Ninth Day – Panjim (Goa) to Malvan – 13th August

Rickshaw Rally reaches Maharashtra

The CEAT Mumbai Xpress Autorickshaw Rally 2007 left Goa early on Monday morning after a well-deserved day off in Panjim, the Goan capital, to continue making their way north along the coast towards Malvan, Maharashtra. Malvan lies towards the south of the Maharashtra coastline, and is known for its immense stretch of shimmering sands, and thick cashew, coconut, jackfruit and mango groves.

The sunny, dry weather provided ideal driving conditions and most of the teams cruised along comfortably to reach the postcard-perfect location of Tarkala Beach near Malval as soon as possible. The first rickshaws arrived around 2 pm, leaving plenty of time for the early arrivals to dip into the warm water of the Arabian Sea and enjoy the beautiful conditions.

Several teams had a hard time finding their way however as the road signs in Maharastra are usually only in Mararthi or Hindi. Team Seedy Gonzales from Ireland drove an extra 160 km, making the days total driving 320 km, doubling the day’s original distance. On arriving, team member Henry Rodot told us, “I was quite tired and fell asleep in the backseat of the rickshaw. My partner Adrian Byrne just drove on and on. When I woke up, I asked the time as I thought we should have long reached Malval by that time. I checked the map, and I saw we had driven an extra 80km North from the turning off point! We turned back and headed south but it was very dark when we finally reached our destination”.

That wasn’t all though as one team travelled on two wheels for the last few kilometres of the journey. “One of our back wheels just fell off. We didn’t want to waste time having it fixed, so one team member leaned out from the rickshaw. He is an experienced sailor, and knew how to balance the vehicle. We got to our destination with no problem” the driver commented.

In the evening the organisers made a special brew for the participants with one punch called Bentley containing whiskey and pineapple served up in a huge metal jar, Indian style. Another called Bajaj was a mixture of rum, lime, apples, oranges and mineral water. They were a accquired taste, but succeeded in getting everyone very very ‘merry’. The hotel was a very nice resort comprising 22 cottages right on the beach. The location of the resort was so remote though the organisers had to have all the food specially ordered in advance as neither the hotel or any local facility could cater for so many people. In the end everyone had a really good party on the beach at what has probably been the nicest location the rally has visited yet.

Tuesday the rally heads on towards Ratnagiri.

Pictures can be found here:

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The route:

The Indian Autorickhaw Challenge team is sending out a press release on a daily basis.

For more information Contact:
Aravind Bremanandam, Lead organizer
Phone: +91-44-421-43343
E-mail at:admin@indianarc.com