Well, after a very leisurely breakfast with a couple of other teams, we headed off on the final stint in Dolly to our destination Pondicherry, a mere 98km south of Mamallapuram. It was a really weird feeling that, after almost 3,000km (which would have been more, had we not encountered so many problems) this was... it! We took it very slowly leaving Mamallapuram, I barely went over 40kph and really was savouring those last few kilometres driving. Dolly did us pro...

Left Gudur early - there really wasn't much reason to hang around, plus, in the event of Diva Dolly tantrums, we at least had plenty time to get to Mamallapuram, a beach backpacker resort where many of the other teams seemed to be hanging out before the final stretch to Pondicherry. Should I have been worried that it was Friday the 13th?! Last night when we were both half asleep, the hotel guy had asked for Dolly's keys to move her from a side street to in front ...

Last night it was suggested we make our way to Gudur, as it is a railway junction, so there would likely be some lodges there. So, we hit the road early, just to ensure that, should we break down, we would not have to worry about more night driving. The plan was to stick to 40km/hr and have frequest chai stops. And this tactic seemed to work. Which in some respects was a little frustrating as we were never quite sure if she would be fine or not, so we decided not...

Had a long lie, before great breakfast of masala dosas - they are like crepes with curried potato filling and dipping sauce, a great way to start the day. And then we (three teams, us, Mid Life Crisis and She's A Goa) were off to see a nearby FRANK Water project. We were driven in air conditioned luxury to the village, where we received the most amazing welcome from most of the villagers - greeted with HUGE floral garlands before being shown the new water plant ...

We actually had to walk along from the lodge to the workshop this morning, which was something of a shock carrying all our possessions - we seem to have become rather lazy what with pulling up as near as possible to doors in the rickshaw. The heat even first thing, didn't help. Although we were told last night "rickshaw ready", there seemed to still be a little work to be done, so we popped out for breakfast. Honestly, in retrospect the town wasn't actually th...