Following a day of fun and frolics, today has been quite a drag. We’re in the tail end of the monsoon season but so far the weather has graced us with sunshine and light breezes, with humidity being the main bugbear of our open-sided rickshaw. Today however, showed us just what kind of downpour can come out of nowhere in just a few minutes. And we were ill-prepared. When the heavens opened we had only Shelley’s flowery water-proof coat to cover ourselves – which she chose to wear, so Katie and I got a drenching. To be fair, we did eventually cadge a spare section of plastic sheeting from the support crew and the girls wrapped it around themselves in the back while patching the hole in the roof that the roofrack had torn through with a showercap and some dodgy stitching, with varying degrees of success, it has to be said.
We soldiered on through expansive puddles and driving stair-rods of rain until we crossed into the fifth and northernmost Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a region that revealed itself to us as we trundled carefully down the twisting mountain pass which had just claimed a victim in the shape of a truck lying on its side in the ditch. Distant hills framed the agricultural valley but we were beginning to ‘flag’ and found ourselves struggling to enjoy the greenery of the landscape.
With light fading we drove into Varanasi – possibly one of the most revered cities in India because of its relationship with the Ganges River that is an artery to the spiritual heart of Hinduism. Tomorrow we see it alive with pilgrims for ourselves but right now the chaos of the traffic-heavy streets is exhausting and our little rickshaw is also continually suffering from light fade – first the indicators, then the headlamp and then the spotlights. We’ve also noticed a slightly strange whining noise in fourth gear – yet another problem that will slow our progress? Great!
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