Two weeks in a tuk-tuk: drive across India is an old-school adventure – potholes, hard seats, breathtaking sights and all

A few laps around a muddy field and David Burden is ready to tackle India’s fearsome roads in a bumpy three-wheeler with an engine more suited to a lawnmower

One of 80 teams doing the Rickshaw Run, he and his companion brave monsoon rains and a clunky gear box, their reward the sights of Goa, Udaipur and Jodhpur

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The Rickshaw Run is a twice-yearly event in India open to anyone brave enough to take on a 3,000km journey in an auto rickshaw – vehicle that’s ubiquitous in Indian cities. Photo: David Burden

Published: 6:00pm, 14 Oct 2019Updated: 7:02pm, 14 Oct 2019

With one wheel short of four, a two-stroke, seven horsepower lawnmower motor, a seat that is hard as nails and a chassis largely held together by its paint job, the humble auto rickshaw, or tuk-tuk, isn’t really the best vehicle to get across town, let alone across a country as big as India.

However, crossing India in an “auto” is precisely what I found myself doing this summer, along with a couple of hundred other like-minded adventurers, all on “The Rickshaw Run” – a twice-yearly event open to anyone brave enough to take it on.

From the city of Kochi in the deep south of Kerala to Jaisalmer – near the Pakistan border – our little, custom-painted tin can managed to haul me and a friend more than 3,000km (1,860 miles) through floods, deserts, mountains and chaotic cities without so much as a flat tyre (other teams averaged three breakdowns per hour).

Organised by UK-based travel company The Adventurists, the Rickshaw Run India is now in its tenth year. More than 80 teams cross the start line and set off, unsupported, for two weeks braving the madness of India’s roads. The aim is to cover around 250km a day. There’s a lot of ground to cover, but for anyone who has always wanted to see India, there really is no more immersive way to do it.

A temple guardian gives out a blessing on the way into Rajasthan, India. Photo: David Burden

Our journey does not begin well. We arrive in Delhi to be told that Kochi airport is under a metre (three feet) of monsoon floods, and our flight is diverted to Madurai – almost 200km away from the start line. Nevertheless, we convince a man with a car to drive us through the night, and by the following afternoon we’re safely checked in and raring to go. A few laps around an extremely muddy soccer pitch provide all the practice needed, and after a quick visit to a mechanic to sort out an oil leak we’re off – across the line with everyone else, and off into the guts of India.

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