Rickshaw Run  (India version)

What:  Push­ing basic engi­neer­ing to the lim­it, the Rick­shaw run is a two week man­ic, chal­leng­ing, adven­tur­ous and thrill-seek­ing char­i­ty team ‘race’ across the whole of India in a bat­tered, smelly, unbal­anced and unsuit­able rick­shaw, with no fixed route, no guide and def­i­nite­ly no back-up.

Held twice a year, the race see’s around 80 teams of up to three gath­er in either the north or south of India and jour­ney 3000km in a pimped-out rick­shaw across not just the unre­li­able roads of India, but the­Jun­gles, ban­dit coun­ties, moun­tains and sights of the worlds sev­enth biggest coun­try to a set fin­ish point  – with each bump, turn and pot­hole tak­ing the unsuit­able Rick­shaw, which is absent doors, seat belts or safe­ty fea­tures, one step clos­er to not only break­down but com­plete destruc­tion.

When: The orig­i­nal Rick­shaw Run in India (and still the best ver­sion) takes place twice a year, once begin­ning on the 30^th of Decem­ber and last­ing until the 16^th Jan­u­ary and once again in mid Sep­tem­ber and last­ing until the end of the month.

Where:  The rick­shaw run takes place in India (there are also ver­sion in Nepal and Sri Lan­ka) – with the start being in the coastal town of Kochi, and the end point being in the north of India at Gang­tok for the first run of the year and the start and fin­ish­ing points being reversed for the sec­ond run of the year (Gang­tok – Kochi).

The route you take to reach your des­ti­na­tion is com­plete­ly up to you, with some teams opt­ing to take in the tourists sites (Taj Mahal, red Fort har­min­dar sahib), oth­ers cut­ting across the jun­gles of India, some head­ing into Nepal and oth­ers tak­ing in all three on their way to the fin­ish line.

Dura­tion:  The rick­shaw run offi­cial­ly lasts for 17 days, with the first three days ded­i­cat­ed to test dri­ving, a brief­ing, and a launch par­ty.

With the race offi­cial­ly get­ting under way on the fourth day and last­ing for exact­ly 2 weeks – at which point rick­shaw­ers are on their own and left to set their own route — those who do man­age to nav­i­gate the 3000km of India in the Rick­shaw and arrive at the fin­ish line are treat­ed to a fin­ish line par­ty, com­plete with beers, the best of endi­an food and rick­shaw themed cel­e­bra­tions.

Tick­ets: Entry to the rick­shaw Run costs £1,745 per team for a max­i­mum team of three – with teams also hav­ing to raise a min­i­mum of £1,000 for the char­i­ties of the race – which include save the chil­dren and cool earth.  

To sign up and pay you can vis­it the offi­cial Adven­tur­ists web­site at [https://www.theadventurists.com/adventures/rickshaw-run/prices-and-dates/] – and entry includes your very own rick­shaw, insur­ance, two days of test­ing, the start and fin­ish par­ties and best of all the pimp­ing out of your rick­shaw to what­ev­er spec­i­fi­ca­tions you desire.

Need to Know:  For the run itself, you should be warned that once the start flag is waved you are very much on your own  — with no sup­port, no back­up and no one to bail you out if you come across the ban­dits which have been known to tar­get rick­shaws.

Also, pur­pose­ful­ly the rick­shaw is an unsuit­able vehi­cle for dri­ving across India, while this is part of the fun, it can lead to fre­quent break­downs, over­turned rick­shaw and even col­li­sions with Ele­phants, with the Rick­shaw also rul­ing out high­way dri­ving – so it’s advised to have a rough route mapped out before set­ting off. 

For those who can’t get enough of rick­shaws, there are also ver­sions of the rick­shaw runs (for those that com­plete the India ver­sion) held in Nepal (July & Sep­tem­ber) and Sri-Lan­ka (March & Octo­ber).

More infor­ma­tion:  For a full guide on the rick­shaw, to read more about the adven­ture and to sign up vis­it the offi­cial site of the rick­shaw run at [https://www.theadventurists.com/adventures/rickshaw-run/#3].