Darjeeling, Jan. 3: Busted oil tanks, pot-holed roads and nights beside petrol pumps — the Rickshaw Run is sure heading towards unlimited adventure, but will the teams ever reach the final destination, Darjeeling? Well, no one knows, least of all the participants.

With no set routes, 34 autorickshaws carrying 70 odd people, mostly from the US and the UK, are bumping along roads in every part of the country, hoping to reach this hill town eventually. And though there is no way of staying in touch with the teams, the occasional posts on www.autorickshaw.travel are illuminating.

Having started from Cochin on December 28, after a friendly cricket match played at Fort Kochi, Mr Tom’s Team says: “Heading for another place beginning with V. Had enough of the main road so we are heading inland for the mountains soon.”

One can sense that the highways in India have not been smooth sailing. “East coast roads are shit. Don’t take them! You can thank us at the end,” say the Dosa Boys.

Not everyone’s complaining though. Blunderbuss, which is following the same Eastern Ghats route as the Dosa Boys, cannot help but text about their New Year revelry at Vijayawada, with “booze and dancing, both illegal”.

The teams have had quite a few problems with the autorickshaws, but the Shrimpers maintain: “Alive. One breakdown, one personal repair, five off-road intervals, 350 near death intervals and about a million pot holes…” However, the Shrimpers’ engine, claims Calamity Crew, is “running hotter than a boiling kettle”.

The other autorickshaws, too, played a few tricks: an unknown team dropped its cylinder head (and had to spend 93 pence on repairs), another had a broken piston, and She’s a Goa had to tour Chennai without proper brakes.

Getting lost seems normal but the surprises in India are making the adventure worth it. The Dosa Boys has this to say: “…spent New Year’s eve sleeping on the concrete floor in the house of the nicest most humble guy in india.” They feel inclined to add: “God knows what town it was.”

No such luck for Calamity Crew though, as they spent a night “beside a tyre walla”.

While some teams, amazingly, have already reached Bhubaneswar, some others are still doing endless rounds of Chennai. Niraj Lama, who is coordinating with the teams from Darjeeling, sounded bullish though. “The Run is turning out to be a big success,” he said. “In fact, the sponsors are thinking of holding such runs twice every year.”

Dot Travel, which is sponsoring the event in collaboration with Institute of Adventure Research, have in the past organised a Mongol Run as well, in which participants travelled from London to Ulan Bator in Mongolia on cars from junkyards.