Curried Away

We made it! Last night we rocked up to Darjeeling at around 5pm, just as the sun was setting. We’d left ourselves a monster drive to complete the trip, getting up at 4:30am to cover the kilometers.

The roads were generally forgiving for the first part and we’d got to the ‘bottom of the hill’ by noon. One final round of repairs was done - a welding job on the exhaust of one rickshaw, and lots of tightening of nuts and bolts (to stop the seats sliding off the chasis completely) - and we were ready for the final climb.

The Himalayas sprung out of nowhere, suddenly emerging from the Indian dusty haze in a daunting fashion.

Then began 4-5 hours of exhilarating mountain driving, twists and turns a plenty, and hairpin turns beside drops of hundreds and hundreds of metres.

We bumped into Tom & Jenny, Mat & Claire on the way up - obviously having caught up loads of ground with our early start.

So in a frantic procession, we scaled the mountains, to an unbelievable reception from the locals. The narrow, pretty streets were lined with people, for a stretch of around 35km. They were laughing clapping and waving, shouting hello and good luck - it was actually really emotional and touching to see such a response. The local press had covered the story, so people were actually on the lookout, expecting us!

So we arrived and parked up for the last time, checking into a hotel with amazing views and hitting the bar quite hard. Sore head aside, we’re feeling great about the whole trip, fantastic fun, a real adventure, and massive relief to complete it in one piece.

Keep a look out on the website, as I’ll be sorting out a load of photos and will write up the diary I’ve been keeping. I’ll also post some information about the final charity total raised, and pictures from the ‘marching band rickshaw procession’ that is taking place through the town tomorrow!

There’ll also be a TV show about the challenge, on satellite, and a DVD available to buy in due course, keep watching this page for info. 

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