The Toughest Day and Falling Phones: Days 5 & 6 of the Deccan Odyssey 2016

Days 5 and 6 of the Rickshaw Challenge – Deccan Odyssey 2016 has rolled around, and boy, did chaos and destruction come with them… Here are Princely’s account of the events:
Day 5
After a short day from Belgaum to Kolapur, Day 5 happened to be the toughest day in this year’s Deccan Odyssey rally. As usual, the teams were well on time and they were briefed about the tough traffic in Pune. I asked the teams to keep the timing based on their two days of experience. On average, a team can complete 30 kilometers per hour. That is a solid 8 hour-drive and if we include the stops and time to do some challenges from the sheet, 8 hours can quickly become 10. Without calculating in unexpected breakdowns.Team 3’s problem from the previous day was repaired by Chennai Garage mechanics. All the teams left the hotel well before 8.15 am.

Team 4 was the first one to call around 10.30 am; they had an issue with starting the engine. By the time the Chennai Garage team reached them and set it all straight, it became 11 am and I received a text message that they were back on the road again. I reached the hotel with the luggage car at around 3 pm. To my surprise, Team 1 landed in the hotel at 4.30 pm and they had already checked in. Again, they went out to complete some of the challenges mentioned in the day sheet. Around 5.15 pm , Team 3 and Team 2 arrived at the hotel.
What seemed to be an easy day turned out to be an entirely different story in the end. Around 6.30 pm, I called up the Chennai Garage team to find out their whereabouts. They informed me that they received a call from Team 4 regarding a breakdown. The team had tough time finding them in Pune. Eventually, they caught up (it was 8 pm by that time.) They were 15 km away from the hotel. The CG team found out that an inner part in the engine was broken and they decided to change the engine. It was a quick fire change by CG mechanic Babu. He did the whole job in just about half an hour and they reached the hotel at 10 pm.

Before that, the rest of  the teams that went for scouting a pup came back to the hotel. They were surprised to see me there still hanging around and all of us sat there and shared some stories before they hit their beds. When Team 4 arrived , the team members looked stressed out. I knew for sure that next day would be a better day for them. I bid them good luck and good night and left the hotel.

 
Day 6
Pune morning started off in a normal fashion until Peyman from Team 4 dropped his phone while coming out of the lift and it went right into the gap between the lift body and the door. Perfect. It was an unbelievable feat to drop a phone correctly in that slot. But, the reality is, if it’s bound to happen, then it will.  We informed the hotel reception and they told us that the lift maintenance personnel will arrive only at 9 am. All the teams had their breakfast and the briefing was done by 8 am.  Team 4 had to wait until the person came and recovered the phone for them. It was 9.15 am when we got the phone and it was smashed in completely. Peyman was happy that he recovered the memory in phone and they started without wasting much time.
During the lunch time, I met Team 1 who stopped in the same hotel and had ice-creams for lunch. Unusually the day was extremely hot and we heard from the hotel person that the monsoon has still not set in this part of the state. I reached the hotel around 3 pm and the first team to arrive was at 5.30 pm. Team 1 was the first team to arrive, followed by Team 2 and Team 3 with a difference of 1 hour in-between. Team 4 arrived about 6.30 pm and they also had a smooth day except for the incident in the morning.
Team 2 and Team 3 had a rough time with the military museum in Aurangabad, where they had to flee from the place – literally. The reason was that they (locals) demanded more money for their parking . Team 3 also had a flat tyre to deal with during the day. Thankfully, the hotel had a bar, and all the teams settled in and shared their wacky stories.

Being a rest day tomorrow , teams were informed about the open day. My plan is to visit the hotel at 11 am and then some touristy activity.