Rickshaw Challenge – Malabar Rampage 2016: Days 5 & 6

Day 5:
With a distance of 260km from Calicut to Mangalore, a tiring day lay ahead of our participants, but the reward was something they all coveted: on Wednesday, they would finally leave Kerala and enter the state of Karnataka, where it wouldn’t be as difficult to find a cold beer after a hard day on the road.

So, the time finally came to start the Malabar Rampage 2016 party. On the way to the location, our teams had the rare opportunity of being driven in a rickshaw instead of driving one themselves, which was a welcome change for everyone, as they could finally kick back en-route. Our participants feasted and chatted in the warm breeze of the night until late evening. Before that, however, they had to find their way to Mangalore and complete some challenges – they also had the opportunity to check out some amazing sights.

Team Blues brothers fulfilled the challenges with flying colours – they snapped a picture of a team member with a holy man and gave some confused locals a ride in their rickshaw.

The teams had the chance to relive history; they visited Kappad Beach. This is the place where Vasco da Gama landed in 1498, which, as first step in direction of the later colonialization of India, established a permanent sea route from Europe to India. Also a visit to Bekal Fort was possible, a huge fort build by Indians, surrounded by thousands of coconut trees, next to a kilometer long beach.

Day 6
This day was going to be a short and easy one, driving just 150km from Mangalore to Murudeshwar on nice broad roads that even had a partitioning stripe in the middle… this small detail can make all the difference when driving on Indian roads. Today’s highlight was Udupi, a quiet little town, famous for its Sri Krishna temple, established back in 13th century. The pit stop in this town was an excellent opportunity for our participants to get some insight into the colourful and devotional religious life of Hindus. Everyone admired the women, who dressed up in their breath-taking saris to visit the temple. Petting and feeding one of the holy cows roaming freely in front of the temple was an absolute must.

Also it is time for some big thanks to our support team, which is always there when our participants need them, like Teams Badmaash 1 and 2 can tell you. They broke down twice today, and both times our technical miracle workers from Chennai Garage showed up at the scene without even been called, solved the problem within minutes and sent the teams back on the road.

The highlight of the day was for sure arriving in Murudeshwar and driving up to the hotel, with the world’s tallest statue of Lord Shiva suddenly showing up on a hill and looking just spectacular in the late afternoon light. The hotel was located directly at the beach, which made for some unforgettable sunset views.

The teams’ scores can be checked out here.