Our final driving day and an early 6am start, despite only a distance of 175kms to cover. We took this to mean that either we had some tricky obstacles to overcome en-route or the Karma Enduro team had planned an exciting surprise for us.
We decided that it was likely to be a ‘hairy run’ to the finish line in Cochin and so planned to travel mid to back of the fleet to avoid the ‘testosterone push’ to be first. That said, we had completely forgotten about the ‘last in (the night before) first out’ rule, meaning that we had accidently picked up pole position. With the unusual combination of a 2 litre car and tread on our tyres (a number of cars running on bald tyres!) we cruised the early mountainous routes, enjoying the view of our tame German racing-driver friend picking his way through the cars into second position, but alas he was unable to keep up. Apparently, it was still the car that was the problem!
Periodically we would salute with opening our doors whilst driving, which is something that Fritz had become famous for to cool the inside of his car down. Like many of the others, it does have air conditioning, but to use it reduces the cars power by about a third! The gradient and steepness of hairpin bends was already necessitating 1st gear climbing in parts and so losing a third of power output was just not an option!
At our first stop it became clear that there was a problem, and eventually news filtered through that two good friends (a father and son-in law team from Southern England) had been hit by a lorry and written their car off in a ditch! They had been given a car without seat belts, and so it was a huge relief to see that they were ok (just very shaken up), even if the car wasn’t! Such was the relief to see them walking and ok when they were eventually transported to the main, (group minus their car) that they were given a round of applause. It was time for a medicinal chai, and then back on the road.
By the first scheduled stop at a large dam Fritz was determined to take the lead and so discretely removed our keys from the ignition. We managed to locate them in time to see his car go speeding by. With some clever manoeuvring we did manage to regain our rightful place and then the fun began. The rest of the journey became a war of attrition between us, Fritz and Marcus with the lead regularly changing place between those three cars. Whatever Marcus or Fritz may have lacked in engine power, they more than made up for in creative and tactical manoeuvring. Roy meanwhile was driving like a man possessed, which was pretty scary at times for all concerned!
Our next stop was right on the side of the main road into Cochin. Imagine if you will 32 cars all parked on the edge of a major and very busy road waiting for a police car to lead us in to the finish line which was at our hotel less than 2km away. 2,000km across Southern India (in terms of intensity – probably the equivalent of 8,000km – 10,000km across Europe!) and then we spend nearly an hour waiting to complete the final 2kms.
The police car didn’t arrive and we were growing restless and desperate to get to the hotel and into a cold shower that we just drove off in the end to find the hotel ourselves. Three other cars followed, but it spurred the Karma team to take the initiative and bring in the rest of the group. This was one unnecessary stop too many. Needless to say there were no cheering crowds for our finish, nor any great displays of emotion as all of the waiting around had created a slight sense of anti-climax for many, although we did later receive an apology for the poor organisation and communication from the organising party.
That slight disappointment aside there memorable factors that really did stand out for us about our adventure, which were:
• What a truly beautiful country India is, and what beautiful people it breeds
• That the main currency is a smile here and is used often!
• How tough and challenging it is to drive on India’s roads
• What a wonderful group of people had participated in the challenge – kindred spirits, bonded by their love of adventure and desire to leave the world a better place than they found it
• What a genuine privilege it is to be alive and in a position to help others
I am extremely grateful to have had such a rich experience and would like to thank my good friend, driving partner, and charitable trust co-founder, Roy and also my wife Karen, for not just taking care of the home and of our two young children, Charlotte and Samuel and dog Yogi whilst I’ve been away, but for also understanding my desire to make a difference.
Thanks to you too for reading these blogs – it’s been wonderful to share just a part of this whole experience with you, and thank you in anticipation for your help and support with The Global Children’s Trust!
After breakfast, I went out of the hotel to get some fresh air. Immediately out of the hotel I was lost in a mass of hustle, bustle and friendly people. It was a glorious morning and so there were a few other drivers out doing the same thing, and so great to say hello and catch up.
On my way back to the hotel Steve came passed the other way in a tuc-tuc and asked if I wanted a lift into the main town. I was planning on coming back to my room to write up an load up our blogs, but it seemed to good an opportunity to miss and so we travelled into town listening to Indian music from the tuc-tuc’s stereo system!
The town was like a huge market and the air alive with so many different scents and smells. I don’t normally do shops, but this was an experience not to be missed. My only purchase however was a net of 6 footballs to hand out to children on our next stage.
The morning’s briefing confirmed a short 120km hop to our next destination, which was great news after such a long run the day before. We were encouraged to take our time, travel at our own pace and take in the sights and photo opportunities as we drove through the extensive team plantations. We could have never imagined that tea plantations could be so large or so beautiful.
Could this be the first time that we will actually be left to our won devices, without a series of all too frequent and very lengthy re-grouping stops? Absolutely not – as proven with a 50 minute wait on a roadside after just 10kms! The only saving grace was the beauty of the landscape as that we drove through of high altitude tea plantations – which was simply stunning!
In an attempt to continue our theme of lunchtime thalis in local restaurants, we stopped at an extremely ‘local one’ that had a very limited menu, but seemed both friendly and open that we ordered a mutton dish that was prepared fresh. It was extremely tasty, although Roy’s insides still continue to flush with worrying regularity and consistency. Once again, we fast became the attraction as the only ‘white faces in town’ and a chance to practice broken English. Still – their broken English was far outweighed our mastery of Hindi and so we were only too happy to oblige. An expensive one this time at £1.50 per head with drinks!
Surprisingly, even after a lunch stop we were still not at the back of the pack, and so we chose to amble! This gave us more opportunity than usual to stop and interact with the children and parents en-route.
The funniest of these interactions came when we spotted a small boy who was quite scruffily dressed. We stopped and gave him a large orange football, which was almost his size. He seized it and ran off, just in case we took it back off him! Eventually he cam back passed whilst Roy was taking some pictures with a grin still running from ear to ear! At this point three men emerged from a house that we had parked\abandoned our car outside. With my UK head on I prepared for confrontation. This is India, and so instead they wanted to know all about us (where we were from? where we were going? how did we like India? what did we think of Kerala? etc.) Next came the killer question that completely caught me off guard half way up a mountain side – did we want to come in for a coffee?
‘Of course, yes please!’ I replied and so off we went. I think Roy thought I was mad, but bless him – he went along with it and we enjoyed one of the best cups of fresh coffee I have ever tasted! We covered a huge amount of ground in pigeon English and were having a ball as the last of the Karma cars drove passed. Next thing we knew was that Karma Enduro’s ambulance pulled up behind our car. It’s crew’s job is to stay behind the last car and bring up the rear. As this was such an unusual place for us to be that we had not even seen the ambulance before, never mind be followed by it! To make amends for holding them up whilst we were finishing up our coffee, we invited the crew to join us, which they gratefully did! We in the meantime finished up and set back on our way after 10 minutes of heart-felt goodbyes.
Loving this country and its people!!
Despite the inaccuracies and vagueness of the directions we made it to Thekaddy, our final destination for the day, in last place. Without realising it, by arriving last we had inadvertently put ourselves into pole position for the next and final driving day!
A nice resort, but a huge climb up many, many steps to our room!
We took a wander into town before dinner to check out purchasing some gifts for home and to see what was going on. I discovered an Ayurvedic massage specialist (a system of traditional medicine native to the Indian Subcontinent) and booked in for later that evening. Whilst invigorating and energising, it proved to be a very naked experience in the company of two male masseurs! Fortunately, my ‘oh shit’ reaction was not justified and I was not treated to any unscheduled ‘extras!’
I gratefully rejoined our group for dinner and drinks on outdoor roof terrace. This was the evening before our final drive and a great opportunity to reflect upon the colour and diversity of the people, countryside and driving styles of India.
Even within our group it has also been a genuine pleasure to meet such great group of people. Again such a mixture, but in essence kindred spirits who enjoy adventure and genuinely want to contribute to making the world a better place – so thank you to all of the wonderful people we have met this trip – you have helped make the experience fun and special
As we were split across two neighbouring resorts each resort took a turn to host dinner. Last night saw us going to the other resort, where so many people spoke to us about how they would have loved to have come to the orphanage earlier to see the children during the course of last night. It’s so encouraging to have so many people taking an interest. In fact, a number of people insisted that I speak to the whole group the following morning briefly about The Global Children’s Trust and our visit and how they could get involved in helping by donating.
As a direct consequence of this little talk at our morning briefing, several people kindly donated enough collectively to buy the required beds, and I have arranged with Anushri from Jungle Huts (our accommodation for last 2 nights) to own and coordinate a small fund on our behalf with Grace from Happy Home. Anushri is going to visit the orphanage to scope out the actual beds required so that they can source on our behalf as cost effectively as possible these and the other items required.
Many more have promised to donate and support The Global Children’s Trust once back home too which is tremendous news. With continued financial support, we can make so much of difference to this and the other orphanage already being sponsored.
The main news at the briefing itself was a major route change following the extensive landslides and damage caused by a cyclone passing through our current region, Tamil Nadu, where 42 people had already lost their lives as a direct result. The routes on our planned route were blocked and so instead we were to be driving a long 400km run to Munnar in convoy.
On departing Jungle huts we took our first casualty. In driving through the small neighbouring village a chicken – spooked by all of the cars flew into the side of our car. Ooops – what to do?? Fortunately, it got back up and walked off, so we disappeared quickly in case it had a relapse! Roy then reclined his seat and snoozed for the best part of 5 hours, stirred only by the stops to distribute cricket bats!
Ten minutes into his shift of driving Roy had a rude awakening and an unscheduled lunch stop where a road had been blocked and all of the cars in front had to turn around. In pulling to the side, he unfortunately completely missed the warnings of ‘Roy … watch out for the big stone – Roy … watch out for the big stone – Roy … watch out for the big stone – ROY … WATCH OUT FOR THE BIG STONE!!’ Instead, what he did hear was ‘CRUNCH – SPLASH’ as he ran over the stone (nearly 30cms out of the ground, marking a ditch) and dropped into a ditch! Fortunately with some help we were able to lift the back end of the car and push it out of the ditch without a tow rope in sight! A huge relief as we were worried that we might have bent the axle given the awkward angle that the roadside rear wheel was sitting at. Thankfully all was well.
Whilst waiting the best part of an hour in the blazing heat for the Karma team to re-establish our route (which ironically matched the diversion signs in the end!) we tucked into a pakorah and some crisps purchased from a roadside vendor. We also bought 48 pens as well to hand out to children en-route. We also used the time to catch up with some members of the group that we hadn’t as yet spent much time with.
Ten minutes into our new route and we passed the most amazing drive in restaurants – but hey, hey! Instead, I reclined seat and relaxed too – what a wonderful recharge!
This gave Roy the opportunity to continue a fast run between towns, taking up the head of the pack. After a short while however we had company as another Ambi caught up whilst we were caught in a line of traffic and spent the next hour desperate to overtake with great enthusiasm. It made for a very fast convoy and a great deal of fun! The driver of this car turned out to be Fritz, our friendly German driver who used to race for the Porsche works team. This turned out to be the first of many duels, and was impressive enough to earn his congratulations at the next re-grouping stop!
This stop gave us a chance to stretch our legs and swap over drivers. The first stretch saw us driving through another Tiger reserve (sadly without incident or sighting) and then on to the inevitable mountain climb – my favourite bit of driving. Having restarted well down the fleet, we caught up to 3rd, once we had passed our favourite German car for a 4-car team display of mountain driving at speed. Now that we know these cars, we’re able to slide them around the scariest of corners on the most remarkable of surfaces (the road surface is very rarely flat!) – what fun, as we went up and down two sets of mountains, the second in complete darkness on gravel, with no safety rail! How often do you get the opportunity to climb such a high mountain (approx. 2000 metres) in darkness and in company – it would have been too good an opportunity to pass up!
Overall though – it was a long hard day, with 13 hours of driving in total (with the last 2 hours on small roads in complete darkness), and so we were very relieved to pull into a lovely hotel (a converted theatre) for our overnight stop in Munnar. A quick dinner and off to bed!
Despite having a rest day, we left at 7am on a safari trip. We set of in eager anticipation of seeing some of the tigers that live wild around here, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be. Instead we did see some deer, elephants and huge bison.
We were starving by the time we arrived back and settled in to a gorgeous breakfast which included eggs and bacon – yum! Some great conversations ensued over breakfast. We have arranged to visit a local orphanage this afternoon, and several of the group have asked to come with us. Some have even brought clothes with them to donate.
We’re getting to know the other members of our group much better now as we finally have some time together, and what an interesting mix of people from some incredibly diverse and exciting backgrounds, all with a love of driving and curiosity about India at heart.
This afternoon I had arranged for Roy and I to visit a local orphanage about 30 minutes away from where we are staying and was delighted when 3 other people asked to come along. One even gave up his safari trip to join us which was a generous gesture – but this is a guy who is completely energised by being around children, and such a pleasure to see!
The orphanage was a great experience – such a lovely place to see. Considering that we turned up unannounced, the place was so clean and the children so beautifully cared for and respected, which was reflected in how they treated us and each other. We had such fun with Stef organising singing with the girls and the boys playing cricket and with cameras we all had so much fun!
We left Grace (the lady who runs Happy House) with lots of goodies for the children and a promise to look into funding the building of a large climbing frame and tree house for the boys to play and beds for the kids to sleep on to supplement those already there. We’d also like to fund someone to go in an decorate the whole place in fun pictures and paintings too. We will be speaking with the trustees in a few days to find out what else would make a difference, and so watch this space.
I have been genuinely humbled by the number of people on this trip that would like to donate to or become involved with the work that we are doing with the Global Children’s Trust. Thank you to all of you, including those of you back home
Just a short drive today, and so we were gifted a lie in and late breakfast, which was wonderful!
Following another gorgeous local thali en-route through rural India (£2 for both of us this time!), we were pleased to make our destination by 3.30pm with the promise of a day off tomorrow and so chance to relax, recharge and spend time with the rest of the group. We’re all pretty weary by this stage of the journey.
What a great place to stay. It’s a jungle retreat called Jungle Hut, run by the ex-Indian National Rally champion Vikram Mathias, just inside the region of Tamil Nadu
I treated myself to a massage before dinner (£12) which was a relaxing way to start the evening. Dinner had a hint of familiar foods which was great. The food over here has been wonderful, but I never thought that I would be so pleased to see broccoli, potatoes and garlic bread amongst the curry dishes!
With all the adversity of the day before there was an incredible chatter over breakfast this morning, akin to that of jungle chatter, which was very fitting given that we were at a jungle retreat called Silent Valley.
It transpires that the mechanics had spent most of the night up on the mountain side trying to fix and recover the damaged cars. They eventually arrived back at 5.15am, with having had to tow two of the cars back.
Rain had moved in during the night. Given that this was the first rain in a long time over here, the roads were going to be pretty slippy, which was going to make for a treacherous drive down the mountain side for those cars with bald tyres, and even more treacherous for the car without working windscreen wipers, which ironically belongs to the Chief Exec of Unicef, one of Karma Enduro’s main charitable sponsors\beneficiaries. The money that we have raised for Unicef as part of this trip (approx. £75,000) is going directly to supporting aids relief and prevention for the children along the route which we are driving, which is extremely poignant, but it would appear that David and his daughter Katie have been given a greater endurance challenge than most of us. Their 13 year old car went on to break down 5 times today, once cutting out in the middle of the road. The also experienced two punctures the day before – definitely a test for the most patient of personalities!
Our drive down was spectacular from a scenic and enjoyment perspective, through the coffee and tea plantations once more. In particular watching the people harvest on near vertical mountain slops was little short of incredible. India is most definitely a land of versatile and resourceful people.
During our morning chai stop we came across a group of 7 children and so kicked off a game of cricket once more. Within 5 minutes the number of children had multiplied to over 50 as word got around about the rally in town, and the game of cricket being played by the roadside! I forget how many hands we shook and how many times we introduced ourselves, but what a pleasure …
We also had opportunity to stop off at the Belur Temple, which was constructed nearly 1000 years ago, and still in pristine condition, and design with such intricacy. Roy and I had an appointment with a charity in Mysore, our next destination and so quickly grabbed a quick Thali at a restaurant recommended by the locals. We counted 13 different dishes. The bill came to a staggering £4 for both of us including drinks! Spurred on by the experience, we put our foot down and headed the remaining 200km to Mysore.
Having cleared with the rally leader that we would be travelling directly there ahead of the group, we gave them a toot on the horn and flew solo all the way into the city an were greeted by a spectacular Indian 5* hotel (3* in European standards, but feeling like 5* after many of the places we had been staying thus far!
Billie, our travelling Indian guide had very kindly organised another trip, this time to see the old Maharaja’s Palace. On a Sunday evening between 7pm and 8pm it is lit up with over 99,000 light bulbs, and looks incredible – think Harrods at night with more lights and 6 times the size and in the shape of a palace and you should et somewhere close to the spectacle that we were treated to, before a 40 minute detour from our tuc-tuc driver as he tried to introduce us to the shops of various family members, followed by a lovely dinner in the hotel.
We left the business of Shimoga for the peace and tranquillity of the coffee and tea plantations, before reaching the jungle – or so we thought!
Driving through the plantations was wonderful, so peaceful and colourful and lovely warm, trusting people en-route, which hopefully comes through in some of today’s pictures. Several time we were able to stop and play cricket with the local children. The bats and balls seem to be going down well and will hopefully get well utilised over the comings months.
Today saw us climbing to over 1000 metres, via the inevitable hair-pin bends twice, but in between we had a wonderful drive along the edge of the Ghat mountains with the cars spread out and visible for several kms. As we are now all pretty comfortable with the hill climbs and this is India – there was another surprise that caught us all off guard, and that was approx 10kms of extremely narrow and very deep pot-holed roads – a huge test of anyone’s skill and reaction as a driver.
As the pot holes were much deeper and more frequent than experienced to date (on the edge of a vertical mountain-side drop!). In fact, they were now approx 40 per 10metre stretch of road – it’s similar to some kind of endurance puzzle that you have to weave through just to get down the mountain! This stage took about 3 hours to cover because of the intensity and slow speeds involved, and saw 4 cars lose their sumps completely and the mechanics had to work overtime. Sadly one car had its sump replaced and became mobile again, but because they had to collect another 2 passengers and their baggage (who had lost their sump too) they caught another big pot hole and broke another.
Losing a sump means that the oil leaks from your engine (usually at an alarming rate) and until empty and then if still driven the engine will seize completely. Imagine losing your car up a mountain in a foreign country.
We also saw one car go off into a steep and deep ditch which looked quite scary. To make matters worse the co-driver was bitten by two leaches. We stopped en-route for a fluid level adjustment later and headed off into the trees, only to come back with a leach of our own which was quickly ejected!
Eventually, we made it close to our destination in the dark, but once again the directions were incorrect – so wishing that the organisers would give us a map as it’s pretty tough to navigate at night on a mountain side with inaccurate directions. The funny thing is that it has become clear that they don’t have a map either which is nothing short of irresponsible, and something to be picked up on our return with the other health and safety issues. Again, we have been lucky with our car, but many of the others have been running on bald tyres and without seat belts since day one.
It appears that everyone got lost because of the directions, but eventually managed to make it to the jungle camp by asking directions. Great to meet the huge spiders that chose to share our room! They were huge! Still at least we weren’t in the room with the scorpions which weren’t discovered until the morning!
On leaving the hotel we headed off down the main highway, with Roy at the wheel and thoroughly enjoying the ‘up close and personal’ driving style of the main roads around towns and cities. With the addition of huge craters in the road and having to regularly traverse the whole road to get through the smaller pot holes 6cm to 15 cm inches versus the bigger ones of 15cm to 30cm deep and up to 1 metre in width!
Often there are typically up to 20 pot holes like this within a 10 metre stretch of road and so it makes the journey quite exciting, as well as giving Roy increased opportunity to spot more gaps between cars to overtake, undertake and swerve past. It definitely feels as though we have acclimatised to the road system and driving style over here. I just hope that we can re-adapt once we get back to the UK otherwise we may finish up in a whole heap of trouble!
The most amazing thing is how well our car (Katie) stands up to the extremes of driving that we are putting her through. If anything, she appears to really enjoy it!
Following another hill climb, we stopped for lunch at Jog Falls, a hugely impressive family of waterfalls cascading 253 metres, and the highest plunge waterfall in the whole of India, and quite spectacular.
We took the opportunity to enjoy lunch in a tiny (3 metre x 6 metre) restaurant, with just one table, whilst it’s host cooked omelettes for us and the monkeys watched on in envy!
I took over for the descent, and subsequent hill climbs and we continued to push Katie up and down the hills and once again caught up with the lead car (being used to forward mark out the routes) and followed it into Shimoga. Here the main attraction was us in a very Indian town with very little or no tourism.
We had a quick explore at night in search of a new watch strap to replace mine that had broken earlier in the trip. The sights were incredible – so busy and dusty and without pavements you could not take your eyes off the moving traffic (motorbikes, tuc-tucs and bikes – very few cars!) for a moment. We successfully bought and had fitted a new strap by candlelight from a street vendor for a cost of 60 rupees. As this was less than £1, we resisted the temptation to haggle, particularly given the entertainment that they had laid on with the rat (the size of a rabbit) which decided to cross the road and visit, before being shoo’d away by neighbouring vendors to re-cross the busy road. Somehow, I think it will be a while before the rat’s bruising and headache disappears!
There was a very sombre mood over breakfast this morning. Many people had not slept well and were extremely disappointed with their overnight accommodation. For many, not only did they not sleep well, but they had either no electricity, sanitation or both. I was one of the lucky ones that did, but woke at 4.30am and could not wait to get outside. Apparently, the bikers from the biking trip love it, and as our trip is organised by bikers, so do they. It may take them a while to recover and justify this one!
On the up-side today’s drive was an incredible mountain stage over rough and ravel roads, which we both led and loved. Miles and miles of hair-pin bends and steep gradient were a truly exhilarating experience and having learned how to confidently slide the car around the tight bends we were able to keep up with the lead car (a 4 wheel drive jeep, which was built for this kind of terrain) for most of the way – a driving day to remember! And thank you Roy for being such tolerant passenger as it can’t have been half as much fun as a passenger!
On the descent and back on to normal roads and civilisation we had a great refreshments stop where once again we were greeted by the locals. Roy and I kicked off a game of cricket in the street, before walking into the grounds of the local school and kicking off another one there! The kids and the teachers loved it. Truth be known – so did we ?
On driving into Muradishwar, our overnight stop we were greeted by an enormous Shavi temple, The temple is built on a Hill which is surrounded on three sides by the waters of the Arabian Sea, dedicated to the Lord Shiva. A 20-storied Gopura has also been constructed on the temple with two life-size elephants in concrete standing guard at the steps leading to the temple.
We stopped on the approach to the day’s finish to buy a pack of 10x cricket bats to leave with children and schools along the way. Roy, having enjoyed a rest day today from driving, then asked if he could drive the last 300 yards into our overnight car park, which made me chuckle!
A great day’s driving, and very grateful to be in the sanctuary of somewhere clean and pleasant to overnight, although by the sounds of it, it could be sometime before many of the group forgive Karma Enduro for skimping on the pervious night’s accomodation.
Our route took us across the whole spectrum of India’s roads, from busy major routes, to back roads, to steep, winding mountain passes.
Fortunately, we are feeling pretty acclimatised to the India style of driving, which in many ways makes complete sense, India’s driving habits are often described as erratic, frightening and dangerous. Certainly the latter can be true on an all too regular basis and we have lost track of the number of ‘big accidents’ we have seen or come across, including one fresh fatality on our first day driving which, despite involving a local boy who none of us knew served as a very sobering reminder for how careful we need to be whilst driving over here.
If I were to summarise the driving style in India, I would categorise it as follows:
• Do not stop until you absolutely have to, i.e.
o Find a space (that might be\become wide enough for your car) and drive towards\through it, and keep going until you cannot fit any further or you make it through!
o Be as resourceful as possible in finding or creating that space
? Remember that a 2-lane road will be wide enough to squeeze into 4 to 5 lanes if you leave only millimetres to either side of your car – so do it, otherwise you will crushed by everyone else, and never get moving!
• Use your horn all the time, and then some more!
o Over here this tells people where you are so they know, or if pressed for longer that you are overtaking so ‘don’t pull-out’
• Use the other side of a road as much as you need to, in order that you …
o Can overtake
o Avoid potholes on your side of the road
o Get to enjoy that side too!
• In the main, traffic will move if you demonstrate your intent, but a lorry is likely to win a game of chicken!
Fortunately because Roy and I have been over here for nearly a week now, we are pretty well acclimatised to the style, and love it! Mainly because if you overlay all of the above with the design of our car, which can be characterised as below, it makes for so much fun:
• Only 37hp, but an absolute workhorse which needs a bit of coaxing to accelerate hard, so keep your revs up when you can!
• Appealing, 1950’s design, modelled on the Morris Oxford and very basic
• Bouncy over bumps (but not necessarily in an easy to predict way!)
• Impossible to swerve without the back end sliding out, which you can do with much less effort than a swerve
• Great fun, and easy to become very fond of
We’re lucky as we have a 2 litre version with power steering and a stereo (most others are 1.5 litre without music of any fashion), and it came with a selection of Indian CD’s which have played non-stop ever since our first test run!
The highlight of our driving experience had to be our first taste of scaling and coming back down the Western Ghat Moutains, which was just so much fun, particularly when the tarmac gave way to gravel and we could use the cars natural slide to swing around the corners. Great fun for the driver, but apparently a tad nerve racking for the passenger at times!
The second highlight was seeing and waving to so many children and locals we drove past and we appear to build a mutual appreciation of each other very quickly which adds a whole new dimension to our journey.
Sadly the excitement of the days travel was quickly extinguished by the Karma Enduro team’s (the endurance challenge organisers) latest set of cost saving measures. Instead of us hiring the village’s entire fleet of fishing boats to sail out to an island for a local fish bbq, we ended up staying at the bar, local to the sub-standard accommodation, being: dirty, temporary and made of chipboard pallets – in essence a crate with a roof, with many sadly being without working electricity, toilets and water!) which were accessed through a ‘slum-like village’ with litter strewn everywhere, and costing in the region of £1 to £2 per night! Like Roy, I am very comfortable roughing it, and only 2 days prior we have been in slums feeding children. We just hadn’t anticipated staying in one after parting with a sum comfortably into 5 figures for the privilege! More than anything, I feel for the older members of the party who have every right to expect better than this.
It would appear also, that the Karma team are uncomfortable with our previously agreed plans to visit further schools and charities en-route, and sadly, the Karma team do not appear to like feedback from independently minded travellers who signed up for the originally marketed trip, and so the next few days could prove extremely interesting. In the meantime, we will continue to do as paid for and further hone our contingent plan, whilst sharing our experiences with the outside world, so watch this space …
