I left my house on in a minor panic this morning as there was no public transport on Christmas day in London at all. Having booked myself the cheapest possible flight I was extremely reluctant to spend my savings on a taxi to get me to Heathrow. Resolving to hitchihike I walked out of the dorr with a trusty sign saying Heathrow please, with a few drawings of holly on it for seasonal goodwill. [...]

Introduction Welcome to the blog of Mad Dogs and Englishmen and their Indian adventure… This is a story about 6 friends travelling across India in three wheeled auto-rickshaws as part of the inaugural Rickshaw Run. India was an absolutely amazing country and if you haven’t yet visited I cannot urge you strongly enough to pay it a visit! The last comment in this blog on the 14th January 2007 said nobody has left any [...]

Oh no! This has all gone ‘orribly ‘orribly wrong again!! It seems as if, without being fully aware of his dastardly plan, Mr Wheeler jun. has roped Henry and myself into another one of his foolhardy holidays. Not being content with either of our company, he has also convinced Raj to join up as well. If you see a Kitchener style pointing finger poster with “Wheeler wants you” in capitals underneath, do the sensible [...]

Right. I’ve had a poke around on the Rickshaw Run website to get a bit clearer on what’s going on. Unfortunately all it’s done is ask more questions. Grandpa [an old India hand] wondered how you’d carry all the food and spare fuel (not many petrol stations, apparently – though he hasn’t actually been to India for 60 years!). Is there any way of cheating?? I am certain it is totally in the spirit [...]

I’ve been doing a bit of maths for the journey and I can’t help wondering if anyone else has done the same. You’ll know that a similar rally took place in August – the Indian Autorickshaw Challenge. They covered 590 miles in seven days with a pilot vehicle, a baggage truck, an emergency vehicle and a recovery vehicle. (Lucky buggers. Even when they all missed a fuel stop and ran out of petrol, the [...]

I am planning to do another trans-continental run like we did last year for the Mongol Rally. This one is about taking a motorised rickshaw (you know, the tuktuks they have in Thailand. And Brighton) from Kochin in Kerala to Darjeeling, which is so far north that it’s at the end of a little spike above India all on its own. As before, the people whose idea it is – the same ones that [...]