We scurried around all day carrying out last minute preparations and drove Robbie on the open road for the very first time. Nobody move…we actually managed to reach the heady heights of 4th gear and 60kph. We. Are. Awesome. Tomorrow is D-Day. Send us your prayers and happy thoughts. We’ll try to keep blogging from the road, but don’t panic if you don’t hear from us for a few days. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re in a ditch.

But before tomorrow, there’s New Year’s Eve. This time last year, we three Trotters-to-be spent NYE in Erica’s flat, where, after a few too many bubbles (and mulled cider, red wine and port, if I remember rightly), we promised to be somewhere very different by the end of 2013. We didn’t think for a minute that we would be seeing in 2014 on a freezing desert night beneath the towering golden sandcastle that is Jaisalmer Fort. What happens next is down to the Indian open road, Robbie the Rickshaw and our own pitiful driving skills. The world is our lobster.

Moment of the Day
Happy New Year! Not technically a moment of this day but we thought we’d include this: seeing in the New Year with a bhang in Jaisalmer.

Plonker of the Day
Claire, for screaming ‘I’ve forgotten where the break is’ as we hurtled into the path of a truck turning left in front of us while trying to drive the rickshaw on a public road for the first time. It’s the ‘shaw’s only pedal. Reckless.

Buys of the Day
Toilet roll (of course)
Pen knife (fixing ‘things’; self defence)
Spanner (flat tyres)
Double shot glass (for measuring out 30ml of 2-stroke oil to mix with petrol for Robbie…he’s very precious)
Mini sieve (for filtering rubbish out of the petrol so Robbie doesn’t get bunged up)
Flower garlands and some pom poms (Robbie’s bling)
Fleece blanket (it’s BALTIC in the back of a rickshaw)
Crisps and biscuits that only went out of date last month (scooby snacks)
Small bottle of vodka (definitely not to be drunk using the shot glass; well, it is New Year’s Eve)

It’s strange what provisions you may need for the Rickshaw Run…the weirdest holiday shopping of our lives.

Phrase of the Day
Jodie ‘This is a dick fest. By which I don’t mean you are all dicks. I mean you all have dicks.’
Jodie, trying to make friends with a fellow Rickshaw Runner, while commenting on the much higher number of men to women participants.