After 3000km, 3 breakdowns and 4650 near misses with buses, tuk tuk taxis and pilgrim SUVs, we made it earlier this week to the finish line!
We had such a great time, that it was extremely difficult for Antoine to hand the keys of the rickshaw back. Additionally, as we have met so many wonderful people, it was difficult to say goodbye to them.
But all good things come to an end.

On Wednesday, we flew from Kochi to Bangalore, to complete what has been the purpose of our trip.
We visited one of the four schools of the Parikrma Foundation, which offers free English education, meals, clothes, and even sometimes shelter to children of the Bangalore slums.
During our visit, we had the chance to meet with Noor Jahan, one of the girls whose university scholarship Greenlight for Girls will be sponsoring.
Words cannot descibe how inspiring she is, even for a 17 year old. She really took to both of us, and us to her, with plans to keep in touch.
It was a perfect way to end our journey, to know where all of our efforts and your generous donations went.
We cannot express at this point how much your money means to them. It is not too late to donate to if you haven't done so yet.

The adventure draws to an end. Leslie and Antoine at Fort Kochi, Kerala India. 

After spending a break day in Palonem with 15-20 other rickshaw teams, we finally left the Province of Goa yesterday morning. We headed 250km south into the city of Udupi, caravaning with another team, a couple from Australia. Yesterday, we also passed a range of other teams (that we hadn't seen since the start of the trip in Jaisalmer), which reminds us that all teams are using the same roads to convene because our own journey will unfortunately come to an end in 4 days.

When we arrived late afternoon yesterday in Udupi, we directly went to visit the famous Krishna Temple here, and were lucky enough to arrive in the middle of an exceptional procession. Antoine and Leslie both agree that it was like nothing they have ever seen before. Videos and photos will follow, either when we get wifi, or back home.

We've been hearing about multiple abandonments of rickshaws, people that slept in hospitals because they couldnt find a hotel, and many more stories. The finish line will reveal all of these secrets. 

Our trip has taken such another direction since we reached the shore. The previous days were spent on the highways without much sightseeing however now on the smaller roads we are able to witness so many amazing things, including the beaches and respective towns. Not only do we try ro stop lots to be able to sample the local dishes, we have had the chance to meet so many locals from these towns. Children have especially taken an interest to us, if only to pratice our english and gape at our awesome ride. 

Today we plan on driving further south, about 200 kilometers to a small town on the coast. We have two more nights of travelling until the Kochi finish line, and we are sad to see this amazing trip coming so close to the end! 

We again want to say thank you to the organizations and people who made this trip mean something by donating to Greenlight for Girls in our name, including Vesalius College and Boston University. You made this trip that much more special! Visit www.teamleslieandantoine.com and click "Donate Now" to give to the amazing nonprofit. Please remember that every little bit counts, and what is pennies to you is thousands to them - literally. 

Happy New Year again!!
Today was the big Launch day!

Sorry for not keeping you up to date, but the day has been fairly eventful.

We departed from Jaisalmer around 11:45 this morning. Incredible moment to have more than 80 different teams departing through the same alley (instantly forming a messy traffic jam), to the sounds of the regional military band and the various customised honks on pimpedrickshaws. It was hectic, Leslie was so nervous, but we were loving it so much.. We took many pictures and videos to be posted later (no wifi at the moment).

Breakdown #1: our rickshaw engine broke down on the first day after....... 1.5km!!!!!!!!
Bad luck after all the test driving that we have been doing for the past 3 days...

Hopefully, a rickshaw taxi driver stopped after a couple of minutes, opened our engine, blew (literally) in one cable to add pressure to the engine (no clue about the cause), rekicked the engine and we were back on the road for the 4.5 hours that we drove today. No other incidents occurred afterwards. Since the departure was given rather late, and since the sun goes down rather early, we didn't drive that much today.

We have driven 160km at an average speed of 45km/h, taking 5/10 minutes break to let the engine cool down every hour.

The route was fairly easy today, straight down from Jaisalmer to Barmer, across the desert with very limited traffic. We didn't take the time to stop for lunch.
Leslie figured out that she can comfortably read in the backseat,and currently, she does not fancy driving.

When we arrived in Barmer this afternoon, we luckily found a hotel fairly easily after crossing the city. A team of Italian Journalists making a documentary about the Rickshaw Run had just checked in, but we had no signs of other rickshaws since 10 km before entering the city. We checked in, went to eat friend rice, noodles and curry butter paneer in the hotel's restaurant (we were starving). By the time we had finished our dinner, roughly 20 other teams cued up to check in. The hotel is surrounded by painted and colored rickshaws, and hotel personnel seems to be confused about what has happened to them.

Tomorrow, we plan to drive much more than today, and get as far as possible. Probably about 300+km with the aim to reach a town somewhere between Palantur and Ahmedabad, hopefully the latter (if nothing breaks).So, it's 8:00pm in India and we're off to bed!
Alarm set for 06:30 (Leslie doesn't know this yet).
Goodnight everyone!

Time is flying!
We have been pimping our rickshaw, added some decorations, stickers, a soundsystem (sony speakers!!!).
Met some of the other teams (lots of amazing Aussies), had a few drinks last night (super "authentic" Smirnoff vodka), felt it hard this morning....... Planning to get some rest tonight before the big celebrations tomorrow!! Look at our rickshaw. Looks nice huh?

After 10 hours (3+6+1) hours flying, 9.5 hours layover (3.5+6) in Istanbul and New Delhi and 5 hours of taxi (or shall we call it death ride?) from Jodhpur accross the rajastani desert, we have finally arrived at Jaisalmer, a beautiful fortified city a few kilometers away from the pakistani border.

We are tired.

The weather is wonderful, not too hot, nor too cold. We saw all sorts of animals on the road, not always alive. We're going to find somewhere to have dinner and go to bed.