The Road Inland - Bribes, Near Misses and Diesel Spillages

We've begun the long journey inland towards a Tiger reserve in the hope of getting to see some wild tigers. Lets just say the usual non eventful days of travelling are no longer.

Firstly, the meercat (Shippers) ran a red light ( of course all the locals adhere to the traffic signals rigidly!!) and we were subsequently stopped by a copper. A simple on the spot fine of 11 pounds was avoided by a simple bribe! On we went!

That day continued and at lunchtime we found ourselves down a dirt track surrounded by grape vines in a local farmers vineyard (and yes, India do make wine....apparently!). We put the very unreliable and inconsistant primus cooker on for some noodles only to find the local farmer approach us down the track....He welcomely greeted us and offered his house for us to stay in as well as the chance to wash. We declined but he did later bring over some drinking water in a pot, thinking of our health we thought it would be best if we'd use the water to wash with instead of drink! We showed the farmer our gratitued by giving him a bottle of Honey Bee Brandy - This had the added benefit of reducing our Brandy supply incase Matt got any more bright ideas about drinking another bottle!

The three white crow operators were now getting confident with its handling and ability but this was to be short lived as we found out on approaching a simple T-Junction. Its not Ideal seeing a 10 ton truck pullout right across you on the mainroad while you're in your Crow doing 50kph. On slammed the brakes, the back wheels skidded sideways and some miraculous driving (if i do say so myself!) allowed us to continue unscathed - Our first close call!

This day we thought had been eventful enough but we were to be proved wrong. Shippers smelt a strong odour of petrol coming into the boudoir area of the Crow. This was first blamned on the primus stove operator Camel (matt) but was later found to be coming from the back of the Crow. We stopped, got the bags out and discovered that the quality local diesel container had split and leaked 5 litres of precious fuel into the storage area. 15 locals from across the road swarmed us wanting to help, one turning up with a new fuel container - result! Half the remainder of diesel went in the new container and half to a grateful rickshaw driver that was passing by. To say thank-you another Honey bee brandy was given out!




Police have now pulled us over around 8 times and we're beginning to develop a strong bond with them. For instance, on one occassion Matt refused to pay their bribe so our forfeit was to go have a drink with them. And there we found ourselves in a small roadside restaurant having Mango Maazaa bounght for us by the local police.....as you do!




During this phase of the journey we have seen quite a changeable scenery, what was initially quite barren coming out of Mumbai soon turned into absolutely spectacular sandy mountains - the 'Ghats' and then as we passed further east the terrain turned to more arid desert. While crossing the desert section the climate has become steadily drier and hotter - today was 48 degrees!! Dehydration has become a regular feature - currently glugging 5 litres of water a day each!!



Todays journey was relatively uneventful, we arrived in Nagpur, the geographic centre of India having been run off the road by trucks only twice......not too bad. Onwards to the tiger reserve!