Folks,

In a idea more ridiculous than a one legged man entering an ass-kicking contest, 8 of your friends are attempting a 2,000km crossing of India in autorickshaws. Cross country. In monsoon season.

Yes, thats right, 8 of us in 4 rickshaws are setting off from the relative comfort of Chennai on the Eastern Coast, wrestling with the brutal power of 150cc's of finest quality Indian engineering and heading west. 2 weeks away is Mumbai on the west coast. The only thing between us and the finish is a shortage of roads, mechanical failure, malaria, cholera, monsoon rain and the lack of a decent steak. With luck we are due to arrive on about the 17th August.

For more of a flavour have a peak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBh04d3Uaf0

And we will be endeavouring to write an online diary, with photos, videos and anything else we put there to keep you up to date with our stupidity, which is guaranteed to be excessive.

http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/11364/summary

With less than 2 weeks before we set off in our fully pimped up rickshaws we thought we would let you know we're trying to raise some money for Wateraid, a global NGO that has been working in India since 1986. More details of their work can be found here: http://www.wateraid.org/uk/what_we_do/where_we_work/india/

Any donations would be very welcome, and Wateraid even get 28% back from the government if you're a UK taxpayer!

Wish us luck...

Benja, Brad, Fran, Greg, Mags, Matt, Torbie and Shareen