The First Two Days of the Rickshaw Challenge – Deccan Odyssey 2016

The Deccan Odyssey 2016 has started, and our adventure operator on the scene, Princely, is here to update us about wacky happenings.

Day 1
It is Monsoon time in the Western parts of India. Rain has come to relieve the pain of the drought. But it is a different story for the Rickshaw challenge organizers and the Participants. As an organizer I landed up two days before the start and the rickshaws were pretty much ready except some last minute makeovers. The rain started pouring from when I started from Chennai up to the time when I landed in Verna, where the Chennai Garage station is situated in Goa.
Next day we took the rickshaws to our base hotel and the organizers prepared the survival kit for next day’s registration. The first day started with an urgent mail from Travel Scientist, Guy Zucker, who forwarded a mail from Team 4 Makshat who had issues with the room booking for early check in. Thankfully, the issue was quickly sorted out and they were guided to a hotel nearby till the rooms where ready in our base Hotel: Crown Goa. I was at the hotel at 9 a.m. and heard that the hotel was totally booked for the previous day and the staff was waiting for people to check out so that the rooms would be cleaned and made ready for our participants. Team 1, 2 and 3, arrived at 10 a.m. and we started registration right away. Team 4 did not turn up till 11 a.m. and we called them at their hotel and found out that they will be coming only at 2 p.m. So, I decided to start the briefing and get on with the schedule.  As the check-in was delayed the practice was rescheduled to 3 p.m. Team 4 arrived at 2p.m. and cheeked into the hotel.

At practice, because of the rain, the ground was soaked, but that did not dampen the spirits of the teams. Practice went on for two hours after which the teams went to fuel up and finished at the base hotel well before 6 p.m. After that, it was pretty much beers and stories. Official welcome drinks where arranged at the pub ‘Down the Road’. Team 1 ran out of petrol before they could reach the first petrol station, but fortunately they broke down near another auto rickshaw. Team 3 followed them in their vehicle and the petrol was drawn from them and filled into Team 1’s tank so they could reach the fuel station. The ice breaking party went on well without incidents and Teams were sharing their stories with one another.

Day 2
The day of the Mini Challenge started at 10.30 for organizers and 11 o’clock for the participants.
The teams were enjoying their breakfast together at the base hotel, then started out to tackle the Mini challenge. Team 4 is documenting the whole rally, so they were taking their time to shoot videos and pictures. It took them 3 hours to complete the whole activity and the teams were back well before 1 p.m. except for Team 4; they came back at 3 pm. All the teams showed their pictures they took at the St. Francis Church.

After that, there were rumours that Teams 2 and 3 went to a Goan speciality restaurant and had a great time enjoying the local cuisine. And it’s no surprise – Goan cuisine is divine!