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rickshaw run blogs jan 2014 North to south pan-india on a glorified lawnmower
for our second run April 2015 (west - east across the top 3000+ Km @ 40km/hr) go to DO blogspot
Caress the detail, the divine detail - Vladimir Nabokov Elaboration when you are into the journey is as inevitable as it is incredible. How we can recall every small detail of our experiences yet not how many times we have told the same person, listening patiently to our travel sagas, bored with image after image of holiday photos. It's the detail that makes a journey life changing, makes the learning permanent and that carries the most impact. The smallest of things or the synchronicity of flow, where events group and cluster themselves to have pattern or meaning to the learner, the observer, yourself. Sometimes it's even when you are doing nothing at all that the elaboration takes hold and you find yourself swallowed in the wonder of sights and smells. Or when the once surreal becomes so common cameras are away because we have enough camel shots. Day 9 on a road side shot I spot graffiti on the DO logo - who dares to suggest option A... Do nothing? A quick camera roll audit shows the molestation was pre race start. It's right in front of me yet I've failed to see it and Edward is quick to pick up on the point that without any driving hours under my belt and his commandeering control of the music it would appear to describe my role well. Maharashtra was our fourth state in India. Where routines were established and the patterns emerged. We were living on tenterhooks waiting for breakdowns that for World's fastest kiwi never came. Expecting the roads and challenges to become insurmountable. Plans for what we would do should a team fail to run a police check point. A forward route and time to head back North to see something spectacular are all the cul-de-sacs that elaboration take you on. By the finish line Curry pie had been to the shop four times. Nowhere near the mechanical darma we had pre planned for. We quickly learnt if it ain't broke don't fix it. And the engineers became so adept with #sugru, number 8 wire and gaffer tape that evenings in the hotel room were rarely workshops. Our chassis snapped at the roof line, a weld broken, realising that even with a broken frame an auto offers no protection against any impact so we chose to gaffer it, bind the gaffer in #8 and tuk on. It didn't even register as a breakdown when the other side snapped as well. Our day 2 spark plug ejection had held up well to early repairs, the day in Sai town had fixed the clutch though we were not 100% convinced that had even been a problem. In Maharashtra some crap in the fuel line was sorted and that was it breakdown tally 4 at a push and I only had to DO that once. Some teams had more than 50 breakdowns and spent a lot of time in the shop. When you stop you just sit, until the person seemingly wearing the best clothes in the village we called the Mayor, would arrive and direct proceedings, enquiring why we were loitering in their town and arranging to accompany us to the rescue. If you were limping along you target an auto taxi queue. And if it's sunset - you find a hotel with a bar and hope that when she has cooled her lid sweetie will perform in the morning. The advice from pre run to never push your tuk more than 100 kms without a chai stop and an hour long cool down were our rituals to avoid more drama. We'd picnic on road sides, brave man towns for water bottles and loo stops and take dal with truckies and pilgrims. Our data would amuse and confuse with devices random as to where they would work. But most days by 2pm we had decided how far we thought we could push on and started to find a bed for the night. We'd battle data outages to try and book on line, this is still the holiday season and the best places are busy with travellers and we know Goa is going to be packed.Our strategy for accommodation had become based on comfort, food and laundry. Many runners will scoff, once we realised we were all about enjoying this journey we were seeking the boutique Indian experience. A chateau, the Ivy restaurant, a trip advisor listing - booked on line so they could not refuse us at the door. Nothing of course was as expected. The chateau had gone broke in the GFC when they started importing wine to meet demand and hit market evaporation and a currency crisis. The Ivy was great at keeping the Chateau Indiage wine cellared or was it just no one had been there post GFC to drink it? That's not to say we ditched local lodgings closer to 2 star all together the Sitara near Indiage provided us there most delux of rooms - though no power to that floor for a while and going up class mean going upstairs, many flights with much luggage and no porters here. We did find their linen cupboard so helped us selves to more sheets. While no cleaner they were folded giving the illusion of freshness and motivation to rise in the dark and depart before the light would prove how wrong that assumption had been. Pune and the golden arches. Touches of western comfort for breakfast a bacon and egg mc muffin a vege birger or chicken - way to a mans heart. We were becoming accustomed to the segregation of women or so we thought until Man Town Kolhipur where Heather and I were evicted from the hotel bar for being unaccompanied. And the feeling on road side stops in parts was that our comfort zone really was eating in the autos as inside a permit room went just too quiet with so many stares that our nerves were exposed. We had rituals of worship for our autos, fresh flowers in the morning and fuel stop functionality with storage of funnels and hoses to keep dust out of their carbs elaborate. When you finish the run people always ask how often you see other teams - not often. Well behind the main pack rumours tell of 32 teams in one bar going in Goa but they will be long gone by the time we hit there. We see a few of the girl teams with four in a tuk on route, enough for a drive by wave and toot session. Perhaps 5 mins on the side of the road to check in and see if everyone is doing ok. But apart from our two tuk twosome we are alone on the roads of India with her people not ours. We pass the Irish team member who is alone as his team mates have had to return home for a funeral and another tuk keeping him company. We hear the Koreans withdrew on Day 1 and that 3 tuks have rolled and more have flipped. We meet the team from Barbados a couple of times, they are ducking off roads to find temples in search of a new experience. The most common request when you meet another team is for Rizzlas which goes to show what many may be up to on the road. Excitement watching the donations to our charities growing we are blown away with how friends and family are contributing to these causes and excited to know that this epic journey for Live More Awesome is raising real cash to fight depression back at home in NZ. The charities of other teams are inspiring - The Italians have gone to visit their charity and cooked pasta for them. The Cool Earth guys are chatting to us on social media encouraging the journey and thanking us for the money we are raising. The tracking map haunts us the main pack are way ahead, though only 20 odd teams of the 78 seem to be posting. You text your position each night so mums and dads at home can tell the kids the days installment. We have no idea where we sit except towards the back but we are comfortable there in our elaboration of the journey, this long middle piece, early starts in the dark of morning, late finishes as night falls, eating up miles and pushing for Goa our rest stop , our party place, the next state - Incubation.
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