Thieving Monkeys and the Monsoon: Days 3 and 4 of the Deccan Odyssey 2016

The Deccan Odyssey 2016 is well on the way, with teams exploring the beautiful Kolapur today. So far, the weather isn’t too forgiving, and it turns out that future paticipants of the Rickshaw Challenge should be aware of hairy, small thieves… Here is Princely’s account.

Day 3
Driving to Belgaum was the task for the day. It started with cruel weather; the rain did not show any mercy and it was pouring like hell. The crazy participants of Rickshaw challenge did not mind a challenge like some petty water pouring from the sky and they were ready for the day well in advance. The route was mainly in the mountains with lots of turns and swirls.
The Organizer Team and the Support Team of Chennai Garage started half an hour after all the teams left for the day. I picked up with Team 2 and Team 3 well before 11 am. I met Team 4 up in the mountains before they reached the Karnataka entry.
The day turned out to be a no petrol day. Almost all the teams ran out of petrol and the only team that did not have any problems was Team 4. It is amazing to know that all of the participants managed to fill petrol from local shops rather than gas stations. I saw Team 1 before Ramapur and they were getting local help to fetch petrol for them.
After that, it was pretty much a smooth day and all the teams reached the base well on time. Teams showed the pictures they took for the day challenge and had their own plans for the night.

Day 4
By Day 4, the teams had started feeling their vehicles and had understood their tricks very well. They started to get a taste of  Indian Hospitality – in fact, they were getting more than what they could take. Too much attention from locals, tons of waving people, greetings and strange friends from nowhere came as a surprise to them. Slowly, however, they are coming to terms with what it feels like to drive around India like a celebrity.
“Detour” was the order of the day. It was the smallest distance of the whole rally. The whole distance between Belgaum and Kolapur is within 130 odd kilometres. All the Teams had started to religiously follow the drill of baggage drop and breakfast right to the letter. The briefing was at 8.15 a.m. and the focus was to make them aware of the recommended detour of water falls, which has been mentioned in the day sheet. The morning was bright and sunny, but the overcast of Monsoon followed soon. So, it was mix of rain and sun throughout the day.
The Travelscientists, and Chennai Garage staff had breakfast after the teams started and that gave some time for the teams to gain lead. When I first saw a team – in fact, a couple of them – it was 11 a.m. and Kolapur was just 40 km away from the wher we were. Team 3 a.k.a. Third Wheel waved a distress sign when I went past them in the luggage vehicle. I slowed down and pulled over to see what was wrong. The complaint was that the vehicle was losing power and the break efficiency was much less. I told them that the mechanic team is 40 KM behind us and if they catch up they will work on it immediately. If they were to make it to the hotel early, then their rickshaw would be attended to in the base hotel. From my experience, it looked like they had burned their clutch.

I reached hotel well before 12 noon. Being a hotel which has been booked for the first time, I had some difficulty to make them understand my system of work and it took me some time, sign language and lot of slow explanation to get what I required.  The first team to drop in was Team 3 and it was 2 p.m. by then. Team 2, the other team of the same group of participants from Australia and Newzeland, lost their way and took them extra half an hour to find the hotel. They drove straight to the hotel instead of the recommended challenges because they had couple of people who felt ill. It is called the Indian food syndrome delly belly (invention of new name for an upset stomach). I spoke with them regarding any requirement of medication and they said they are fine and they will take care of things themselves.
The next team to arrive was Team 4 at around 4 p.m. and they were sharing their filming experience. They were happy to find a lot of material for their documentary and they did a lot of detours to rural places from the main high way. They visited a dam on the way and explored lots of places before they realized it was getting late (and they still needed to reach the destination.) Once all but one team was there, the teams went out to explore in Kolapur.

Team 1 was the last to arrive and they dropped in at around 5.45 p.m. The Chennai Garage support team arrived before Team 1.  I guessed that the Team 1 will be inside Kolapur and I instructed the Support Team to drive straight to the hotel. Teams sat at the bar in the hotel and shared their stories.  I had a chat with Team 1 about their day and they had many stories of getting in and around villages and their feel of India. The most interesting story was about stealing monkeys of which they shot photos – they showed them to me. After that, they shared a similar story about the Monkey Island in Indonesia. The conversation went little bit further with politics, monarch and world order before we realized just how short life is. We were amazed by the opportunity to meet each other in a place which is far-far away from respective homes. I bade them good night and retreated to my resting place.