DAY FIVE - FARDAPUR TO KHANDWA - 260km

This morning I woke up feeling the effects of having little sleep over the past few days and I think the rest of the team were feeling it too. But it was nice to know that our next destination, the Ajanta caves, were less than ten minutes away. After struggling through the market stall sellers, we were introduced to the truly stunning sights of the caves and the intricate details that still remain to this day, it takes your breath away and makes you realise the depth of this country’s history.

After that spiritual episode though, it was back to the bumpy roads, where Gordon and I persuaded Katie to take to the wheel (at whatever cost to civilian life). After a few hiccups, she was well on her way driving over each and every pothole as if it were a competition! But we realised if we were ever going to get to Nepal, we’d have to let her do more than 10k every four days!

After a delightful Indian lunch (palak paneer with chapatti– yummy!) and after passing several other dead dogs on the road, we entered into our fourth state, Madya Pradesh. I took to the handlebars once more, where I had to tackle slow riding trucks up a bendy hill and try and take the ‘less bumpy route’ on a road riddled with holes and the like. I’m getting well in to the swing of driving here, I love using the horn, over-taking, not always seeing the five-in-a-row speed humps, acknowledging fellow road users with a little smile and Indian head wiggle (which is ALWAYS returned!) and I believe I have now officially passed my driving test here, having managed to swerve away from a record THREE cows in two hours, which didn’t go unnoticed by our production crew in the car behind us!

We finally arrived in Khandwa and were greeted with the strong smell of exhaust fumes, I’ve never seen so many motorbikes, rickshaws, cars and people all trying to get through one lane of traffic and it truly surprises me that we haven’t seen a crash yet – touch wood. It’s a predominantly Muslim area and for them to see a white woman driving an orange tuk tuk in their town must be quite puzzling, sometimes I even laugh at myself doing it, but I’m having the time of my life.