Reflections on the Run – Part 2
So dear readers, where did I leave our little story when last we met…ah yes…we were getting moving…the first few days travelling through Rajasthan were amazing the deserts there are one of the most beautiful areas of the world I have ever travelled through, so desolate and vast and yet with so much life hidden around every corner…oh and one phenomenal stretch of National Highway that proved to be some of the best road we encountered.
There were some low points to these first few days from the early breakdowns to the gruelling schedule really hitting home I found these earl days really hard…but less of that for a minute let’s focus on some of the stories.
I can’t talk about the early days of the run without noting the phenomenal mechanical skills of Grant, Ted and Kevin…but Grant really does warrant special praise the guy stripped the carburettor from their Tuk so many times he got it down to a nine minute record!
..and of course there was the hotel in Ahmadabad… after a hard day of running we got to a hotel on the outskirts of the city and they tell us there are no rooms left, but the guy who owns the hotel says he will take us to another one….cue the insanity of driving through one of the fastest growing cities in India in Rush-hour at night! Which of course led to a small accident…but we finally reach this hotel and it looks pretty vile, however Grant goes in and comes out raving “guys you have to see this place…it’s like Train-Spotting ” So we walk through a post-apocalyptic nightmare…2 floors of pure evil only to find…luxury and 3 star western hotel next to McDonalds, WIN!
That aside, the key event of the first four days was Surat…we tried hard to avoid this Industrial City which as the guide book correctly observes “has little to offer tourists” but unfortunately after a long day of driving we had no choice…and it was hell, the worst traffic we had encountered topped off with frayed nerves led to Kieran and I having a blow out and almost stopping the run there; but again some quiet support from the Canuks and time apart kept us together, and sane!
I think it’s interesting because a lot of the tension here was caused by the different ways Kieran and I deal with stress…I like to talk about it Kie likes quiet and time to work thought it in his own mind…in a small space these are really not compatible approaches.
In fact that’s probably what I took from these four days that Kieran and I are a great team…in small doses, we have very different ways of dealing with things and we do this best apart…I need to work on being more empathic (It took me the whole trip to get grips with this problem and I still find it hard) and try to focus on what other people around me need to help them do awesome things…like drive us across India.
Thanks
Matt
