Day 45 - drive to Coimbatore

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The first day of the Ricksaw Run....

Festivities started off at 10:00 AM with a parade of rickshaws around Fort Cochin. A few speeches, including the Chancellor of Cochin, later was the official inaugaration and we were off by 11:00AM!

After an hour of navigating around Cochin city traffic, we finally hit the Highway. Inspite of today being Easter Sunday some spots still had significant bus and truck traffic. Outside of the inevitable damage we are constantly inundating our clutch with, we are trying to ensure our Rickshaw is getting the TLC it deserves with regular stops, "petrol/oil breaks" and checking of air pressure. We definitely underestimated the curiosity and excitement of the Indian population when seeing us drive around in a rickshaw, with some cars driving alongside just to get a better look

Tomorrow we set out early for Bangalore, with the goal of reaching there before 6:00 PM

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Photos

Inaugaration
The Meatless Travelers

Inaugaration
Rickshaws lined up for the inaugaration ceremony

Drive to Coimbatore
Cheri taking the wheel and navigating the Indian motorway..

Drive to Coimbatore
Chris "relaxes" in the back

Drive to Coimbatore
Caution: Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear

Drive to Coimbatore
Refueling pit stop for the northbound teams

Drive to Coimbatore
Beautiful views are great motivators

At Coimbatore
Wish we could have captured the look on the faces of the door staff when we pulled our rickshaw into the Le Meridien! Getting permission to park within the hotel parking lot took some convincing...