Day 4 and 5 of the Mumbai Xpress 2017
Our teams are slowly getting used to live on the road in a rickshaw, but that doesn’t mean that it gets any easier! Here is Princely’s account from day 4 and 5 of the Rickshaw Challenge Mumbai Xpress 2017!
Day 4
In the morning of Alibag the over cast climate and rain challenged the participants just like the Mumbai start. Rain is a challenge of the Mumbai Xpress, but it also gives the green feeling to all the pictures. The day started with the briefing and all the teams finished breakfast before it except a few. The first team to leave the hotel would be around 8.30 am. I followed a few teams to have a good pictures of the teams on road and I was not disappointed.
The day had a call form Team 8 – Mayo4Sam as they had broken down near Lonavala. The service team was close by and they fixed them pretty quickly. But that did not happen before a local went all out to help them.
Team Mayo4Sam and their helpful angel
When I closed in to Pune I saw Team 13 Daft Trunk Garage parked and I went there to find out what’s happening. They had ran out of petrol and Rito Aydillo (team member) had went to get petrol with local help. In no time he came back with 6 bottles of one litter petrol and few sachets of oil. We took pictures of happy faces who helped them with lot of care and love.
Finally before the day closed, Team 14 Spider Flamingo came up with a fun story: Four teams drove the wrong direction on the Express highway. Sebastian of Team 11 was acting as a local construction worker who waved the oncoming vehicles to guard them to safety. It was hilariously funny to see the act.
A serious error on the day sheet about the base hotel was the highlight of the day. Lucky that the other Citrus Hotel which we had booked is close to the address mentioned in the sheet. The Facebook rickshaw hub brought many funny signs from the teams and I really enjoyed them looking at them all.
What kind of market?
Day 5
For the start in Pune the morning was bright and sunny. The base hotel was a new choice and the hotel was well before the city. The Challenges of the day are mostly from the city of Pune.
I moved to the first challenge place of the day, Aga Khan Palace. When I visited the place it was around 6 teams which had already assembled there. It took a while to go through the palace and look around. I had breakfast in the palace canteen and I started from there to Mahableshwar. Team 7 had breakfast there and they seemed to be staying in the place. I left the place before them. Then it was the rush hour in city that I had to navigate. I thought to myself how difficult it would have been to the challengers to get out of Pune.
Team Just in Time and the famous chai challenge!
Rest of the day I did not receive call from any other teams. Team 4 and Team 6 were the first teams to arrive in the base hotel in Mahabaleshwar. Rest of the teams fell in place before the stipulated time except two teams. Team 5 ‘oh Yeahh!!’ ran out of petrol just before 8 km from the base hotel. We were exchanging the position of their place to find them through face book and the service team was sent to attend them. Finally when the team arrived at the hotel, I came to know that the GPS had showed them the wrong way and further delayed them in arriving at the destiny.
It can happen to the best of us
Team 12 Rickshaw Lady had some cash issues in the beginning and she had to go to the bank to sort it out. So she had a delayed start and in the finish she reached Team 5 before the service team could reach them and gave some spare petrol. Thus the bonding and friendship during the Rickshaw Challenge has started. The teams shared their stories later with beers and dinner. It was such a blast of sound, participants laughing and making huge noise – probably the effect of their drinks. Looking forward to the new day and new start. Until then it is bye!
