The 6am alarm. Enough to send anyone scrambling under the duvets desperately craving one more hour. However, given our concrete surroundings the team were immediately lively and keen to get back into the fresh air. Unfortunately it seems that our rickshaws aren't quite so sprightly in the morning, but after some pushing and shoving we eventually got them off to a rolling start and into the morning session. Big improvement on the first day with no breakdowns and the team were feeling chuffed as they pulled over for a spot of brekky. As it turns out, we'd accidentally gate crashed the preparations for a big ole Indian wedding leaving us all feeling suitably underdressed in Alibaba trousers and tee-shirts. Inevitably, the smooth progress could not continue and with Rockstar, HKC and PB engrossed in a game of categories (oxford colleges), they looked up to see Granny now an unknown distance behind Mr Mercury, but a quick retreat revealed her pulled up on the side of the road with not a drop of fuel in her tank.
Another rolling start later and the team were once again breezing through the Indian countryside and just as breezily into the first really serious breakdown of the trip. With Granny once again pulled over limp on the side of the road, with her failing to restart after a cooling period and us confirming that her tank did indeed have petrol in it we had quickly exhausted our mechanical knowledge. Thankfully the imperiously friendly locals love nothing more than foreigners evidently struggling to start a rickshaw and we had quickly gathered a crowd to inspect the engine. The lead mechanic went through various technical procedures which largely involved pulling wires out, licking them, replacing them and asking us to pull the starting lever. 45 minutes in and with every wire freshly coated in saliva the solution still hadn't been found and thoughts drifted towards whether we could push Granny all the way to Kochi. Luckily Indians seem to have time to spare during the middle of the day and with a local taking a part from his own Rickshaw to help the cause we eventually got Granny fired up and back on the road. Opinions are divided as to what the problem was but it seemed to have something to do with oil and flow - needless to say we will be just as screwed the next time we break down.
A quick poppadum pit stop later and we were into the sunset session, a real peachy one th had cameras snapping away all over. As dusk approached and fears grew of another tricky nighttime search for a bed, we got wind from the locals of a resort a few km further down the track. As the last embers faded from the sky and the tarmacced road turned into a recurring series of potholes we finally cruised into the spa's drive with a new addition to the hit lost of broken parts in that Mr Mercury's speedometer broke leaving us with the grand total of 0 functioning speedometers. On the plus side, this was not just any spa, but a luxury little number complete with pool ready for an evening dip all for just £4.50 pp. Paul jumped in the pool and cunningly played down the fact that it was bloody freezing which left the girls less than impressed as they swiftly took the plunge and received a rather cold shock to the system. With sky TV in the room it initially seemed a big improvement on the concrete abode of the previous evening but PB was left unconvinced as it simply allowed him to weep himself to sleep whilst watching United lose to Southampton but all in all another spectacular day of adventure leaving us just 70km from Udaipur.
Once we got the babies rolling the next morning, they were immediately put to the test - the ominous looking grey patch on google maps turned out to be an endless stretch of winding hills, a challenge to say the least for our underpowered and overly temperamental rickshaws. Despite the mountainous terrain, the pups soared (read spluttered and crawled) through the mountains with opportunity aplenty for some sunrise snaps with the selfie stick. Once in Udaipur there was no let up on tough driving conditions with HKC and Fi getting their first taste of inner city driving. Having built up confidence over the last two days, we were quickly reminded that driving in the cities is mental and a serious test of some fairly dubious clutches which led to some unfortunately placed stalls (on a roundabout, on a hill etc). Even more unfortunate was that our chosen home for the evening was right at the bottom of a very large hill which left us all wondering how our 7hp engines were going to cope the following morning. That was a problem for our future selves, however, and the team enjoyed an afternoon exploring the rather beautiful city, a lovely boat trip around the lake palace inevitably led Gee to proclaim Udaipur as the most recent instalment atop her list of favourite places so far. Either way, an enjoyable afternoon of not breaking down leaving everyone refreshed for a big stint to Ahmedabad the day after.
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