We spent our first full day in Cairns exploring the Daintree Rainforest and river. For those that don't know, Daintree is considered to be the oldest rainforest in the world and is also the only place in the world where both wet and dry rainforests co-exist in such close proximity The day started at 7am with a drive up to Port Orchard. We then went on a cruise down the beautiful Daintree river (fyi, its brimming with crocs). Following the cruise we took a walk through the rainforest and got a lesson on all the plants and insects that call it home. We then went to a Kangroo/Wallaby refuge and were able to pet and feed some orphaned marsupials. After lunch we then went for a swim in the Daintree (in the croc free area). Finally ... read more

The rickshaw traveled around 1,600 km across three different Indian states to get to Calcutta (or Kolkota) on April 19. The traffic in Calcutta reminded us of why we were avoiding big cities, and was as bad as what we had experienced in Bangalore and Hyderabad. After having driven through almost 3,000 km through tough roads, cities and terrain, our rickshaw was not in the state to continue for the final 3 days that would ensure we reached Bombay in time for our flight to Australia. While we regretted stopping a little short of our target, we were glad that we were able to participate and experience the mayhem of Indian roads including both surprising acts of kindess and support from strangers as well as the craziness of people behind the wheel. Also, thanks to support ... read more

We set out for Hampi from Bangalore on Day 3, but had to split the journey into 2 days due to significant traffic in Bangalore (yes, much worse than in Bombay and Delhi) and some rickshaw trouble that we wanted to resolve before moving ahead. Our hotel was in the "outskirts" of Bangalore, but we still took about 2 hours to get away from the city traffic. Once outside, we ran into some car issues that took away the rest of the day. Thankfully, we got a rickshaw mechanic that fixed up our ride to as good as new, and we covered the distance to Hampi on Day 4. It was interesting to see the changing landscape through the drive, starting with closer to tropical in Bangalore, dry desert-like landscape as we passed through the heart ... read more

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 ... read more

On March 28th we headed to Bombay from Singapore, this was also our first missed flight of the trip. Our original flight was on Air India at 10:45am so we arrived at the airport at 9:15. However, once at the ticket counter, we discovered the flight was changed a day ago to 9:20am and we had received no notification of this change. Cheri then proceeded to have a 30 minute "conversation" with the Air India people explaining that just because they were supposed to call/contact everyone on the list, does not mean they did. Eventually we got a refund and rebooked on Singapore Airlines (~$100 more per ticket). This turned into a blessing in disguise as we quickly learned why SA is considered one of the best airlines in the world. They had ample leg room, ... read more