clearly missed the best part of the adventure – roadside breakdown!
‘Auto’ L-Plates
On your marks, get set, GO!
With the support of Red Bull, 13 multinational teams set off from St Mary's School in Chennai to navigated their way across this bustling metropolis.
The first task was to successfully fill up with petrol and then for everyone to find their way out of the city. A few hair raising moments but everyone made it.
Commendering the chaos of city traffic, having only driven an "auto-rickshaw" for a couple of hours the day before was crazy....but fun.
This leg entailed 180 kilometers of driving, mostly along freeways, to Vellore.
Start Line. Chennai.
Ruby & Murray on the road.
Stop off at a "challenge" along the way.
Pimp my shaw
Some of the team names include;
Nigel Manzil - Dubai (Irish and English)
Chai Rollah - UAE
Tuk Tuk Wallah Wallah - Australia
Quickshaw - UK
Los Pacos - Spanish
Poos n Roos - UK
The Beast Crew - UK
The Crud Bug - Australia
The Birds - UK
Auto Mates - India
Historic Racing - Hungary
Mistery Machine - Canada
and then us, Ruby Murray - Australia (Brits)
| Nigel Manzil
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| From India Rickshaw Challenge |
Mystery Machine
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| From India Rickshaw Challenge |
Auto Mates
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| From India Rickshaw Challenge |
Tuk Tuk Wallah Wallah Tuk Tuk
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| From India Rickshaw Challenge |
Round Table India
Each day the rally starts at one of the Round Table locations, such as a school or a factory. This has given us a great insight into where the donations to Round Table go. Each day we are also surrounded by the press and TV crews, we've even appeared in the local India papers three times. This is great exposure for both Rickshaw Challenge and Round Table.
Press interview - David & Alexandra from Spain aka Los Pacos.
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| From India Rickshaw Challenge |
School children in Bangalore. All children here were from the poorest families, some living in the slums. They are attacted to the school initially because of the lunch time meal and then keep coming back because of the opportunity to learn and gain an education. This school had computers donated by SAP which they run self-learning programs from.
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| From India Rickshaw Challenge |
Disabled women working at a factory in Vellore. This electronics company was established by Round Table specifically for the purpose of employing disabled women. These ladies are also given accomodation through Round Table and a house after 10 years service.
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| From India Rickshaw Challenge |
Round Table is similar to Rotary organisations. Local Indian people from the township get involved to set up the projects therefore no donation money is spent on administration. All money's go to the people who need it most.
1st Leg - Vellore, Bangalore, Mysore
All the ‘ores’.
Even a GPS doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make it to your destination without obligatory u-turns. We missed our first stop-point by about 20 km’s and we only had to navigate one straight freeway from Chennai!
One of the first things we noticed as we embarked on our driving adventure was the number of universities in India. The majority seem to be engineering colleges or universities, namely IT institutions, or medical training centers. India is certainly an IT epicenter.
Before leaving Vellore we visited the Round Table Factory for Disabled Women which was a great testament to Round Table as the women seemed very happy and welcomed our visit.
Leaving Vellore we pulled our rickshaw in at a small village with a yellow temple to take a few photos. Even before the first photo had been taken Mel had made friends with a little girl, her mother and small brother - who promptly took her off to visit the rest of the village and take photos of each and every family cow. Cows are very important to an Indian family!
At the small village we were a spectacle of intrigue as many more villagers came to greet us and although no one spoke English we were kindly provided with refreshments and invited to take each family’s portrait, with their cows of course!
Small village looking at us, looking at them, looking at us
Villager portraits
Next adventure was reaching Bangalore at rush hour as the sun went down – first real experience of chaotic Indian traffic – very entertaining if not a tad stressful. Joining heavy traffic and racing down half completed roads, trying to avoid collision, reading a hand drawn map, and trying to ask locals for directions, simultaneously felt like mission impossible, especially as the school was in a small back lot in an equally small suburb. Key learning’s here were a) most Indian’s can’t read maps, b) don’t assume the Indian map was correctly drawn in the first place, c) if an Indian says go left keep an eye on their hand signal as they probably meant go right, d) always ask several people for directions (at least 5) and go with the majority vote, though that might not be right either! Thanks have to go to the head master that spotted us and chased us down on his motorbike – others were not so fortunate and were left driving around and around….and around…. for hours!
Bangalore rush hour
Leaving Bangalore the next day should have been relatively straight forward, as we’d been told by a government representative to take the toll roads to Mysore – “just go right at the ‘circle’” (that means roundabout). 3 u-turns later we found the new road but also found that 3 wheelers were not permitted. After some negotiation and lots of pleasantries and smiles we negotiated our passage out of town the faster route. Unfortunately we only made it so far before being banished back to the long route by a mean government representative. When you only travel at around 30 km’s an hour on average every advantage counts!
Overall the trip had been very enjoyable and a real eye opener to the beauty of the Indian countryside and anarchy of city life. Both Vellore and Mysore are quite pretty towns by Indian standards with lots of white colonial style buildings and not too over populated. Vellore has a beautiful 16th century granite fort and Mysore has a palace with amazing interiors including a wooden elephant ‘howdah’ decorated in solid gold. Mysore also seemed to be a popular destination for Indian holiday makers too.
Vellore skyline at sunset
2nd Leg – Mangalore, Bhatkal, Panaji
Mysore to Mangalore was set to be the longest day of driving, 11 hours all up. On this day we were to encounter mountains, potholes and juggernauts.
After a visit to a new Round Table school project in the suburbs of Mysore, twelve of the thirteen rickshaws followed in convoy out of town. Today was a sad day because we’d lost our Spanish comrades, Los Pacos, who’d had an accident the day before. Fortunately no bones were broken and the accident happened right outside a hospital but some cuts and scraps and a crumpled rickshaw meant they’d not be continuing on with the rest of us. This was a harsh reminder of the potential perils and seriousness of driving in a third world country. I know we were especially careful from that point on.
Happy Indian children off to school
Leaving Mysore, dodging the traffic
Driving up the Nilgiri Hills was one of the major highlights of the entire trip. Climbing in second or third gear through forests and around winding bends, passing small villages with roaming elephants was pleasurable even as the rain set in.
We stopped at a town called Mercara at the top and grabbed some lunch at a local eatery. Filled with male workers, on their mid-day break, there were no menus but lots of hospitality and help from the gentlemen that let us share their table. We still have no idea what we ate but you pretty much can’t go wrong with a Veg Curry anywhere in India. Most of the population doesn’t eat meat so for life-long carnivore’s such as ourselves we were surprised by the fact that we found veggie food incredibly flavoursome. The site of skinned chickens and lambs hanging by the side of the road (no beef remember – that’s sacred) is enough to make you ignore the ‘non-veg restaurant signs in favour for veg only.
Hill top villages and potholes
Village life
Navigating down the other side of the mountain required a lot more concentration due to potholes, created by the monsoon. The downward journey gave us a great break from the drone of the rickshaw engine. For the most part it is hard to forget that you driving a lawn mower and no amount of singing or ear plugs can drown it out!
Nearing the bottom of the hills we got excited at the prospect of having only 50 kms to reach our final day’s destination of Mangalore and of course faster roads to take us there. But alas the road was not yet built, so it was a slow, bumpy, and of course challenging with hectic traffic conditions for another three hours.
We should point out here that even if your side of the road is in better condition than the opposite side this only means facing oncoming traffic in your road space. Size and speed win out, so the rickshaw lost each and every time! Many vehicles didn’t make it home until midnight that night. Ruby Murray was thankfully home earlier than most.
The next day to Bhatkal was the most treacherous drive because of the speed and volume of juggernauts and buses on the road. Look in either direction and you’ll see six vehicles similateously trying to over take each other….a bus overtaking a truck…..overtaking another truck…..overtaking a bus…overtaking a car, and so forth! The aim of Indian driving it seems is to overtake the vehicle in front even if you plan to stop immediately after that to let your passengers out. Genius!
Roadside carnage - there was lot's of this along route
Muradeswaram a beach town past Bhatkal was our next rest point. It has a wonderfully magnificent oversized statue of the god Shiva and seems to be another popular holiday destination for Indian’s. We thoroughly enjoyed making friends here with a family who’d asked us to take 1 photo with ‘our own’ camera. This is the only country we’ve experienced where locals approach you to take their photo and don’t ask for money for doing so. It’s probably the same way we in the western world flock in front of a TV crew. We happily obliged (I mean what a great photo opportunity) and several photo shoots later offered to take their postal address to forward copies on.
Indian holiday makers visiting Shiva statue
We also met a very nice Indian family from a more affluent and globe trotting background themselves who joined us for lunch. They too had traveled from Bangalore and had found themselves trailing our rickshaw rally for a couple of days and were keen to find out what all the craziness was about.
Finally our next leg to Goa, just before our two day rest point, took us through parts of India where the saris changed in design to halter neck sari dresses and we also passed women carrying huge wood piles on their heads - which would be difficult to carry by any human means really. Arriving in Goa you’ll find a more tropical terrain with beautiful meandering, palm tree lined roads.
Women's work is never done
Pulling in at the Taj Vivanta hotel in Panaji, Ruby Murray were first. Yeah! Piling out of the rickshaw in sweaty dirty clothes into what felt like a 10 star hotel is kind of embarrassing – but heck more so when your silencer has falling off and the whole hotel knows you've pulled in (hey team Nigel Manzil)!
3rd Leg – Ratnagiri, Mahabaleshwar, Pune
Whilst getting some R&R in the city of Panaji in Goa Tom decided he was in need of a haircut. Finding a street side barbers he went in. As Mel was about to head off to peruse the markets the barber invited her in for a head massage while she waited. Not wanting to be rude, she agreed.
As you can see the massage, turned into a facial with a very strange vibrating massage machine, which we must add was administered whilst the barber was both on the phone and watching the Ashes Cricket, so doing all three things simultaneously.
The comic value of the experience was priceless – however we imagine that the pampering options at The Taj, enjoyed by wiser participants would have been a better option!
Local Panaji barbers
A new type of facial experience - unlikely to catch on....
The next leg from Goa to Ratnagiri was an easy drive, if not a little windy. Each day we were given a number of tasks or challenges to complete for different point values. At the end of the rally the people with the most points win rather than this being a test of driving speed – as that would be illegal and not very fast in a rickshaw!
Today’s challenge was to find a Nissan Hut. We had no idea what one of these was, nor did any other local person, restaurant owner, or even the tourist board. The only people I believe that did eventually find this colonial ‘tin shed’ used by the Brits eons ago were the Hungary team who were determined to complete each and every challenge set.
Most days Ruby Murray opted to seek out good photo opportunities instead, so our points score was rather lacking overall.
Smiles and waves were never ending
School kids waiting for the bus
The next day’s drive to Mahabaleshwa (try saying that in a hurry) was set to be another very interesting climb up a mountain. Based on our previous hill climbing experience we thought it wise to set off at the crack of dawn with team mate’s Roo’s & Poo’s to get a head start.
After a leisurely drive to the base of the mountain we stopped for a spot of lunch. Whilst minding our own business, unbeknown to us the local paparazzi was busily snapping our photo. This later appeared in the local Poladpur rag. It’s written in Hindi (I think) but we are told it translates to say “these Englishmen travelled 1500 km’s from Chennai to eat in my restaurant”. Very comical.
Fame was unbeknown to us
Snapped by the paparazzi
The scenery as we climbed up the Mahabaleshwa mountain range was absolutely breathtaking. It was a rainy day so the mist and cloud closed in as we reached further up to the 1300 meter high point. Along the way we say monkeys and even found a snake, albeit a tiny one.
Up in the town of Mahabaleshwa there was a vast lake and sea side resort with stalls selling corn, and ginger tea to holiday makers. It wasn’t a very pleasant day but Mel had the pleasure of sharing her corn with a cow, which slowly closed in on her until she handed over the goods. Delicious!
What do you have there?
Mind my fingers...
Hum mm delicious!
One of the other teams, Crud Bug reputedly made friends with some locals who were partying in a waterfall further down the mountain. Cranking up the tunes on their rickshaw’s inbuilt sound system they apparently stripped down and jumped into the waterfall to join them. This is the team that won “most bonkers” at the end of the event, you can see why!
Traveling incognito
That night, staying in a very basic mountain resort, where the electricity generator was switched on only while guests were up and about, we enjoyed an evening of playing poker, round robin table tennis and even a game of musical chairs!
The next day we set off down the mountain in convoy again. Along route we saw some horses cantering along the road as if they had just escaped from the asylum, so we don’t know whether they were wild or had bolted from their owner.
As we drove down the windy hillside roads we spotted a hill top plateau and dirt track road on which we could drive the rickshaw. Taking the lead Ruby Murray heading out there for the photo opportunity followed closely by the rest of the gang. Multi-coloured rickshaws racing around on a hill top would have been an interesting spectacle and easy to spot from afar so typically it was not long before we were joined by a television crew and a large group of Indian males, who intriguingly all seemed to have matching moustaches.
One of these people doesn’t quite fit in – can you spot who?
Jocelyn dancing on the hill top with random passers-by
The TV crew were really only interested in the outbreak of Swine Flu which had just reached 30 people in the city of Pune - our next destination. They wanted to know what foreigners thought, but we had suspicions that they were photographing us as the culprits for bringing it into the country, even though we’d not been to Pune yet. There were a lot of questions about how seriously we were taking the pandemic. Obviously it was a little hard to believe with our outfits.
No really we ARE taking swine flu seriously
The last leg to Pune was on a freeway again which was a relief as we were back at our top speed of 50 km’s an hour – wahoo we were positively racing along! On the freeway there were a couple of tunnels, which unlike the western world were not lit on the inside. By the time we realised that we needed to turn our lights on it was pitch black and we couldn’t see where the switch was. A moment of panic from Mel who was driving and some fumbling from Tom (with the lights of course) and all was well again.
That night Mel was interviewed by Chitra Nair of The India Times who had studied and worked in Melbourne before becoming a journalist back home in India. The Mumbai Xpress rally was once again in the paper the following morning!
Finishing line in sight - Alibag, Mumbai
Now we were practically at the end of our adventure. Only two days of driving to go and we’d be in Mumbai, the finishing line.
The first destination we headed to was Alibag, a seaside town just south of a major river estuary between it Mumbai. On route we found a beautiful set of caves that used to be inhabited by monks and had stone carved rooms and incredibly ornate façades.
Buddhist caves outside Pune
Driving through a third mountain pass we found another set of westerners, Canadians, who were also driving their way around India in a rickshaw. Lucky for them those guys they had a four month trip ahead of them, so plenty of time for the joys of breakdowns.
Navigating the freeways or motorways through the mountain was interesting as again three wheelers were not allowed on the new toll ways but were allowed to use the old road, which looked pretty similar in parts if you ask us.
Thinking that we had the old route identified we suddenly found that the road ended with a pile of rubble and we had two seemly similar roads to follow. This happened twice. The first time locals just pointed us in a certain direction but the second time there was no one around and without a compass we couldn’t work out which was the continuation of the direction we had been travelling in let along which road was the new or the old.
Which way now?
By sheer luck we found ourselves heading in the right direction and passing the town identified on our days instruction sheet. Only to later find out that we had subsequently travelled for about 100 km’s out of our way rather than taking a short cut route through a mountain pass to Pen. Never mind, we were clearly getting as much rickshaw driving in as possible on our last couple of days!!
Alibag was a quite a lovely town. We enjoyed weaving through the narrow streets looking for a synagogue (one of that days challenges). We have to thank inter-team camaraderie for finding the place as Zach and Malcolm from Chai Rollah had spent two hours and climbed to the roof of a building to try and find it. We on the other hand only had to follow their GPS coordinates.
Markets in Alibag
The last and final day took us into Mumbai our final end point. We were warned in the morning that the traffic and police in Mumbai would be far worse than the traffic we had seen anywhere else and that we were to avoid driving in convoys for fear of gaining too much attention. As it was the traffic although a Friday was like a quite Sunday’s driving, because much of the city had been closed due to swine flu fears.
Meeting at a car park near Juhu Juhu beach, we all drove the last 800 meters to the Marriot, our finishing line, together. A very sad last part of the journey as we’d had so much fun that it was a group consensus that no-one was ready to go home yet but it was fun driving in convoy together, with everyone filming everyone else on their camcorders and digital cameras.
And so it was outside the Marriot in Mumbai, where our 2000 km’s journey ended and where more red bull drinks and media crews met us. We then very sadly handed over the keys to our rickshaws so that they could journey back to Chennai ready for the next set of insane explorers.
The Beast Crew
The Mystery Machine
Thanks to the organiser's and mechanics - CEM's
As a finishing note we should probably end here by commemorating and applauding some of India’s best road safety signs that we sighted along our journey.
We’d always thought New Zealand had the best signs such as their ‘merge like a zip’ campaign which is supposed to get people on the freeway to let other people joining the freeway in, but India’s were by far much more creative;
Good driving is like breathing – don’t stop it!
Drive like hell and you’ll end there!
Control your nerve on the curve.
Safety on the roads is safe tea at home.
And our personal favourite….
Everything comes your way…. when you’re in the wrong lane.
The entire journey in photo's (on Flickr)
If you would like to view all the photo's from our trip then you can view them all on Flickr;
Thank you to those that donated
A special thanks goes to everyone that donated money to Round Table India to help us make our journey a success in more than just the adventurous sense.
