Day 1 - Rickshaw Rally - Chennai

Oh my god - an easy day's practice was an absolute roller coaster of a day.

We meet the other teams, there's 12 of us with a mix of Norwegians, Germans, Brits and a few antipodeans.  We had started bonding in the bar the previous night and it looks like there will be some heavy duty partying.

The teams are:

1. Spam Fritters
2. Team Doggy Style
3. Between dreams
4. The Bumbling Bees
5. Koala-ty-drivers
6. Adventure before dementia
7. Slap and the Troubadour (includes Royal Marine so no-one messes with Rupert)
8. Blondie and the Dude
9. Dancing Tiger - Nrtya Bagha
10. Inglorious Bembel Boys
11. Monocorn
12. Bavaria xpress

Spam fritters ia a rhyming slang apparently similar to the Gary Glitter - the standard has been set as the team's tuk tuk is decorated with brown turds

First stop - briefing and meet the press.  I'm immediately a target for the newspapers and the local tv - we look forward to seeing the rushes tomorrow but we'll be on our way by crack of dawn.

Afetr, we head over to meet up with our tuktuks - it's love at first sight as team ABD No 6 looks lovely in its orange paint job.

Isn't she a beauty

We have three hours practice and try to get used to these machines which are easy to drive but very temperamental - only one team manages to roll its tuktuk but it's a salutary lesson to us all.

And away we go

We practice starts, stops, hill starts but then find that we have to go and visit a school about 10km from the training ground and then drive back to the hotel.  Its about 35km - it takes almost 4 hours.

I volunteer to drive, John is map reading using a map we borrowed from the hotel and a torch - a blank piece of paper would have more detail than the map - we set off and three other teams assume we can drive and know where we're going - it's a big ask.

Stress levels to maximum as I set out on the road

More by luck than judgement we find the school but the trip back to the hotel in the dark is a sweaty, blistering (you should see my gear hand) torment through busy roads and accompanied by honking horns.  To be fair, the other road users, including the buses are incredibly tolerant but we are grateful to a group of Indians who tell us to follow them.

Safe at last. we head straight for the bar where John is taunted with the following sign - but although we're in Chennai and this is a typical "English Pub" there's only Kingfisher - it'll have to do.

We reach the hotel just in time for the welcome party and find that everyone is in the same boat.  We've survived day one!  After that, what the hell - I enter the hot chill eating contest - it's not the worst thing I've had to do today.

Guys, if you haven't donated yet please visit the first post - this is, without doubt the maddest thing I've ever done and I'd love to have your support on the trip that lies ahead.