Seventh and Eighth Days – Karwar to Panjim (Goa) – 11th and 12th August

With a burning three-wheeler to Paradise - Rickshaw Rally reaches Goa

The CEAT Mumbai Xpress Autorickshaw Rally 2007 moved into the beautiful province of Goa on Saturday after a 120km drive north from Karwar, along the western coast of India. The destination was Panjim, named by the Portuguese meaning “the land that does not flood”, and is the state capital of Goa. Goa is a truly unique section of India, with a culture and architecture heavily influence by the interaction with Portuguese settlers in the sixteenth century.

The Goan capital has a completely different feel from any other Indian city, with beautiful red roofed houses with stucco walls built in the Latin mould, well laid gardens, statues and avenues lined with trees. The people here are very easy going and peace loving with music and dance ubiquitous, and a distinctly unhurried character about the city. Typical of a Goan town, Panjim is built around a church facing a prominent square and the town has some beautiful Portuguese Baroque buildings and enchanting old villas. The riverside, speckled with brightly whitewashed houses with wrought iron balconies, offer fine views of the Arabian ocean.

On Saturday morning the roads had miraculously dried up, and there was no significant monsoon rain on the way leaving a good day’s drive ahead for the participants. The participants raced with each other all the way, and most of the teams were at the destination by lunchtime. After a relaxing day on Friday, the teams were craving a real Indian style party in Goa and with Sunday scheduled as a day off to let people explore and enjoy Goa, there was plenty of time to recover from the journey and get into the party spirit.

During the racing the electronics of the Tuk-Tuk-Tuxedo team was left completely burned out much to their dismay. “I feel most sorry for the stereo. The mechanics will fix the electronics by Monday, but almost surely we will have to travel without a soundsystem. We’ll go out in Goa as much as we can, try to learn some Bollywood hits, and entertain ourselves by singing for the rest of the journey” team member James ‘Bad Influence’ Wright commented.

Another of the teams, the Fabulous Furry Bros, had been entertaining the other participants throughout the week with their wacky collection of fireworks they had brought for the journey. At various points along the journey and in the evenings they have been setting them off, either to make a point about something, celebrate another leg completed, or just to wake everybody up at 3am. There was even a fireworks party at one point!

This is just a sample of the fun the participants have been having along the way, and this weekend was one of the highlights as all the participants had time on their hands to party and have lots of fun together. Saturday night saw everyone heading straight for the bar to enjoy some pre-dinner drinks before being taken out to a local restaurant for some fabulous Goan food and more drinks. It also later emerged that everyone was invited to an exclusive party at the Marriot Hotel later in the evening, and those not beaten by the festivities so far ventured off to the Marriot, only to return a few hours later after being kindly removed from the Marriot’s swimming pool. Not to be deterred though, these adventurous party maniacs found the Rally Hotel swimming pool to be just as good and continued the night there until they were again, ‘kindly asked’ to leave. All-in-all it was one crazy night.

Sunday was the participant’s day off and they were free to enjoy the delights of Panjim and relax before the next stage of the rally got going again on Monday with another north-bound leg up to Maharashtra.

The bliss of a lie in for all the participants was too tempting to resist, however there was a call to arms for the beach for some of the guys. According to team Tukkin’ Crazy, Baga Beach was the scene of the 4th England vs India Test. “Within 30 seconds of setting up a stump in the sand there was a gaggle of interest(not just from the nicest hawkers you have ever met) and before you knew it we had a boundry, 7 a-side and were ready (if slightly hungover and queasy) for 6 overs of fierce rivalry.” In the end though after a dramatic finale, the “English snatched valiant defeat from the jaws of glorious victory” .

All in all the weekend and the previous couple of days served as a jejuvinating experience for all the participants after the tough first four legs of the rally. Spirits were high and some good friendships were being formed, along with even the occassionaly romance. Eventually after a great day off and more partying into the night the teams settled down to prepare for the road once again.

On Monday the rally heads for Malvan up the coast.

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