Very quick update before I have to go to the dentist:
Day 1: Colva, Goa to Belgau
Shiv drove first, took a scenic shortcut to Ponda which ended up being the long way round. Concerned when we broke down after stopping, took a while to realise shiv hadnt turned the petrol back on... Jack driving up steep potholed roads with quarry trucks overtaking us, a lot of stalling. Me taking over for some steep turns, a lot of stalling again, v difficult hillstarts (someone else has to crank it up to start because it would destroy my back, imagine lawnmower start but 100 times worse), perfected the running start (passengers hold rickshaw on hill while driver starts, avoids complications of using footbrake, handbrake useless). Major pothole road with trucks passing, felt like riding a bucking bronco, but Spud our tuk loves it). Downhill through paddy fields then kinda onto the flat. Shiv takes us into Belgau, we lose For Tuk's Sake, we stay in a crappy hotel, they have a nice one.
Day 2: Belgau to Poona
Day of highway driving, two lane roads, very nice. Still some cows in the road, saw one person sitting in a lane playing with potatoes at one point. First experience of rain, put all our tarpaulin on, stopped raining. Steep winding downhill into Poona (me driving), bit scary. Spud doesnt like having no acceleration. Shiv takes over driving, random guy drives Janet (For Tuk's Sake) to a hotel and we follow. Shiv's driving style is well suited to Indian city driving and Jack and I hold on for dear life as she matches the locals for speed, courage and sheer audacity. 'Best hotel in town' turns out to be overpriced and very average. They want to run off with our passports to an outside photocopying place, we have no trust and so Tom and I follow.
Day 3: Poona to Ellora
Another highway day but starts off with Shiv taking us out of Poona, Poona goes on forever and is a horrible city. Lots of near misses with cows and goats. Jack drives us into Ellora where a few other teams are. Stay in some nice bungalows.
Day 4: Ellora to Dhule
Saw the caves in the morning. I see the majority but wisdom tooth coming through is massively infected so I give up to find antibiotics. Antibiotics I need cost me 6 rupees (7.5p), cheaper to have these problems in India than the UK. I do all of the afternoon's driving. Awesome scenery, we were on the flat, v v green, farmland, and then suddenly we were driving down the side of a steep mountain, we could see for miles and miles the air was so clear, the hills round here are steep with plateaus. Scenery was awesome so we did a lot of stops. Drove into Dhule which was my first experience of city driving. Great fun! You have to treat it like a computer game. Going those speeds we cant get hurt, you just have to drive into any gap! Spent the night in a reasonable roadside hotel, where the staff pretended to understand us then brought us something completely different from what we asked for. Extra mattress=box of matches. Ordering papadoms was an experience.
Day 5: Dhule to Indore
I did the early shift, was very tired. Reasonable driving then we thought all the trucks were parking up, turns out to be a massive traffic jam as trucks negotiate steep winding pothole roads, we nip around the outside for the most part. A big truck did the same but got stuck, held up all the traffic coming the other way, we saw someone come out of their truck with an axe and they smashed the guys wing mirrors. Halfway up Spud decided clutch control was not his thing and died, we blocked the traffic until we managed to push him to the side. He started very quickly. Janet not so lucky, the clutch died, and she was pushed to the top of the hill into some shade where two guys at the side of the road started repairs. Took 4 hours as they whizzed off and back to get parts. Eventually made it to Indore where we stayed in a plush hotel for the night. Everyone convinced me I HAD to get my tooth looked at, which basically means they wanted to have a lie in and swim in the pool. Dentist at midday then we're off.
