Well all ye of little faith, ourselves included, we made it. On new years day we left Cochin in south India to drive 4176 km and arrive in Kathmandu, Nepal fourteen and half days later, a little bit wiser about the rules of the road and a whole lot dirtier!

 Dirt has been a fairly consistent theme. Filthy hotel rooms in towns where tourism is unheard of, filthy faces after our night time visit to the coal mining district (definitely not in the Lonely Planet) and very few hot showers along the way. In fact the cleanest thing to arrive in Kathmandu was our trusty steed himself, courtesy of a bath as part of his well deserved service in Varanasi. Where else in the world can you get a rickshaw serviced at 10pm at your home, by candlelight, for a fiver? 

When we arrived, jet-lagged and culture shocked, we had only just bought maps and had no idea where we were going. Of course that night at the launch party many firm pacts were made to stick together and follow each other, as we all looked equally clueless and apprehensive. As well we might- driving lessons had consisted of being taken off by a random rickshaw driver, with no common language between us, who then handed Matt the controls as we approached a busy junction. He then proceeded to shriek unintelligible directions and wave his arms in the international code of panic (the driver not Matt). 

All pacts were broken however, in the chaos of the start half the teams ran out of petrol or got lost within a mile. By...[Read More]