First Leg Summary

First Leg Summary

The first leg of the challenge has taken me through 11 different countries covering 10,000 miles. There have certainly been several times when I thought I wouldn’t get to this point but there has never been an instant where I regretted trying. There have been a great number of experiences that I will never forget and some that I would rather, but my lasting memory will always be the people that I have met along the way; the warmth, friendliness and general helpfulness that they have so freely offered. It really started in Vienna and has grown with every new country I have visited, but perhaps in Iran more than anywhere. The tourist sight that made the most impression is, by far, the Golden Temple. Simply amazing. Then there were the termite houses in Kandovan, the Wagah border ceremony and the Jantar Mantar observatory in Dehli. The most memorable natural spectacles will be the picturesque mountains along the Caspian coast in Astara, the...
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Goodbye India

Goodbye India

We are in Chennai, but only just. The time spent in Candolim was just what I needed. I met up with a lovely English (well almost English, from Watford) couple who were kind enough to take the old man under their wing. We had a great time and I thank them. The day before we were scheduled to leave Candolim I notice that Bridget's rear near-side tyre was a little deflated. I found a garage with an airline just down from the hotel and they agreed to inflate it for me. However the tyre didn’t want to play and on closer inspection I found it was badly cut in several places. This was obviously as a result of the road conditions coming into Goa. The guys at the garage quickly replaced the wheel with the spare but we haven’t been able to get a replacement tyre so we are hoping that we don’t get another puncture. There are two alternative main routes from Candolim...
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End In Sight For First Leg

End In Sight For First Leg

From Udaipur the plan was to drive to Vadodara to stay over night, but I couldn’t find the hotel. This is the second time I have tried to stay at a Holiday Inn but have been totally unable to locate it. Either my navigation is rubbish, or their directions leave something to be desired. Given that I have found my way over 8,000 miles successfully I think my navigation is reasonably average. Anyway as there was still plenty of time I decided we should strike out for Pune, which was to have been the next stop after Vadodara, some 250 miles further on. Unfortunately the road surface deteriorated again making progress painfully slow and it soon became obvious that to reach my destination that day I would have to drive in the dark, something I had avoided doing previously. Then to make things a little more interesting the heavens opened and it poured. When it does this in India it really...
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Royal Circles

Royal Circles

The drive from Agra to Jaipur was easy and uneventful, taking 3½ hours to cover 180 miles. However I then spent another two hours driving around the city trying to find the Holiday Inn, receiving numerous conflicting directions from Jaipur’s traffic police. Then to cap it all a boy on an overloaded bicycle misjudged the amount of space he needed and ripped off my nearside mirror whilst I was stopped at some traffic lights. On the basis that the cost of a replacement would be more than six months wages for him I put it down to experience and added it to the list of parts required when I arrive in Perth. I hope the MG club there is well stocked with spares!! Jaipur, also known as the Pink City, old pink not ‘Brighton’ type pink, is so called because of the colour of the local building material. Compared to other cities that I have visited in India it appears more...
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Tourism Investment

Tourism Investment

Agra is, I’m told, a city of some 2.5Million inhabitants but there is little to recommend it to tourists other than the obvious Taj Mahal. Seeing these world famous sites does not always live up to our expectations and I have to say that the Taj is one of them as far as I am concerned. I far preferred the Golden Temple in Amritsar where my expectations, due to my ignorance, were low, but that said the site was far cleaner and better presented than the Taj Mahal. A little like the Red Fort in Delhi it needs cleaning and the grounds require far better maintenance. Most major tourist authorities around the world, in charge of sites that I have had the privilege of seeing, make an effort to present not only the site to the best of its ability, but also the surrounding area. The conditions, I am afraid to say, in Agra are that the roads are atrocious, the streets...
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