October 6th - Mumbai - Indian help and generosity

A quick post  to thank all those as Swastik Automobiles in Colaba, Mumbai who worked like Trojans to get me back on the road ready for the start of the tour tomorrow.

After signing-on at the Taj Mahal Hotel, I took a taxi to Colaba and was told that one of the batteries I had left with them was useless and the other was suspect. So it had to be two new batteries.

I took one of the guys from the workshops to the hotel car park, where we refitted Richard's batteries to his car and fitted the two new batteries to my car. I found out that the new batteries were slightly different from the Toyota ones and the brackets to hold them down needed altering. So, it was back to the workshops where the brackets were altered in a matter of minutes. One man welded new strapping onto each bracket and then a second man fitted and painted the brackets so they looked brand new! What service!

I couldn't leave without thanking them all, especially the proprietor, Jayesh Ruparel who is standing in the middle of the photo below. Thanks Jayesh for the fantastic service you, and all your staff, gave me. Hopefully we will see him when we finish at The Gateway to India on November 5th.


Well, our second day in Mumbai is coming to a close and sadly we have seen very little of this vast city. Apparently it is one of the largest cities in the world with over 15 million inhabitants. The whole day has been spent getting the car ready. We filled up with diesel at the great rate of 35 rupees per litre, which equates to about 40p/litre! We then bought a large quantity of bottled water and snacks to keep us going whilst we drive about 250 miles to Aurangabad.

This evening we had the final briefing from John Brown before the start tomorrow morning at 6.30am. We will all be flagged off from in front of the Gateway to India. Our adventure in India is about to start.

Finally to the man who posted a comment on the site, that he thought we had caught measles, I can only say he should read the text and not just look at the pictures!

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