Day 11- Coconut tree climbing and hijack of local biker gang
yet another early start, trying to catch up for yesterdays shinanigans regarding the fabled “holy piston” that never was !! Matt hops into the driving seat at 6am, only to nod off at the wheel an hour later – those who know him will know exactly what we mean.
Steady Eddie jumps in, so we all get a chance for a long nap cruising along at picture postcard speed. The faffing and fiddling every 20-30k’s with the carburettor continues, and each time matt n mike wander off to see whats around and meant more locals.
Today it was the turn of the local coconut tree harvesters, who are rather like window cleaners, who wander around onto peoples land and harvest coconuts.
Never ones to shy away from a challenge we of course insisted that we as seasoned climbers could skip our way up that little tree just as easy as ‘injin jo could, and with more style!
Well, matt managed 4 feet and mike 5 off the ground, and with bleeding feet and sore knees we hobbled back to the rickshaw with much laughter and yet another crowd of people around.
Upon leaving Matt hopped onto ‘injin jo’s pride n joy moped and insisted on being ferried to the next town.
Steady eddie insisted in staying in the driving seat for the rest of the day, so nothing too exciting happened for the rest of the day other than more meeting people and making silly names up for each other .
At the end of the day we entered vijiwadawada ( or something) where we met with team Loony Lassis so we could all get together and visit the FRANK water project the next day. We also saw two other teams as we all raced for the same hotel. Matt n mike abandoned the rickshaw and ran through the town, faster than they could drive to bag the last three rooms in the only decent hotel in town.
Day 12
FRANK water project day, the reason why we are all here.
after a glorious lie-in, we were met at reception by the Naandi NGO in 2 air-con 4×4’s to take us into the village. Steady Eddie was suitably pleased to see something he knew and understood, everyone else was just happy with air-con.
But to be serious for one minute, it was humbling to be greeted so well by the whole village. All dressed up in best bib-n-tucker they presented us with flower garlands and sat us down for a full presentation with us at the head. then a proud tour of the plant and then off to see the bore hole drilled at the far end of the village where the water came from to be treated.
Seeing the difference such a simple thing as clean water can make to the health of the village was astounding compared to what we had seen elsewhere.
Much fun was had teasing the village kids and generally messing about to make the day a little less formal which we think suited everybody.
Below is a video taken by the NAANDI charity that works so hard to enable this and other villages to improve their standard of living through something we taken for granted.
