Despite the morning's rain we had a good turn out of over fifty excited Rickshaw Runners on Saturday afternoon, for which the weather came good. Legendary fella, Steve at www.tukshop.biz loaned us two of his rather splendid looking Bajaj Rickshaws for the day and helped us give teams a quick lesson in the fine art of Rickshaw Driving.
Frank Water and Mercy Corps were also in attendance to talk with the teams about the awesome projects that they are supporting.
We had the teams doing laps of the park getting to grips with the not quite car, not quite motorbike controls. Reactions varied from laughter to hysterics and just plain fear as the teams started to realise exactly what they have ahead of them.
Entertaining for us, although it undoubtedly had Steve cringing, was witnessing countless drivers regularly fail to change from 1st gear to 2nd, selecting neutral instead, resulting in lots of noise but little movement.
A Special mention here must go to the sterling fellows of team Hurry Krishna who have got well and truly stuck into their fund-raising. They've already smashed the target 6 fold and have set their sights on the all time record for any team for any event. Since we spoke to them on Saturday they've already raised another £1000!
Left like overexcited kids after driving these little Bajaj beauties there was little else to do but unwind with a pint. The Grapes in the city centre was our destination of choice.
Inadvertently continuing the day's purple theme, we wandered next door for a curry at the world renowned Kutis.
All in all a great day and after blatting the little beasts to and from Mayflower park around the streets of Southampton I must say I'm mighty envious of the teams who will be heading out to Nepal in just under six weeks time.
17th April 2008
TukShop shows Runners how its done...
By Andy Place