Thursday, September 2, 2010

It took 18 days and 3,400km, but little Raul Bajaj made it.

That’s the name of the rickshaw that Ian Rendell and a group of three colleagues raced in, along the length of India  - all for charity.

Ian and Joe Dunthorne, plus brothers Mial and Lewis Watkins, raised dhs10,000 in January’s popular Charity Rickshaw Run, crammed into the three-wheeled tuk-tuk.

Their journey started in Pokhara, Nepal and ended miles away in Cochin, Kerala.

The boys endured incidents aplenty, not least the lack of a tuk-tuk for the first part of their journey.

But they made it. And as well as the satisfaction of the charity work, they now have stories that will keep them smiling for the rest of their lives.

Ian works as an outdoor pursuits instructor for Al Shaheen Adventure in Ras Al Khaimah, specialising in climbing, kayaking, abseiling and mountain biking.

But even that experience counted for little when little Raul fell foul of bandits early on in the journey.

Ian, a resident of the UAE for two years, explains: “Although we had to start in Pokhara, there was a problem and we had to pick up the rickshaw from Raxaul, Bihar in India.

“Basically that was completely off route.

So here we are in Bihar, in one of these many country lanes, and out of nowhere some blokes jump out at us.

One tried to slow us down, he was hitting the rickshaw with a stick and tried to jump on.

We had to push him off, we sped up and kept driving but then all of a sudden we had to slow down for speedbumps.

“This guy has jumped on a bus and they’re legging it after us but we managed to get away in the end. It was hilarious but a bizarre start to the trip.”

The boys may have used trains and ferries to complete the epic journey but they still had to put in long shifts in the rickshaw.

They were often travelling between 150k-200km a day, and little Raul was often found wanting, breaking down regularly.

But aside from the early brush with bandits, the boys were helped every step of the way by unwavering Indian kindness.

Ian explains: “It was amazing. 

When we broke down, which happened a lot, within five minutes people appeared to help us get the thing going again.

Sometimes it was other teams but mostly it was local people from the village we were passing through.”

Delhi belly is a common complaint for foreigners in India, and the rickshaw riders certainly weren’t immune.

“The first day we were all a bit nervous about food and we didn’t eat anything - it all looked dodgy. And that ended up with a bit of a mini-breakdown for one of the lads, hardly surprising really.  

“After that we started eating anywhere the locals ate...

We basically sampled ‘thali’ from the north to the south.

Two of the boys ended up struggling, it was 50-50! “I was lucky, although one of the boys is in hospital in England at the moment. In fairness he stayed on another three weeks so he didn’t fall ill on the trip!”

The lads raised dhs10,000 so for their chosen charities, Maiti Nepal and Indian charity Mercy Corps. And Ian admits he would do it all again tomorrow.

He says: “It was slaps and kisses really, something good and then bad. It was never plain sailing but never really bad. It was amazing.”