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!

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Global Children's Trust, Karma Enduro - November 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.