We're back! With all our bits still attached - although Bev's legs are black with bruises from the knee down - photos of which will no doubt be posted to the blog in due course! The trip was far harder than any of us imagined but we had a fantastic group of fellow challengees and brilliant guides and mechanics to help us through.

Sorry we didn't manage to post to the blog whilst we were away, but the only evening we were near an Internet Cafe we were too exhausted to move! We intend to post information about each day, with relevant photos, so please pop back here over the next few weeks to read about the trip.

If you've not sponsored us yet please click on the link to our website on the right to make a donation. The donations website will remain live until the 22nd December so you've still got time to help a very worthy cause. We're close to £1,400 so please help us get to the £2,000 mark. Don't forget that we paid for the trip ourselves so all your donations go straight to the charity.

First, a couple of comments to friends:
Avril - thanks for the tip about taking sleeping bag liners - we used them at every hotel and were especially grateful for them on the first night as the hotel was rather 'basic'.
George - all the way round we kept saying 'George would love this' -so if you fancy a week of exhaustion, exhilaration and a real sense of achievement then this would be right up your street. (Sorry Caroline!)

OK, so what happened?

Sunday 22nd Oct - Monday 23rd
We left Chippers in the pouring rain on Sunday 22nd October and made it Heathrow very early. About 7pm we met up with a Global Adventures rep and our fellow challengees for a drink before boarding the flight at 10pm. Although we had seats close together we did a lot more sleeping (and no doubt worrying) than talking! We got into Delhi at 11.15am the following day and met Matt Barrett of Mountain Adventures who was our guide for the week. We had a coach into delhi and a couple of hours wandering round before lunch. Delhi was dusty and there were beggars around but on the whole they weren't a problem. Crossing the traffic was a bit exciting though! After lunch we took the coach to Delhi rail station to catch the train to Amritsar. The official porters (they have red jackets) carried our bags on their heads - so our 2 26ltr rucksacks which we could barely lift were BOTH put on this little chap's head and he carried them quarter of a mile - all for 50 rupees per bag. The Amritsar train was air conditioned and had big comfy reclining seats but unfortunately the windows were very yellowed and difficult to see through, so we didn't see much of the countryside. We did get two meals though 'high tea' with cucumber sandwiches and later dinner.

We arrived at Amritsar at 10pm and got our first culture shock as the platform was covered in people bedding down for the night on the hard concrete under greasy cloths. We risked putting our bags on someone's head if we tried to put them down. Our bags went into a car to go across to the Grand Hotel (misnamed) but we walked as it was just across the road from the station. All the bikes were lined up outside, looking very shiny.

The room was, er, basic but seemed reasonably clean. We were very glad we'd brought sleeping bag liners to sleep in though. It was about midnight by the time we got into bed after putting up the mosquito nets, getting the sleeping bag liners out and repacking the backs so that our bike gear was ready for use. The first proper sleep in about 36 hours. Ready for the 5.30am call the following day...