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!

What a day – endurance at its best!

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