For those who’re familiar with Indian roads, there’s no telling what you’ll encounter. 2015 Rickshaw Run August Edition participants went for combat mode to take on Indian bus drivers, animals that use roads as their pathway, and multiple rickshaw breakdowns in the form of blown pistons, rickshaw rollovers, and what not.
Then there’s never-ending stretches of make your own road if you can, potholes that can consume more than a rickshaw, and battling the monsoon.
Participants went on temple visits, and stopped over at villages enroute. Sleep or no sleep, with broken bones and stomachs that couldn’t quite come in term with food, they rode on. Of 83 rickshaws enrolled, 80 teams completed the 4,500 km journey from Shillong to Kochi. The 3 teams that couldn’t ride to the finish chose to reach destination on truck beds.
Robbie’s Rickshaw at 2015 Rickshaw RunAnd while the competition stays competitive, stories of personal transformation continue to inspire, all of which hinge on the kindness of strangers. Hosts from nameless villages showed exemplary generosity and helpfulness. One team spent a night in a very poor village just like countless others that paint the very Indian landscape. Locals were kind and took in complete strangers, treating them like family members. Not surprisingly syaing goodbye the next morn was a story drowned in parting tears.
Event Manager of Rickshaw Run run by ‘The League of Adventurists International Ltd’, Matthew Dickens says this was a great edition. Teams have raised tens of thousands of pounds for charities across the world, and return with memories that’ll last a lifetime. Shillong and Kochi folk were at their hospitable best. He thanked the country for giving the run its truly unique character.
As Rickshaw Run August 2015 edition ends, the next edition is set to begin at Kochi on New Year’s Day, and finishes 14 days later in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.