Travels to My Elephant: A Wondrous 5-Day Rickshaw Race Through India Inline
Photo: Courtesy of Jack Brockway / @hijack3/14Ruth Powys, CEO of Elephant Family, on the road in the Mark Shand Rickshaw.
Photo: Courtesy of Jack Brockway / @hijack4/14Taking a break in front of our rickshaw. We brought some additional stuff to tart it up, including feathers and sheepskin seat covers and, in the spirit of our reggae theme, a jambox that could pump out some great old-school ska tunes.
Photo: Courtesy of Jack Brockway / @hijack5/14We went on a safari in Bagh Sarai, looking for the elusive tiger. The safari was led by this man on an elephant. As a lifelong equestrian, I was interested to learn that he signals the elephant to move by tapping on the elephant’s ears with his foot. We didn’t see any tigers, though.
Photo: Courtesy of Jack Brockway / @hijack7/14Driving the Reggae Rickshaw on day two. A more manageable three hours on the road, but the roads were crazy! There were the expected potholes, of course, but also cows, goats, and monkeys everywhere.
Photo: Courtesy of Jack Brockway / @hijack8/14It took an hour to find a cell signal to make a call to New York.
Photo: Courtesy of Jack Brockway / @hijack12/14On day three, the inevitable happened: We forgot to keep an eye on our gas gauge and ran out of gas. We had to be rescued by the support vehicle.
Photo: Courtesy of Jack Brockway / @hijack13/14The villages we drove through were tiny. As a convoy of decorated rickshaws barreled through, we noticed that the smaller the village, the bigger the smiles. Especially from the children.
Photo: Courtesy of Jack Brockway / @hijack14/14We took a break from driving to visit the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, where we met some interesting characters dressed as Hindu gods in fabulous costumes.
