Rickshaw Relief

Shefs a fickle temptress and we fell head-over-rickshaws in love. In equal parts lush, arid, scorching, mountainous, saturated with colour, chaotic, breathtaking, polluted, over-crowded, unforgiving, serene, and utterly unpredictable. We made it across 4500 kilometers of adverse terrain, hair-raising highways and most of the scenic routes along the east coast of the country to make it from Kochin to Shillong in fourteen days. We made it. Just. Wefve created an interactive Rickshaw Relief Google Map that tracks our entire route, including pictures and updates of misadventures along the way. http://bit.ly/mDCYKG? For those less technologically-inclined, our route looked roughly like this: img alt="""" src=""http://rickshawrelief.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/google-map.png"" I donft think any of us really knew what we were getting ourselves into. The idea was first floated, we watched a jazzy National Geographic clip on the adventure, and we thought, eWhy not?f On the day of the launch, with 70 oddly decorated rickshaws lined up in a field, revving madly, I remember looking at Bede and both of us mouthing, eWhat have we done?f We didnft even have a map of India. We had zero knowledge of the mechanics of an auto rickshaw and within 10 minutes of setting off, wefd lost one of the three shaws, one had broken down (turns out oil and petrol do not commune) and the third shaw (the filmmakers) realised this was going to be the hardest documentary they were ever going to make. We had a similar moment on Day Thirteen, as we stood in a team huddle, 9:30pm at night, in a petrol station at Siliguri. We had less than 24 hours to get to the finish line party and around 700km to cover. On a good 10-hour day of driving we were only ever clocking 350-400km. Wefd had a day of mountain pass/landslide setbacks, and we were exhausted and downtrodden. Our conundrum: did we drive through the night on pitch black highways with Jurassic Park trucks to make it or did we play it safe, stay the night in Siliguri and miss the party? Ifm not sure any of us remember who pushed hardest to do it but the next moment we were all agreed and Jonny was asking us to tell the camera if we had any last words for our parents (I think I said, gIfm sorry I caved into peer pressure in the endh followed by gIf I had to go down with anyone, it would be the nine of us.h) Which brings me to the nub of the trip. Through all the traversing, the highs and lows, the head injuries and the phenomenal sights and sounds of that unbelievable country, it was the friendships forged between the nine of us on Day One that made this adventure possibly the best thing we have done in our lives thus far. Many of us didnft know each other before India, a few have grown up together and with two girls and seven boys, we were sure it was going to be a high-tempered, emotional rollercoaster. But it wasnft. We looked after each other, we developed team guidelines, and wefve promised each other that wefll do it all again one day, on another continent, in a different chariot and with the same team promise to ejust be awesome.f For those of you who donated you made the difference. Thank you. Everywhere we went, when we told locals that we were raising money for an Indian charity helping local communities grow stronger, we were treated with the most beautiful smiles and the deepest generosity. For those of you who would still like to donate to SCAD wefre going to continue raising money until the end of June so you can send your pennies here: http://www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/rickshawrelief The documentary is in the works so Ifll make sure to update you all when the editing starts to take shape and wefve got something to share. If youfd like to check out our photos, videos and updates from the trip, therefs a hyperlink playground below: http://rickshawrelief.com http://www.facebook.com/rickshawrelief http://twitter.com/#!/rickshawrelief