The rare morning of no breakdowns. How did we achieve this you ask? We took the sensible option of not driving decrepit 3-wheeled tubs and instead visited the renowned Ellora caves which, as everybody knows, host the world's largest monolithic temple (known locally as cave 16). 34 rock cut caves and temples made for a highly enjoyable way to spend a morning, although levels of media attention on us appeared to reach a frenzy in cave 16 but at least the majority were super cute kids so genuine smiles mainly came to the fore. We then had a remarkably good run in the 'shaws during the arvo, at least in terms of not breaking down but sadly all of the pot holes led to slow progress and us falling well behind schedule. Hopes soared of an improvement in conditions after we successfully bumped our way onto the start of a toll road but no one was quite sure what they were tolling as the road continued to be as smooth as PB's attempts to secure the elusive fivesome and soon a loud thumping sound started to emerge from the right rear wheel area of Mr Mercury causing yet another visit to our trusty friend, the roadside mechanic. Just a few minor-ish problems with the wheel, an outer screw had fallen off and all of the inner screws were crushed, but at least we had realised before we had to find out how the rickshaws fare on two wheels. A chance meeting with one of the local crowd who came to witness the changing of the tyre led us to heading to Shirdi - home of Sai Baba, 40,000 pilgrims daily and the highest concentration of hotels this side of Gleneagles (Gee says it has lots...) but, for those who want a more realistic picture, it is similar to Las Vegas, albeit where pilgrims replace the punters. Either way, enough choice to get a decent room for the night and everyone took the opportunity to fuel up on sleep...
Back into the realm of 6 o'clock alarms and the familiar turmoil of getting the rickshaws going again in the morning. After a couple of days solid progress, Granny had picked up an exciting new ailment to challenge its drivers - her brakes were broken. This was especially exciting given the morning was spent going downhill to sea level and, although obviously her speedometer is still broken, our best guestimations suggest she may have reached other worldly peaks of 60km/h. A particular highlight and triumph of gravity was when her engine cut out on one of the bigger downhills but she managed to coast for a good minute or so before eventually friction won out as the road flattened. Whilst a lack of brakes is a problem at the best of times, when combined with a stunning lack of road side mechanics and building city traffic on the outskirts of Mumbai, carnage ensues and Fiona was left with the tricky dilemma of how to stop Granny in traffic (the back of Mr. Mercury looked like a great last resort). To make matters worse, it sounded like her exhaust was about to fall off (it was) and as problems reached a climax first gear stopped working leaving us with just three working gears. At this point we ditched the initial plan of getting to a rickshaw showroom in favour of the continuing enjoyment of our health and our lush, youthful full heads of hair. Kind locals helped us find a mechanic, who in a state of increasing bewilderment discovered that the brake pad had snapped in half, the exhaust was on the point of falling off again, first gear was broken and the tubing connecting the air filter to the carborator was also no longer, in fact, connected. Good stuff all round but at least Fi did get his respect for driving using the clutch as a brake and with no first gear in a city of 18 million people. Either way, an interesting arrival to Mumbai and probably about time we gave the rickshaws a proper day off...
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