THE WORLD’S FIRST EVER AUTO - RICKSHAW RALLY
SAW TEAMS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE COMPETE IN
A RAUCOUS ROAD TRIP FROM COAST TO COAST OF
SOUTHERN INDIA. A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY IN EVERY
SENSE. IT’S NOT EVERY DAY YOU RIDE AN ELEPHANT
AND GET PICKPOCKETED BY A MONKEY.
THIS IS RICKSHAW RAMPAGE.
I
n the darkness of the interior you could just make out
hours into a sixteen hour coach journey. Everybody was
Just when you’d got into a momentary state of calm, the
coach would lurch sideways with a blare of the horn as
yet another lorry came straight at us on the single track
road with full beam on. How ironic to die now in an
air-conditioned Volvo when we’d just spent two weeks crossing
eggshell. This was Rickshaw Rampage, a mission to cross India
On a hot and humid evening in Chennai a motley collection
of competitors began to gather, most of whom hadn’t the
Canada, and a few places in between. The local interest in the
event was huge – in fact it was a national story, but strangely
very few locals were taking part. Did they know something we
didn’t? The next morning amid a clamour of news cameras,
the beach in downtown Chennai. In a haze of blue smoke the
competitors weaved up the road still trying to get to grips
with the gear change on these part moped, part car, part sofa
moments it was like being in a gigantic pinball machine.
threaded itself through the narrowest of gaps. In the downtown
streets the scene resembled a classic movie chase as we
piled high with water melons and piles of cardboard boxes.
The Russian team thought they’d played a masterstroke by
disappointed when it proved particularly effective at having
absolutely no effect. In the motorised food chain, the local
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