Arrival: Part 1

Heathrow Terminal 4 Checkin Zone C:

Problems arise when PB gets rejected at checkin - who knew you had to pre-book your flight out of the country = impromptu flight booking to Sri Lanka.

Debacle continues as HKC's parents reject the final wave-off on the pretence of parking payment. Hellie is left waving at strangers.

Just 20m further into the terminal and PB has his vital supply of deet taken away at airport security. DON'T THEY KNOW HE'S HAD DENGUE?! Finally, made it to the gate, not forgetting Gee's mandatory rice crispie Squares stash from Smiths.

Delhi International Indira Ghandi Airport, 8 hours later:

Immigration - check

Baggage - check

Customs - check

$$$$$ - check

Chauffeur - check check (we're not kidding, two men came to pick us up)

First rules of the road noted:

1) Zebra crossings do not necessarily favour the pedestrian.

2) Seat Belts are irrelevant.

3) Tailgating is a thing.

4) Take road signs with a pinch of salt.

Finally amid the honking and traffic we saw our first Rickshaw. And it was glorious. (And going surprisingly fast.)

Now awaiting the arrival of Fiona to celebrate her birthday!

The Team

So, who are these elusive characters? These intrepid travelers? These insane nut jobs?

RickinIt are an Oxford undergraduate and 4 Oxford graduates who's assault on the city has been somewhat unsuccesful. With a calculated combination of 20 job rejections, although this number is rumoured to be significantly higher of late, we decided that maybe we'd be better at joining forces and tackling India. In a rickshaw. Is this a good idea? Well, enough of our foolhardiness, lets meet the players...

Hellie - Hellie can't drive and hates curry, one might ask why she's chosen to drive around India, but who are we to judge? She's also OK at lacrosse.




Fiona - Fiona's talent lies in the art of sunburn; having managed to get sunburnt in February, in England, her biggest challenge will most likely be protecting her pasty skin from the harsh Indian sun. Good luck Fi!




Georgina - Always the token ging, she is also deathly afraid of the sun. Gee's eyes stream at even the mildest of curries and, with no coordination whatsoever, some are wondering whether Georgina + India = a good idea



Paul - Rumour has it that the sole man in the team is rather excited at getting to spend a month surrounded by attractive women. Pauly B is also apparently a keen hockey player and takes a good group selfie.




Alice - The baby of the group, Alice hasn't yet sat her university finals. Although she offers no mechanical experience whatsoever (well, nor do any of the rest of us really), Rockstar promises to provide some youthful fun to the team. Another member of OUHC.



Team RickinIt are completely unprepared and mechanically inept, but if we'd thought of everything it wouldn't be much of an adventure!

So there we have it, five glitteringly talented, enormously witty and somewhat mad adonises.

The Roads

A quiet road in Delhi

As if driving vehicles with the engine power of a lawn mower, 3500km with no fixed route and no mechanical experience amongst ourselves isn't already challenging enough, the roads we will be driving on are amongst some of the most dangerous in the world. On average, 22 people are killed an hour on the roads in India (source: Top Gear). Put simply, the roads in India are complete chaos; road rules are virtually non-existent.


People drive on whatever side of the road they feel like, lane lines are completely pointless, indicating is non-existent and traffic lights serve as a mere guideline as to when you should stop. Having "right of way" in India is a myth. Use of the horn is the common language of the Indian roads- it can signal anything from turning or overtaking, telling people to drive faster, to move out of the way, because you're pissed off, or simply because every other vehicle around you is using their horn. The louder the horn the better.

The Route

Well, to put it bluntly, there isn't a route. We will pitch up in Jaisalmer, collect our rickshaws (read as: glorified lawnmowers) and attempt to make it to Kochi by any route possible. With not much experience of India, we decided this would probably take us three weeks, but if we're honest, that's a bit of a guess. With around 3,500 km to travel, there is a certain amount of 'fingers crossed' going on and an awful lot of praying by Rickin It's wonderfully supportive families. Meanwhile, Fi has been getting to grips with some rather large maps (see below) in the vain hope that we might have more of an idea of what we're actually doing. Rickin It are also planning one particular detour to the Maharaja's for tea, we feel sure that we'll get a warm reception in our (probably very) grubby state - we slightly view our adventure as a stunt worthy of a Top Gear Christmas special so, naturally, we're pulling out all the stops.

What is Rickin It?

Excellent question!

Having spent an accumulative 14 years in the Oxford bubble, culminating in a combined 20 job rejections, we thought we'd have more luck taking on the Indian subcontinent than our previous assault on the City.
With the prospect of limited time before the inevitable crawl back to join the rat race, we decided to embark upon a doubtlessly idiotic and certainly stupid adventure traversing the length of the Indian west coast.
Moreover, in the spirit of cultural engagement, we thought it would only be apt to partake in such a journey via rickshaw, or two. Meet a three week adventure - where five mechanically inept friends try to tackle the Indian west coast with no support and no idea how to even change a tyre.
With no India experience between us we sought opinions from our more well-travelled peers. However, when the wisest Indian traveller of them all promptly said 'You'll die' we decided if this was to be the case, we may as well make some money for charity whilst doing it...
To this end, we are supporting a charity very close to the team, Broomwood in Ethiopia, which provides schooling to underprivileged and orphaned kids. If you haven't already done so (shame on you!), please consider giving a donation on our Just Giving page.

We'll be heading off at the end of December and completing our route (hopefully!) by the end of January. We've set up this lovely little blog so our friends and family can follow our every move throughout the whole adventure - oh you lucky things!

 Once again, please give generously - we will love you forever!