Day 5
The heads weren’t too bad but Ross’s shoulders are like beetroots.
We started off around 7.30am, we were probably one of the very few teams that were able to get up without much of a hangover looking at the what’s all group. Some people didn’t get in until 3.45am. God knows what they were doing until that time, the party wasn’t that big there.
I had a tonne of washing to dry from what I washed the night before. the rickshaw was like a Chinese laundry with all the clothes hanging up in the rickshaw.
It was lovely and quiet getting out on to the main road. We went off the main highway today and more so an ‘A’ road. Through the little villages and towns, seeing the ‘real india’. Just as chaotic and busy with people and motorbikes.
The roads began to get windy and a lot more of an uphill climb, this isn’t so bad if your on a British road and not an Indian road.
Trucks here don’t stick to their speed limit especially when going down hill! They all pretty much have bald tyres with no tread and weigh he’ll of a lot. These coming at a speed and very often over taking another lorry or a bus which is almost if not worse than a lorry because those things do not want to stop or slow down for anyone. I absolutely s*** myself the entire time we were on that road. I couldn’t wait to get off! We had two very very close encounters with what I thought was a bus almost tipping over onto us coming around the corner so fast, he was probably spin around 40/50kmph down hill on a bend.
I was super happy to be getting off the road. Only after the check point we came across a Suzuki car facing the wrong way around on our side of the road all busted in but the engine still running (this accident had obviously just happened)
Great for the nerves! Gives me sweaty hands and feet thinking about it!
We got stopped at a check point, just a bunch of random police officers wanting some money from us, we smoothed them over with a laugh and joke and we were off on our way again. - thank god!
Too many dangerous encounters for me! Then just to top it off we got stopped by police check point, but slimey for my liking. We smoothed them over and just kept smiling and talking about how lovely their country and what we are doing. The firsts ones let us pass. Then the second ones asked for 100 ruppees per rickshaw. Ross didn’t realise we had given them ours and then tried to refuse to give it them, so they asked to have all their bags off the rickshaw and have a search, they were reaching in the rickshaws to undo the ties we had on them, good job they could figure out to unhook it before uncle terry stopped them as it was Ross’s little bag with his cameras in. But again, we managed to smooth it over pretty fast, they tried to sell uncle terry some pot but he laughed and told them he was too old, they let go of the rickshaw then and pulled the barrier for us to go.
Made our blood boil, the slimey bas**rds. Only manning it because it’s the weekend and they want a bit of extra dollar I expect.
We probably drove for about 80km maybe more through dead forestry and fields, we would either see abandoned houses or people walking in the middle of nowhere to nowhere. It was bizzare and a bit scary because if we were to have broken down we would have been a bit screwed to say the least. We seen a few monkeys, those horrible marquets again that I’m not a fan on.
It’s crazy how much the scenery has changed the further we go up the country. We’ve been spoilt with trees and backwaters and the cool breeze from the sea. Now we have very hot air, lots of dead trees and miles of crop lands. It’s nice to see the farmers having their sugar cane trucks piled stupidly high by buffalo and the farmers herding their goats down the side streets though!
We were pushing on down the main road to Kolphaur and to add to the s***ty roads we had already been on, we could now see a huge thunderstorm coming just as we got to the Belgaum city and bumped into a German team. They stopped to pull in because the wind came up fast and it all of a sudden looked about 7pm. Oh and it rained alright, and the wind was blowing a gale!
Dad and Ross weren’t too bad in the front but me and uncle terry got soaked in the back of the Tuk Tuks. When a lorry came speeding passed the spray was flying in!
Uncle Terry poked his head out to speak to someone on a motorbike after it stopped raining, I’m not sure he realised there’s no drains so the water just stays on the road. He had a surprise when the the motorbike sped up and splashed him all down his face and front, bloody hilarious!
Then the windscreen was leaking through the cracks onto the handle bars, haha! Let’s not talk about the wiper. Bloody hell, it took 10 minutes for it to warm up, the warmer it got the faster it moved haha!
We had about 65km to go to Kolphaur, the wind never died, almost did a Wizard of Oz, Dorothy. with the flags! We had to try and tuck them in so we didn’t topple over.
The rain was on and off but the wind just kept howling. We had safety protection goggles on from Knauf insulation to stop the sand going in our eyes.
The best bit, Ross had his washing hanging up in his rickshaw and a pair of CKs flew out and a converse sock, haha bloody brilliant!
We got to Kolphaur and the hotel Jotiba around 5.15pm just in time! I went inside to find some rooms, it absolutely hammered it down with not hail stones but balls of ice, it was crazy. All the kids were dancing in the rain. That must have bloody hurt.
We got a room, and it was tidy! The bed want rock and the tele and WiFi worked. Anough of that though it was beer time after a shower!
Lots of yummy food, uncle terry had his French fries with his chicken curry again. He was happy!
The plan for tomorrow is another big day to Pune but a little less danger in it fingers crossed!
260km covered today!