Day 2 - Somewhere in India - " When 4 wheels are better than 3" !

We'd been on the go for nearly 12 hours and not only was it dark but the rain was torrential with our drivers vision becoming exponentially worse by the minute with a mist shrouded windscreen ! While lack of vision of our coming doom might have been comforting the increasing sound of the front wheel threatening to tear itself off was not ! Not only were we still 100 kms from our destination at Rekong Po but a reported landslide was between us and our destination - our days journey was fast becoming a calamity !

We'd started off OK sadly leaving our hotel complete with its very own German style brewery heading towards the hills and the lovely hilltop getaway of Shimla favoured as a hill top get away during the British rule and now by Indian tourists escaping the sweltering summer temperatures .

With hills come steep roads so for 5 hours we travelled at at a speed slightly faster than snails pace (30 kms/hr) to our lunch time destination at Shimla by now weary of the potholed roads , threatening traffic and the incessant winding roads

By the time we'd exited Shimla we'd been caught in the first of the days downpours, short but heavy rain in line with closing monsoon season

Fast forward to 7p.m. and we were still over 100kms away when our vehicles front wheel started to screech !.Our driver pulled over failing to find the cause of the screech  ignored the bubble in the rear tyre wall and just simply put some more air in the tyres before continuing !

Only 15 minutes on it was obvious there were serious problems afoot. Pulling over again our driver was told of a landslide ahead that would make our ongoing drive dangerous

As most good adventurers do we ignored this information and our screeching wheel until hit by a torrential downpour !

By now we were doing 5 km / hr with the wipers unable to keep up with the rain and our driver having difficulty seeing more than a car length in front of him in the conditions !

Thankfully common sense prevailed as even Kiwi Pete (normally unflappable or asleep) was starting to worry so we turned back towards the nearest village picked out a hotel and promptly drove into a chain barrier guarding the hotels car park that just proved how little our driver could actually see !

Needless to say a few high strength beers and prayers of thanks were needed as we recapped our challenging first full day on tour !