For most people, setting out on a cross-India tour in a “tuk tuk” would not be tops on their list of things to do while on a vacation.
Joanna Penny however, is a different sort of person. After climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, she decided to team up with her friend Sharon Jefferies and race across the Indian sub-continent in a small, golf cart-like vehicle.
“I was looking for something adventurous because I’ve never been the sort to just go on a package holiday,” Penny says.
The race is dubbed the Rickshaw Run, and it involves groups of people taking off from Kathmandu, Nepal and ending up (hopefully) in Pondicherry, India.
“It’s completely crazy,” Penny says, “we don’t have any checkpoints at all.”
Most teams are doing the race to raise money for charity. Penny and Jefferies are no exception. The money they raise will help support Mercy Corps, an organization that provides literacy and agriculture training to people who need it. They’ll also be donating money to FRANK Water, another charity that helps bring fresh drinking water to people in India.
Penny is quite the avid traveler, and has already visited 17 per cent of the Earth’s surface, according to her travel map. She says she caught the travel bug in 1995, during her backpacking trip to Canada.
“I sort of realized that, as lovely as Scotland is, there’s a big world out there,” she says, “and I want to experience as much of it as I can.”
Penny and Jefferies leave for Nepal on May 23 and the race to Pondicherry starts June 1. To donate money or read about their trip preparations, head to Penny’s travel blog.
The “Loony Lassis” promise to write blog entries during the race, but Penny acknowledges that this could be difficult because of time constraints.
“I don’t think I’m ambitious enough to get to the podium, but I do want to get to the finish,” she says with a laugh.
You can follow their progress on their aforementioned blog, “The Craziest Idea Yet?!”
(TravelPod is a proud sponsor of The Loony Lassis as they make their trek across India)
