Less than a year after backpacking through India for a month, my fellow tropical-adventurer housemate, Fred, suggested a charity race starting on the border of North India and Pakistan and finishing on the southern tip of India.

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50 teams and 3 weeks to traverse India...it's mountains, jungles, swamps, endless dirt roads, motorways, its chaotic mega-cities, it's complete remoteness. We'd be covering almost 4000 kilometres, on our own and with no support, in the most unsuitable of vehicles. A bashed-up rickshaw or "tuk-tuk".

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Sounds great, sign me up.

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So many memories from 3 weeks of living on the road in what was probably my first real expedition. Knowing every nook and cranny of our utterly useless but awesome rickshaw, stinking of petrol, lost exhausts, driving through a communist state, sharing busy motorways with buffalo, haggling over 15-year-old, useless road maps, haggling for road parts in a remote town surrounded by confused indian men, haggling over samosas with twin brothers...

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A gruelling, 18 solid hours on the road trying to get into muggy Mumbai, Delhi belly, forgotten beaches, getting lost, getting un-lost, rickshaws on fire, Rolling Stones face masks, cricket on our favourite beach, the fairytale desert castles of Rajasthan.

 

Always, though, the spectacle of immediately being surrounded by the whole population of a roadside town or village whenever we stopped is still one of the most unique experiences of my life.

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To me, India is organised chaos. It's wild, crazy, logic-defying, epic, beautiful and a truly unique part of the world that I can't wait to explore further. 

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Cool Earth and St. George's Hospital Charity shared the £2000 we raised from our little race through India.

It sowed the seed for the idea that if I took on totally mad challenges for charity, I could actually raise quite a lot of money for them!

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This idea appealed to me greatly.

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