We all made it to the end. After some incredible scenery, and an inside view on parts of India that were new to me, we arrived outside Cochin.
The last few days were through some breathtaking  tea plantations and spice gardens, where the pace of life is easy and the smiles on faces are wide. This has been an incredible trip and if you are reading this and thinking of doing it next year, I can recommend it. Great organization, great route, great hotels and a reallly fantastic group of people puting it together. If you want to know more, send me an email.
Till the next adventure……..

We have been up in the hills for a few days now climbing up and down unbelievable roads. Last night we stayed in Ooty, an old British era hill station and tonight in Kodiakanal, a really pretty town by a lake with Indian honeymoon couples, Tibetan chocolate sellers and camoflage ear muffs. There has been a bit of intercar wind ups going on. The Aussies found a chicken in their bathroom and this morning we had a load of old fish in our car. The temperature is a lot lower here, especially when the sun goes down.

Mangalore. We arrived just after dark into rush hour traffic. Fergus was driving. There was dust and twilight and horns and cows and dogs and people and autorickshaws coming down the fast lane the wrong way. A strange end to a fantastic day. Coffee plantations and forest reserve.  It was an early start. 5.30 and on the road by 7.00. We stopped almost immediately to get the steering wheel fixed, then again an hour later to get the brake lights working properly. The HM Ambassador is not a well crafted piece of engineering.  There were some great roads to drive and managed to get a swim in the river. Really tired tonight. Zzz.

The town of Murudeshwar has the largest carving of Shiva in the World. It has to be seen to be believed. 140 feet of reinforced concrete and thousands of hours of labour have created something completely unique.
On the drive we stopped at a little shelter and walked into the forest and found a village. It was really well kept, clean and obviously quite prosperous. We were invited by a local Brahmin to take tea and try some sweets his wife had prepared .
Since then we stopped at Jog Falls, the highest falls in Asia. There wasn’t much time to stop so we went quickly down to the bottom to swim. It was a serene experience with the water crashing down. (and we saw a kingfisher!).

Everyone was itching to get going this morning but not before the cars were blessed. Lemons were put under the wheels and a coconut was smashed in front of the lead car and off we went out into India. Fergus drove the first stretch. North up the coast of Goa, then left and through the forests till we reached a little café in the hills where we stopped for snacks. There is one black Ambassador, which is the lead car and the others all go at their own comfortable speeds so they are well spaced out. The motorcyclists buzz around checking everyone is going in the right dirrection and the ambulance and mechanics bring up the rear. I drove after lunch and we went up into the forest through small twisty roads with not much traffic. We stopped and enjoyed the silence and spotted some monkeys, a mongoose and some huge colourful butterflies. Looking forward to more of the same tomorrow.

We have had he first drive of the cars.  Ours comes out pretty well in the beauty competition with a good sticker job carefully executed this morning. We have the record for the first bump. When we pulled the car forward at the start, there was a boulder under the car which flipped up into the wheel arch stopping us from moving anywhere till the mechanics got it lifted with a jack and we were on the way. It was just a short ride to Bogmallo for some lunch and a quick swim but it gave everyone a feel for the cars. It is true. They do handle like drunken badgers. We have all the route notes for tomorrow and are looking forward to hitting the road properly.

It was a long trip but we are are eventually here, via Mumbai to collect our secret weapon from Vikash in Worli. The Mumbai traffic is horrid. I remember it being bad before, but now all that new money is buying new cars and the streets are clogged. Chchatrapatti Shivaji Central Railway station in Mumbai is impressive. Great Victorian, money is no object, architecture. The inside shows a level of organised chaos only seen in Indian Railway stations.  Platform 16, where the Goa train comes in is the arrival point for much of Mumbai’s fish and the smell was there to meet us.
The A1 A/C sleeper was plush grubby, and we shared a 4 berth with two Indian doctors, who left in the morning before we got up. There was a meeting in the evening and we went to the car park and met White Tiger, our companion for the trip…..