Tuk-tuk across India for a good cause: rickshawGrrlz
Published by Crystal July 5th, 2007 in rallies & events, travel & touring.
Jen, known as ‘jenscoot’ on a few of the forums I belong to, tells me she is gearing up for the adventure of a lifetime: racing tuk-tuks across southern India in August. The Indian Rickshaw Challenge is a 1,191 mile race through four states of India — Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra — at the breakneck speed of 30 miles per hour in an autorickshaw.
The coolest part of the ride is the Challenge’s “Adopt-a-Village” mission. As the site says, “IndianARC’s charity objective for 2007 is Adopt-A-Village. Every team will be assigned a village. Each team will have to visit that village and provide medicine, toys, school supplies, children’s clothing and other items that are of importance to the team’s village.”
Jen is pictured above with friends Loraine and Eric Wiener. This photo is taken at Scooter Centrale/Vespa Hartford, where Jen works. (A side note - our Long Haul route takes us to Scooter Centrale to meet Jen!)
To find out more, leave a comment here for Jen and I’ll make sure she reads them! She tells me she’ll be selling t-shirts soon to help raise funds for the Adopt-a-Village mission, and I’ll post here how to get them.
I think this ride is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of.
My only question is whether the autorickshaw has more padding — or less padding — than a scoot. After a ride like that, I’d be worried about the condition of my gluteus maximus.
Luckily, thanks to my paternal grandmother and my love for all things gooey and yummy, I have enough natural padding.
I was thinking about bringing some gel padded gloves for the long haul, maybe I should look into gel padded pillows for my posterior.
Jen– one of my dreams is to visit India some day, so your trip sounds fabulous to me. Best of luck and enjoy the ride. I will buy one of the t-shirts for sure!