Eurobond recently sponsored David Russell Jnr in his extraordinary race across India to raise money for a life saving charity. David works as a contracts manager for Holden Installations, a valued customer of Eurobond based in Cork, Ireland
Here he shares his personal story:
Every year, a band of intrepid (or possibly insane) individuals take part in a wild ride across India, battling against each other and their mechanically challenged transports to reach the finish line in only 14 days. Starting in Kathmandu and finishing in Pondicherry, the teams race each other in 150cc, 2 seater rickshaws (also known as tuk-tuks), reaching a maximum speed of 50kmp (30mph) if they are very lucky and desperately hoping that they won’t break down.
It’s a no-holds-barred kind of race in which each team buys a map from which they have to work out their own route to the finish line. A finish line that is approximately 3700km away. The 2008 race saw a total of 64 teams taking part.
The race began in the main square of Mumbai on a busy Sunday afternoon. “The first difficulty that we encountered was the severe lack of fuel available in Nepal” stated David. “The problems we experience in the western world with price and supply is nothing compared to the problems encountered in Nepal, compacted by the high degree of poverty. As visitors to the country, we were very lucky in that we were able to source fuel via the black market and the army but only because we had the money to afford it. For the Nepalese, sourcing petrol is a real struggle, with the result that we came upon 8-10km’s of truck lines either side of one petrol station. On chatting, we found out that some of the drivers had been there for several days just to get 1 tank full of fuel.
If the poor petrol supply wasn’t problem enough, within a short time of starting out on their journey, there was a political coup and the Nepalese king was ousted. The country basically became a new republic. The media blew this up out of all proportion reporting on fighting and unrest etc., whereas there was actually very little taking place. The worst thing that happened was that the power was shut off for one night and a curfew put in place. David’s team even sat around waiting for something to happen but nothing actually did, thank goodness.
Disaster struck when they ran out of fuel 30 metres from the Indian border, so the team had little choice but to push their Tuk tuk, expecting the other side of the border to be “the land of plenty” where fuel was concerned. Unfortunately, a great many Nepalese had, had the same idea and they found that it was just as bad trying to get fuel there.
And their problems didn’t stop with finding fuel. “We also struggled to find somewhere to stay,” said David, “…ending up one night in a tiny village sleeping in a hospital.” He goes on to explain: “I use the term hospital very loosely - the owner had a medical background and the land it was on had a well – that was enough for the building to be classed as a hospital. As a team of five with two rickshaws, we were faced with spending the night on 5 wooden benches that the doctor had managed to round up. The kind man also arranged for us to have food at the homes of friends/neighbours and with only the prospect of those benches to sleep on, we ended up spending most of the night singing and talking with the locals.”
With nights like these India was beginning to make sense to David and his team mates. However, they had little time to ponder on this as they entered in to the poorest parts of rural India. David says with feeling, “The beauty of the country swept me away and got very much under my skin. Also the people because they were so very genuine.”
They travelled on and reached Varanasi in 5 days where they finally came across other races. By this time one of their poor, badly abused tuk-tuk’s was much the worse for wear and needed a total re-build, even down to having the roof-rack welded back on (up to then it had been held on with “gaffer” tape). It took 12 hours of labour at a cost of 11 euro’s to complete all the repairs, during which time they saw several other racers experiencing similar difficulties. Confirmation that although they weren’t last in the race, these troublesome machines were very badly made.
However, by this time the team was rather panic stricken. “We had travelled 800 kilometres which meant we had another 2,900 kilometres to go” said David. “We continued on but now with more urgency, rising each day at 6am and ensuring that we were packed and ready to roll by 6:30am.” Drive until dusk, hope for a beer that night and do the same again the next day.
They found that the towns were quite filthy and experienced a lot of problems getting accommodation. In the vast majority of the towns that they visited, approx. 95% of the people had never seen a white man in the flesh before. They would find ourselves surrounded by people in minutes. A curious mob of shy, smiling faces chattering amongst themselves but who would still fix your tuk-tuk – most refusing to take any payment. To replay such kindness, all one needed to do was shake many hands and smile back.
The team finally reached their lowest point in one of the built up industrial areas. They were all very tired and road beaten and hadn’t spoken to each other for hours because they were all feeling pretty disheartened. “With only a grunt I was instructed to dig out an MP3 player and put on Kings of Leon” says David. “It was what we needed. It lifted our spirits and one by one we began to rally around. I said to myself, “India, do your worst.” It’s a country that can completely frustrate you one day then completely lift you up with awe the next.”
Without even realising it, the team had gradually improved, working together so that getting packed and ready to go became less and less of an effort, to such an extent that they were making much better time. So during the last 5 days, coming in to rural Pondicherry, they had time to spare and visited a temple that thousands of people make a pilgrimage to each year. The women were all painted gold and it wasn’t long before David’s girlfriend was surrounded by them. They are the sort of people that can see right in to you and judge you in seconds. They could clearly see her good nature and within minutes they became part of a big wedding party. David says, “We had no Hindi and they had no English but I remember that somehow we were talking for hours. It was one of the most amazing experiences. “
Their journey was finally coming to an end and in fact, they made the finish with two days to spare. Having spent so many nights bedding down in some of the most dreadful places, they checked in to a French Colonial house. It was like a palace compared to the conditions that they’d become used to.
On the Sunday night that marked the official end of the race, a party was held for all the brave souls who had entered. Some of the revellers should really have been in hospital going by the injuries they had sustained during the race. One poor team had overturned at 40Kph and slid along the road removing paint and skin..
The good news is that a substantial amount of money was raised. Our own team raised £2,500 sterling and with all the contributions together, the total came to approximately £100,000. This was a phenomenal result. 80% of all the deaths in India are from people drinking contaminated water. With all the money the race raised, over 44,000 people could now have access to fresh water.
All in all, the tuk-tuk race is an experience that I will never forget. India is a place of extreme contrasts. I adored the country and fell in love with her people.
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