Rickshaw Rescue
Date: Jan 03, 2010
We made it to Gorahkpur and found a room by 9pm. Finished dinner by 11pm. Time for a vodka and then bed.
Tomorrow we return to rescue our rickshaw.
Location: Gorakhpur - Uttar Pradesh, India (Received at 17:15)
We are now 15km out of Gorahkpur getting a lift with Batman rick. Except their rick just stopped too :)
Adventure!
Location: Gorakhpur - Uttar Pradesh, India (Received at 13:33)
Rob arrived back with a mechanic in the Batman team rick. Confirmed that our engine has blown up. We are now
towing our rick behind the other rick with 2 foot of slack. Pitch dark. Greg is driving and screaming
Aaaaaaagh@
Location: Gorakhpur - Uttar Pradesh, India (Received at 12:58)
No sign of Rob yet. It's now pitch dark and we have a crowd of 19 locals attempting social chit chat in
broken English.
Location: Gorakhpur - Uttar Pradesh, India (Received at 12:34)
Rob has hitched a ride with the Batman team to the next town. Nic and Greg wait by the rick, with about 10
locals, to see if Rob comes back with a mechanic or a truck or comes back at all.@
Location: Gorakhpur - Uttar Pradesh, India (Received at 11:57)
Engine finally dead. It's been running bad for 2 days. We're 4km from nearest town. Conceiving a plan.
Location: Gorakhpur - Uttar Pradesh, India (Received at 11:43)
The critical ingredients: petrol, oil, and cash. In Nepal, we had petrol and cash but no oil. Across the
border we found oil but we had very little cash. We've seen other teams realise that they couldn't use Nepal Rs
nor credit card. 60 km across the border and we found the first ATM. We now have all three things.
Golden.
Location: Gorakhpur - Uttar Pradesh, India (Received at 11:42)
We're thru to India! The intensity of this crossing can barely be absorbed yet described. The smog is
terribly as we sit behind '46000 trucks' [Rob]. We paid 4000Rs in 'fees' to various people, our passports are
stamped and we are in a very slow convoy out of the crossing area. We exchanged 1385 Nepal Rs for 702 Indian
Rs. I'm confident we for screwed but cannot find a real money changer or an ATM yet. We're in India! We're
aiming for the town of Gorakhpur 95 km from here and stay there the night. 1:30 now so perhaps it's 3 hrs
away.
Location: Butwal - Nepal (Received at 07:45)
Border crossing mayhem! We reached the border at noon and fortunately Rickshaw Run organisers helped us to
the front of the queue. Turns out we're missing paperwork for our car for the border crossing. Apparently
everyone had it attached to their windscreen wipers. We don't have wipers. Nic also had a brief panic: he
always has his passport in his pocket, but here at the border it was missing! Fortunately it was found in his
bag. Grabbing some lunch since we missed breakfast and then hit the rockslide. Soon: India.
Location: Butwal - Nepal (Received at 07:36)
We're through! We were there for 2 and a bit hours. Onward to the border! 30km to India! Need to buy oil
still.
Location: Butwal - Nepal (Received at 05:02)
A huge bulldozer has arrived (50 mins later from Bulwar 4km down the road) and is moving the 'smaller'
rocks. The very huge one hasn't moved at all yet. Nonetheless exciting to see action. Our map says the route
around the rockslide is over 150km - further than we've travelled from Pokhara in 12 hrs@
Location: Butwal - Nepal (Received at 05:01)
Rockslide!! We're covered in dust from watching up close a secondary rockslide. The first rockslide had
already completely blocked the road an hour before we arrived. There still looks to be precarious rocks (one
shaped and sized like a grand piano) so this could take hours or days to clear.@
Location: Butwal - Nepal (Received at 04:33)
On our team Rob is the mechanic. He's rebuilt our carby and pulled off and cleaned our engine reed
yesterday. That is in addition to helping 6 other ricks yesterday. Go Rob!
Location: Butwal - Nepal (Received at 01:56)
She's alive!! Choke on, key in, first pull of the starter lever and she started. We're a few km down the
road topping up fuel. 2 stroke oil is more difficult to find. We've borrowed some from one team but petrol is
useless with 1:20 oil in it.@
Location: Butwal - Nepal (Received at 01:26)
We slept on the floor of a 'hotel room' that cost $3 for everyone. We're all slightly broken this morning.
Hopefully our rick has enjoyed her night off and is ready for the 70km to the border today. Let's go!
Location: Butwal - Nepal (Received at 00:32)
