Hard to believe this was my last day in Nepal. I've had a lovely time, but more adventures beckon in India. We stayed in a small town for our first night on the road. There were several other teams about, so it was good to hear how everyone's first experiences had been. There were a few rumours of one overturned rickshaw, with the occupants slightly injured, but no one had any definite details - so, at this stage, just hoping it's a bit of scaremongering... Actually, from my point of view, the only bad point about yesterday was the blisters I have developed on my hands - they really are quite impressive! I will definitely be posting photos, though they may have to carry a warning! We had our first minor hiccup shortly after leaving last night's stop. As we pootled up a hill, the rickshaw bunny hopped a bit and then just stopped, on an uphill bend - not the safest place! Fortunately, another team were right behind us, so we cleaned the spark plug, waited a few minutes then rolled it downhill and were able to bumpstart her again - and after that, she was fine. I took over the driving shortly before we came to the border. There, we passed through Nepalese immigration with no problems whatsoever, but were told we had to go to the Customs House to clear our rickshaws. Here, we met bureaucracy at its slowest. We had all the necessary documentation, indeed, we were told that several teams had passed through about 20 minutes before we arrived. But, for reasons unknown, they were not so keen on waving us through. There ended up being about eight rickshaws all parked up in a row, having all submitted export documents, before we were taken to see the Head guy, who wasn't happy with something. The heat was just unbearable, with so many lorries waiting to cross, all with engines idling - it was unbelievable. Finally, the Head decided he would only be happy if someone contacted the company which is leasing us the rickshaws, and he received some sort of faxed confirmation that we were indeed allowed to take the rickshaws over to India. Amazingly, this was the quickest part of the whole procedure - it was probably only about 15 minutes later that we were given all the papers back and were ushered on our way. We later found out that teams passing that way after us encountered no problems whatsoever. And so I drove us over into India. I didn't even have to leave the rickshaw to go to Immigration - Sharon took my passport and returned a few minutes later with the relevant stamp! Almost immediately, the roads seemed busier, noisier, more colourful... and there was a diference in the reception we received. It was almost universally positive in Nepal, but here, we seemed to be greeted with a healthy dose of indiference. Blank stares, people completely ignoring our calls of 'namaste'. Bit of a rude awakening! Further along the road, we indulged in a spot of black market currency exchange, before heading on to the city of Gorakhpur. Here, things got interesting... It was probably about 5.30 when we arrived, and somehow we navigated to the train station, an identifiable landmark, across possibly the maddest roads I have EVER encountered. There generally are few road rules. The most important is 'size matters' - therefore, the rickshaw can take priority over bicycles and scooters, but generally defers to jeeps and especially lorries and buses. On one of the roads, just off the main street, everything seemed to converge on one spot, with us stuck in the middle, not quite sure which direction to take! We were completely jammed in with pedi-rickshaws, bicycles, scooters, cars on all sides. So the only thing to do was just start edging regardless, VERY slowly, horm blaring and gradually we managed to make our way through the jam. It is possibly the single most exhilarating driving I have ever done!! It was just brilliant! I enjoyed it SO much - you just don't find traffic like that back home!!!! Finally, we made it to a hotel, and again, there were a few other teams there, so it was good to hear of their progress and chat about future routes etc. All in all, a great day's driving!