Day 6

Dad and uncle Terry had already sorted the Tuk Tuks at 6.45am, Terry had an extra shower this morning. Haha! It must have rained in the night and the roof to their Tuk Tuk isn’t tight, so when he knocked the roof to get the water off he forgot his back was hanging out the end of it and it all poured down him. Dad was pissing himself!

We had some breakfast, uncle Terry was determined to fill Ross up because he keeps moaning he is hungry everyday lol.

We went into the main town to see a temple that was supposed to be really nice, but first we had to get there and dodge the buses and drive through a sewer pipe that had burst - omg it was disgusting! And it was under the bridge! BOFF!

On the way in we stopped on the side of the road, where we thought we could park, clearly not! Haha. Mobbed by the local men’s conservatives club. Having a good old nose in our rickshaws, we put the Knauff Insulation tops on them and had some photos (those things they all love!) then the chai tea man came from across the road with his teapot to give us chai tea. We were making a huge traffic jam haha!

After a funny five minutes they showed us were to park and we parked up outside the temple in a sort of square. 30p to park each rickshaw. - extortionate price.

We couldn’t take anything into the temple, not even our bloody shoes. So me and Ross went in and the others stayed out. When we came out, the pide pipers had about 20 kids around them and the school teachers had already been out to ask them to go in the school.

We all walked in through the gates, teachers sat under the shade. One guy spoke to me and Terry... couldn’t come up for air! He already looked like he was gunna burst!

The school, Vidyapeeth high school was the only one in the English speaking school in the city. They have a college side to it with lots going on. Ross got talking to a teacher and they asked him to do a talk with the older kids, it was all a little chaotic on the school yard we all had about 40 kids around each of us all asking were we are from and what our names are. We couldn’t have a decent conversation with them, they didn’t want to know anything else.

We went downstairs from the school yard to a little dark classroom, it absolutely stunk of pee. Ross was stood concrete block in front of a class of probably about 20 school kids around the age of 14/15 years old.

Talking about his life and what he did to get where he is today and then he asked me up... my favourite thing in the world is to speak in front of big groups of people. Then they asked us questions, it was interesting and they were all participating and wanted to know things and interested in politics and the economy and our history, the relationship between us and them and the perception of India in the UK.

Then uncle terry and dad came in, and carried on the talk. We gave them one of our rickshaw run tshirts which they loved!

After the chat we had photos and they took us for sugar cane juice. Just the thing I didn’t want. The make it on the side of the road from big sugar cane being pushed trough rollers, the canes are sat there all day with flies surrounding them. I suppose they aren’t in the juice, it’s more the thought of it. Well and the unhygienicness of it ha.

We drank as much as we could to be polite, we sat for about 15 minutes in the sugar can hut and then boxed on to the rickshaws to get on our way.
But not before more ‘selfie, selfie, selfie!’

What an awesome experience to have with them though, they were all so happy and lovely. Actually want to learn and are interested in different topics.

We plodded on from the town at about 11.15am, we had a long way to go until Pune, I wasn’t certain we would get on the outskirts of it before dark (and we are not driving in the dark, that’s borderline suicide)

It was very hot and tikka taff two had a little oil leak, 6 days in could this be the first break down for the taffs? A lot of the other teams had already had breakdowns, some good some bad.

Dad had a check he thinks there’s oil coming from the gear box - if that runs dry we will have to have a new gear box and that could mean us out of action for a day.

We plowed on, there was no where for us to stop on the main road to Pune really. It was flat and the roads were really wide (not that it stopped cars and ikes speeding passed us and slowing down to try and get a selfie whilst driving in front or by the side of us; or pulling over in front of us to try and wave us down to stop and have a photo)

Nobody can I believe it when they see me driving the rickshaw, especially women. They double look or just stare until one of us smiles and waves or they punch the air as if to say ‘yes! Go on girl!’ Women here are classed so differently to men, it’s awful.

I’ve been liberating women since the day I got in this rickshaw, I tell you!

The last 50km was probably the worst, we had to go through two tunnels, one was awful and so dangerous. There was a traffic jam and nobody wanted to slow down or get into lane (of course) it was dusty and foggy and very dark. I could not wait to get out of that cave!

Pune was an absolute chaotic mess, the pollution just hit you. I had my bane mask on from knauff insulation.

The madness last about 15 minutes, couldn’t wait to get off that main highway and into the hotel, we had looked at the hotel Deccan Pavillion.

By the time we had stopped Ross had started to feel a little... let’s say dodgy. He had the sweats and a bad tummy - could this be another first for us today? The dreaded Delhi belly!

We checked in, Ross got straight in the shower and bed. I gave him some of my Delhi belly tablets I got in kochi and lots of water. We think it’s heat stroke though because he was super duper red and we have all eaten the same.

It’s a first for him to miss a dinner! It will be a cheap one tonight!
The food was delicious aswell as the beer but the table was up to our chins almost, the bloody chairs was so low! We asked if there were any higher ones and they just pulled the stool back from the table a little bit.

Only two recommendations for the place would be to get high seats and not have six waiters stood around almost watching everything you do and want to pour more into your drink from the bottle after every sip or put your food on the plate. Nooooo! ‘Sorry your lovey but your getting on my nerves. Stop. Step away from the table’.

We retreated with the two tanks of petrol (just incase, we are in the city so the security guards say) fumes coming out of dad’s room with 20litre of petrol in would be ridiculous. They put towels over them to try and mask the smell.
Ross was feeling better and had some boiled rice ordered to the room... yummy!!

220km covered today!