At last we were almost there; here was the final day of the challenge!!! We had a relatively easy run of 170 km to complete, straight down to Kanniyakumari at the tip of India. However, remember we had a top speed of 35 km so we couldn’t afford to relax! We had no official challenges today, rather more like sightseeing suggestions, with the only stipulation being that we were at our destination in time for the ‘grand’ awards ceremony/party in the evening. Among the suggested places to visit en route were some waterfalls, sadly, despite my extensive research I still can& [View Full Entry]

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The next day we all drove in convoy to Aravind’s father’s farm a short distance outside Tuticorin. It was absolutely beautiful, and again we were spoilt with marvellous hospitality and struck by the warmth of the people. We were to be filmed again by our old friends SS Music TV for a ‘pongal’ special. The pongal festival is specific to Tamil Nadu and is the equivalent of our harvest festival. As soon as we arrived we were given fresh coconuts to drink and copious amounts of exotic fruit. The idea was that we would be divided up into five mixed [View Full Entry]

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Having been flagged off, we then retraced our steps back over the bridge. We had been told that today’s roads were particularly bad, so much so that apparently all the rickshaws had had their suspension checked. Why I don’t know, as it was pretty dire anyway, and there didn’t seem to be much difference. Our ladybits (and those of Miss Havisham) were still getting a pummelling new suspension or no. We surmised that on the day that what we were actually driving on was a half finished road, as we would get to some tarmac and then it would abruptly [View Full Entry]

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In case you’re confused, god knows I am, yesterday was Day 4. Today, Day 5 is Madurai to Rameswaram. Pilgrims walk hundreds of kilometres to be cleansed and blessed here. We decided the best course of action was to get the hell out of Madurai in as short a time as possible so of course we ended up following one of the other teams……to the temple. Arse. The Madurai temple is meant to be something quite special, so, as per the rest of this trip, we didn’t see it. This was a shame but the temple was in the opposite direction [View Full Entry]

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Miss Havisham (the moniker we had affectionately given our rickshaw) was now festooned with even more tat than you could shake a stick at, it being a badge of pride to collect as much crap as possible throughout the trip. In Pondicherry we eschewed stalls of sarees to find Spencer’s Shoppe, an emporium of all things naff. Leaving nothing to chance we bought both a Ganesh (A Hindu God and ‘remover of obstacles’) and Jesus to protect us on our travels. We had also acquired throughout the rally group: Three bunches of red fake roses (one with dewdrops), in keeping with [View Full Entry]

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First of all, greatest apologies for not continuing in the blog in the fashion in which we intended - ie. daily. I hope this bumper edition makes up for it. Billie and I arrived back this morning, having dropped Rebecca off in Dubai. Yes, we all made it back in one piece and miraculously unharmed and a delicate shade of beige. Day Three Last time you heard from us was post-New Year's Eve in Pondicherry. Here you will recall we had our one and only day off. Pondicherry a former French colony still has a French quarter, and has many French [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year! We have finally made it and are not, as has been suggested, moonlighting in a call centre in Bangalore. Day One We arrived in Chennai in the early hours of Saturday 29th December. If you think London is polluted come to Chennai, smog capital of the world. We all sound like a bunch of navvies with our hacking coughs. We had our first driving lesson the following day at the Institute of Road Transport. This was also where we first set eyes on our rickshaws. We had the option of 'pimping the shaw', we went for the budget [View Full Entry]

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