The fine folks who have just forced a tin can from the South of India to Gangtok in the northern mountain kingdom of Sikkim got into many a pickle along the way.
Jamie from team Bad Case of the Rickshaw Runs put the range of tales from the road at the finish like this:
"Rickshaws falling off bridges, hitting elephants, deaths threats from police, travelling through civil war zone (think we may be included in that one), being captured by armed communist rebels, being put in secure compound for own safety during riot/massacre, brakes failing going down mountains...could go on forever."
Here's a range of updates from the road that came in as teams neared the finish line after two weeks of risking both life and indeed their very limbs to drive a lawnmower the length of India.
Crouching Tiger; Broken Rickshaw
Life without a rickshaw seems suddenly empty.
The Wrong Way Up
We jolly well did it! Arrived on day 15, clocked over 4000ks and came in 45 out of 70. Considering we dragged our shaw thru sand on 4x4, across a river on a canoe and on the back of an empty flat bed coal truck to get us out of bandit country. I think we did rather well. We seem to have had more mishaps than any other team, nearly thru in the towel but family and sponsors kept us going. Thanks guys, you made us proud and money still coming in, bigger update with large stories soon.
SikkimtheHead
final day= incident packed-ran out of petrol & hitchhiked & crashed on bend, toppling the shaw over, lucky no serious injuries! We're there, beer time!
Moby Rick
wow! What a drive! Thank god we came here. The people are fantastic and it's a beautiful part of the world. Quote of the day 'driving a rickshaw at night in india is like a cross between mario karts and mad max'
A Jersey Bean Crock
Saw K9 team @ dawn. Crossed northern tropic. Phill gashed toe in Ganges where we met several other teams. Solved poor running issue (again we think). Traffic getting more interesting. I'm the only one in our 2 teams who hasn't hit anything.
Cornershop Players
no more animal attacks so far today, just a truck corner coming in through the side of the tuk!
Percy and the Bounders
Exhaust dangling off,roof rack snapped.in denial.just ignoring it.80km in 4 hours. catch us if you can
In-dia Straits
We have made it, just! 2200 miles, 1 day off, a 24 hour breakdown, 3 days living on crisps and water, hundreds of mozzy bites and at least a stone lighter, what an experience, we could never describe how crazy the roads are, Gangtok is stunning, Lyla has seen better days but done us proud, finished 10th, well happy, thanks for everyones support and see you all soon.