Day 14 - the final push

Day 14 Woke up surrounded by curry, cockroaches and maps. Left at 0545 for the final push to Shillong. It was with in 170km and if the roads were good we could arrive by mid afternoon. The treasure of information given to us by the saviour of last night was to use the southern road to Gurhwati which was apparently well paved and would save not only time but most importantly our ride. He was right, the road was fairly new and we flew along the engine keeping rhythm with the house music pumping out of the sound system. As we headed into the city it got busier and there were a couple of occasions that reminded us about the severe lack of brakes. It was hard to comprehend that this would be our last day, time had flown and the routine was now so in set that waking up at 5am had become the norm. It was a concoction of adrenalin, excitement and disappointment that gave us the power and concentration to thunder the reminder of the route with mile eating determination, as we left the city behind us the road started to climb leading us on to the plateau that Shilling sits. Each corner brought new road works, more broken and crashed trucks strewn all over the carriage way. We were halted twice to allow dynamite rock clearing of the steep ever widening Tarmac veins of roads. It was 230pm when we climbed over 1570 meters and saw the turquoise water of what we thought was lake Orchid, where the finish line and all the other finishers were waiting hopefully drink in hand. As we turned to cross the lake on one of its many bridges which spans the valley contributing to it fill, we saw a government signpost for the resort, excitement took over as we scrambled to find an appropriate song to blast for our well timed arrival. We had pushed Ezme to the limit and time wise we couldn't have done it better. We arrived as one of the last teams before the finish party, so we had more adventure than those before, yet arrived to the greatest welcome and still the evenings blow out to celebrate our efforts. As we arrived in Barapani we saw the official Rickshaw run finnish line banners, as we pulled into the resort complex foyer 50+ fellow drivers cheers and whistled greeting us with hugs and beers, it was a relief to finally be here with so many familiar faces, some of whom we met at the start, some of whom we met on route, some of whom will be mates for life. There were 45 out of 68 teams now back save and some even sound. We parked up, found there were no rooms left, no mattresses either but apparently there was floor space we could bed down on. Finally a chance to use our hammocks I thought. Until Josh and Vicky the honeymooning couple offered us their spare room, a box room with just a sofa and table. We jumped at the chance and chuckled about ruining their honeymoon. What a great couple! The party seemed to start immediately for us although it didn't actually start till 2000, it was a fitting party for 130+ crazy fools who view life clearly slightly different to others. There were people dancing in the rafters of the temporary bamboo marquee. Bonfires lit in the car park, stereo's, speakers, clothes, anything that would burn and many things that would not, plenty of petrol hanging around may have caused the hotel manager to attempt to cull the fire using a powder extinguisher, this did little, but his clear annoyance soon displayed the rowdy group. This was the party to end all parties. Tomorrow would be our first lay in on over 15 days.