Day 3 - Ayodhya to Kanpur

Distance travelled: 244km
Total distance travelled: 750km
Time taken: 9 hours

After offroading the shaw for much of the day yesterday, we decided to stick to the motorways today. Joe did the lion's share of th driving yesterday, including all the scary dark bits so Amelia decided to tackle most of today's challenges. The motorway was only half built so it was a little challenging an had lots of very bumpy speed humps in it. At one stage, we were run off the road into a ditch by a lorry overtaking and heading straight for us.

Rickshaws are pretty common in India and used as taxis so we were constantly being flagged down by expectant passengers, despite our distinctive livery. Some looked on in wonder when they saw as go past, the rest looked merely disappointed that we hadn't picked them up. We did collect one guy though, a policeman who made sure we stayed on the right road before hopping off a short while later.

We spent a while looking for a ring road around Lucknow, which proved to be another figment of the Rough Guide's imagination. So we ended up going straight through the middle of one of India's many large cities in heavy traffic. It made Kathmandu seem like child's play. Rickshaws to the right of us, bicycles to the right of us, motorbikes weaving in front. Many drivers slowed to get a better look, smile, wave and honk. Chaos and we loved it. It is the most fun thing to drive and totally exhilerating.

Mark and Tom ran out of petrol in the middle of one of the busiest intersections and had to push their vehicle off the road while hundreds of people tooted and tried to run them over.

We are now in Kanpur having found luxury digs for the night. However the internet connection is too slow for our photos and videos (which include us negotiating Lucknow). Tomorrow we head south.