I am planning a reunion before Christmas at UNICEF so we can all meet up again and share memories and photos and we can give you more info on how your amazing fundraising is helping children in India.  You should get an email from Claire about this soon.  Meanwhile feel free to be in touch by adding a “comment” to this blog post if you have any thoughts or ideas about follow up. I’ll get back to you asap.

I look forward to meeting loads of you again soon, and thanks for being such a great bunch of people to share an adventure with.

Thank you to everyone for following the blog – we have now had well over 5000 hits.  If you have enjoyed the blog, please consider makintg a donation, if you have not already done so.  All the money given will go to the charities and we want to maximise the contribution we are able to make.

Last night was the final party and farewells.  We all dressed up Indian style (see photos), including Katy looking very beautiful in her sari.  We had a lot of speeches and prizes.  I said a final word about UNICEF.  Our dear friend Billie, the trip’s cultural guru, who has kept us informed about India throughout the journey, made a final speech, in which she said Katy was her favourite among the participants!  She went shopping with Katy earlier and Katy bought some beautiful Indian gold earrings, but her ears need to be re-pierced before she can wear them.

The final awards were given out.  Unfortunately we didn’t win the prize for the best car decoration.  I think we were robbed, but Katy accepts that winners did a better job – they had even got the mechanics to wire up flashing lights to the car battery.  Ah well, we took part and had a lot of fun doing it, and our car looked fantastic, speeding through India with a pink elephant taped to the bonnet!

The party entertainment came from a group of martial arts stuntmen who fought convincingly with real swords and twirled flaming sticks around their heads (see photos).

The whole event has been an amazing once-in-a-lifetime expoerience and we have enjoyed it very much, even while it has been, at times, extremely challenging.  We are certainly glad to have come through safely to the end, but also a little sad that the end has come.  We will both bore all our friends and relations with stories for years to come.  And I understand more than £120K has been raised so far, with more money coming in.  So the children along our route, and in the UK, will benefit from our efforts.  A final big thank you is due to all our sponsors, who made it possible for us to take part in this unique adventure.

I am hoping to get the email contacts of all the participants and to set up a Flickr account where we can all post our photos and keep in touch.  I hope this happens as we have made many new friends on karma enduro.  It has been a pleasure updatijng the blog every day and I am glad that I have been able to keep many of the friends and relations of other participants updated in the process.

Final photos follow.

As we approached Cochin, we had to pause to regroup for the final run in to the hotel.  people took advantage of this time to finalise their car decorations in the hope of a prize.  Our Silver Bullet is definitely a contender, though you can see a picture of one of our rivals.  the others are one car draped in a sari and decorated with banana leaves, and another decorated with accumulated drink bottles and other waste materials collected during the journey.  Will we win?  I’ll tell you later.

On the last leg, as we could see the hotel, we all took a wrong turn!  They were doing work on the road and had changed the flow of traffic.  So 30 ambassadors had to do a u-turn on a bridge!  We finally drove into the hotel to a welcome from drummers, dancers and an elephant (see photos).

It has been a fantastic experience and we have all survived it safe and sound and with a million stories to tell!

I will do one more blog after the party, hopefully with some photos of the team in their Indian finery (including Katy in her sari and me in my white trousers and long embroidered overshirt.  Just wait and see!

For now, here are some photos from the day so far.

Today we had a short drive of only 110 kms, but it seemed like a longer distance and took nearly 5 hours, with a few stops, because the roads were very winding – a bend every few yards!  The tea plantations were very beautiful.  We stopped many times for photos, and at the top, before we started to descend towards Thekkady, we stopped at roadside viewing point for a delicious cup of ginger and lime flavoured tea.  Katy bought passion fruits, and I bought roasted cashews.  But we couldn’t see the view because we were in the clouds.

The hotel in Thekkady is lovely (and has internet!  For me part of the definition of “lovely”!).  We went to look round the shops, but found them too touristy, not very authentic.  There was one shop that had beautiful antique bronze statues of Hindu gods.  These were quite beautiful, but very heavy, so impossible to carry, and on the expensive side.

Tonight, after dinner, we are promised some local entertainment, so there may be more pictures of that tomorrow.  Tomorrow is our last driving day, from Thekkady to Cochin.  we will be leaving quite early in the hope of reaching Cochin in good time.  Tomorrow night is the final party, when we are all going to dress up in our Indian clothes we have been buying along the way (Katy has just ordered a sari to be made before we leave in the morning).  It should be quite a sight.  After that, I have to leave the next day, and Katy will meet her friends for a further two week holiday in India.

More tomorrow.  meanwhile, pictures from today follow.

We finally got to our hotel at 8pm.  One car went into a ditch on one particularly dark muddy bend (its driver got a lift with us and her car has now been recovered).  Another car had smoke coming out of the engine and also had to be left behind for the mechanics to collect later. Only one puncture today.  But twelve and a half hours driving has taken its toll on the people, if not too badly on the cars. 

The Hotel in Munnar accommodated us at short notice and is brand new and very smart.  Each room is named after a film (ours is a Bollywood classic).  The food is great and the beer is cold and there is internet!! 

Because of the diversion, we are now ahead of our scheduled route, so we can have a lie-in and a shorter drive tomorrow – only about 110kms to Thekkady.  After that the final run into Cochin on Friday.

The Silver Bullet (see pictures) is now decked with flowers and an Indian flag and looking great.  It went very well today after an early hiccup when it failed to start after fuelling, due to a loose battery connection.

Today was very hard and tiring – a real challenge!  Everyone is ready for an early night.  Even Katy has already gone to bed, and she wasn’t even driving.  So I am off next, as soon as I have uploaded the photo selection from today and the previous two days.  Enjoy!

Back at 9 for a brilliant breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and marmalade, fruit and coffee – delicious.  Then a shower (Katy had a facial and pedicure – amazing what you can do in the jungle these days!) and back to bed for more sleep, then afternoon tea and blogging on the Jungle Hut’s extremely slow internet conection. Wanted to load a few pics from yesterday in Mysore (market), cars old and new and safari.  But internet connection can’t cope, so you’ll have to wait for the photos.  Sorry.

Not quite sure how we will manage tomorrow as the monsoon rains have caused some lansdslides, which mean some of the roads are closed.  I’m told there is a plan B.  Next stop Kodaikanal after a vertical mile and 300 horizontal kilometres.

Silver bullet has an engine, windscreen wipers, a working clutch and starter, suspension (though one dodgy shock absorber), seat belts. Almost like a proper car!

Set off from Mysore at 12.30 for what was supposed to be an quick 120kms drive to the Jungle Hut, where we get to spend 2 nights. Katy had first drive of Silver Bullet and ended up doing the whole journey, which turned out to be 180kms as we missed a turn and went 30kms before realising. Katy says I am rubbish at navigating, though of course I blame the instructions!

On the way here through the wildlife reserve, we saw deer, monkeys and wild boar. Some saw elephant. Game drive tomorrow. We have a nice little cottage staggering distance from the bar.

Next leg is nearly 300kms long and a mile of additional altitude to Kodaikanal via Ooty. Lots of hairpins. Glad we have better car!

In contrast to the intense heat of previous days, today was cool and wet.  It drizzled most of the day, and I wore trousers instead of shorts for the first time.  We are certainly at higher altitude, but will be getting higher still over the next couple of days.  The strain on our cars has continued to tell.  We had trouble starting in the cool morning and needed a tyre change before getting underway, but at first things went as well as could be expected in the rain with poor windscreen wipers.  The local remedy of wiping the windscreen with tobacco leaves didn’t seem all that effective!  We stopped to help another car which had broken a tie-rod on the front steering and then we couldn’t start our car.  we waited for a mechanic, who diagnosed faulty connections in the battery and managed to get us underway.  Further along, we stopped for lunch (omelette made on a stall in the central reservation of a dual carriageway! But very tasty.  Then we couldn’t start.  Mechanic got us underway again, then we stopped to help another car whose occupants thought they’d heard the telltale signs of big ends knocking!  They were reassured and on their way, but we couldn’t start the engine again!!  This time the mechanics diagnosed a faulty starter motor, but got us going once more.  20Kms further on, the power just cut in the middle of a village and we had to push the car to the side of the road.  this time it seems the problem may be terminal.  We got a lift the rest of the way to Mysore with Jason (fellow participant) and our car was towed ingnominiously the rest of the way.  We’ll see what the mechanics say after their overnight efforts, but it seems the problem is serious enough that we will be using the spare car tomorrow at least.

Let me say to our sponsors that this trip is proving to be just the kind of challenging experience they supported and we will have many stories to tell of resilience in the face of odds, maintaining a positive spirit, helping each other and working as a team and other valuable lessons for life, business and charity – and all in a very good cause.  So even if the car with your logos is retiring after sterling effort, the challenge for me and Katy is continuing!  But let’s see – maybe Anupama will yet rise from the dead!  And just think how upset we are after putting in so much effort to pimping our ride with flowers and decorations (see pictures when I manage to post them!) in our effort to win the blingingest car contest.  we will now have to start decorating the spare car instead – hassle!

This evening we went to see the 100,000 lights illuminating the Palace in Mysore. Tomorrow we have a late start, but need the time to shop for costumes for the last night party.  then we have a shorter drive (120Kms) to the Jungle Hut at Masinagudi, where we get to spend two nights, with a rest day for wildlife viewing.

I am getting messages, comments and tweets from friends and relatives of other participants, and have become the go-to person on the tour for advice on tweeting, blackberries and blogs.  May I send a special hallo to @silverballpr and @BrandyandIce to say that your mum is doing great and says hallo.  You are quite right that she has really not caught on to twitter yet!  She and Janet are in car 12 and managing without mishaps so far.  I took a photo for you of them at Mysore Palace. 

And to Chris Smith in Dallas, Nick and Doc are doing great – we joined them for the roadside omelettes today!  Picture of them in their car also coming when i can get them posted.

More when I get the chance, but does “Jungle Hut” sound to you like a place that has internet?  Or even GPRS?  If not, you may hear little for the next couple of days!

Photos below – just a sample from the last few days – unedited due to lack of time.

Part one of the story was the fantastic day, with unbelievable mountain views, forests, coffee plantations and friendly people. Children threw flowers into our cars as we drove by, people smiled and cheered. We had some chai stops and a taste of the local coffee. When we reached Silent Valley we were welcomed by a band and garlands and then entertained by dancers in incredible costumes.

The other part is the story of the strain telling on our cars. I think the final score was 5 broken sumps, including two on one car, at least 5 punctures, including one on our own car, and one car in a ditch, towed out by a local with a jeep, apparently unharmed.

By the time we got to the resort we had to drive in the dark for most of the last hour, including our burst tyre. Everyone got lost on the last few kms, but we were well guided by local people and found our way.

Now we have a little cottage to stay in, very basic, but with hot water and a fan. Trouble is we have also been warned about snakes, spiders and scorpions! We are also told to expect to hear elephants and other wildlife in the night.

Not only is there no internet tonight, but no mobile signal either, so this blog will have to be sent tomorrow when there is a signal. Hoping tomorrow will bring more of part one and less of part two!