Nothing lasts forever and neither does the Rickshaw Challenge Tamil Nadu Run 2016. After a week full of crazy and wild adventures, our eleven teams from all over the world have returned to the starting point in Chennai for – all safe and sound, with an abundance of stories to tell about their rickshaw adventure. Time for the last report from our man in the field, Princely:
Day 6 – When You Show Too Much Enthusiasm For The Picture Challenge
Yercaurd morning is a beautiful morning with mist on the hill station and the pleasant sound of birds added music to the scene. In this idyll the teams prepared their tuk tuk for the makeover challenge. Except team 4, 6 and Team 11, all participated in it and they showed the eagerness to win the championship. By 8 am all the teams gathered for the briefing.
From the break of the morning, a Lady form Chennai just kept admiring the rickshaws and started asking plenty of questions regarding the challenge. She just could not stop admiring our adventurers doing the makeover. As a neutral person, I asked her to judge the makeover based on practicality and elegance.
All the teams left the hotel at around 8.15 am. I reached the hotel early at around 3 pm. After a quiet day without any breakdowns, at around 5 pm., Team Neruppu Da! gave me a call. They had been detained by the police. After an hour of ordeal, I had to eventually interfere and found that they were caught in wrong situation as they had some heap of stones to deal with the monkeys and additional petrol in a water bottle.
The day’s challenge was to take a picture of the police with the rickshaw. Seems like Team Neruppu Da was a bit too enthusiastic about it! Luckily I could bail them out and the nervous time for the team was over and they laughed and shared the jokes with rest of teams at the dinner time.
Day 7 – A Rickshaw Loving Ambassador
The final day excitement and the thought of the finish line gave all the participants a mixed feeling. As usual we planned for an early start and wanted to regroup at Tambaram (a suburb, 30 km before Chennai) for the finish ceremony. Team Neruppu Da called for assistance about half an hour after we left the hotel. Otherwise, it was a lightning day. Teams arrived at the regrouping place, well in time except Team Indiaree and Team Let’s go Jozi. The late quickly joined us but Team Indiaree missed the finish.
The Mexican ambassador for India, her Excellency Ms. Melba Pria, famous for her rickshaw drive to office, was invited as chief guest of the event by Round Table India. The participants were thoroughly happy about the reception, the school kids gave them and humbled by the presence of the ambassador. They enjoyed few entertainments from the kids of the school.
The awards were distributed and Team 3 – Nerupu da was awarded the champion trophy. Team 2BrokeGirls were honored with the Bonkers Award and the charity award went to Team Rainbow Warriors. The final drive to the base hotel was convoyed and except that some teams ran out of fuel for a last time, we arrived at the hotel safely.
The finish party and fellowship was a great hit, where a couple of surprising stories of a crash in the bush and burning fire crackers during the travel were revealed to me. Well, well, well, the teams had a great time during the event and their laughter and fun said it all.
Meet you for another adventure!
