Northlander Dan Morrison, in the green shirt, is having the adventure of a lifetime - racing 3500km across India in a tuk tuk
Northlander Dan Morrison, in the green shirt, is having the adventure of a lifetime - racing 3500km across India in a tuk tuk
Northlander Dan Morrison and his two mates are tackling the Rickshaw Run – the 3500km race across India in a rickshaw (Indian tuk tuk) for charity.
Morrison, Nick Trebilcock (Hamilton) and Luke van Dijk (Whakatane) set off from Fort Kochi, in the south Indian state of Kerala, on Sunday, April 9, for two weeks of uncharted, unsupported adventure.
The Rickshaw Run is advertised as “the least sensible thing to do with two weeks.”
“You’ll break down and you’ll definitely get lost. That’s the point of a proper adventure.”
The journey will finish in northern India, by the Himalayan foothills, in Gangtok on Saturday, April 22.
Morrison, Trebilcock and van Dijk have fittingly called their team “Yeah Naan”.
The team has set up a Give A Little page for donations. The page describes the scope of their challenge:
“We will battle India’s highways, potholes and sacred cows in a mission to raise money for two different charities. There is no support, no map, no mechanic on-hand, just three clueless blokes who will no doubt be lost 90 per cent of the time.”
Teams are asked to raise a minimum of £500 for the event’s official charity Cool Earth, which works with indigenous villages to halt rainforest destruction.
Any donations team Yeah Naan receives above the £500 target will go towards Gumboot Friday, a charity providing free and timely counselling for New Zealand’s young people.
Morrison says they are just three blokes wanting to support mental health.
The trio met in 2007 when they studied at Waikato University and have been mates ever since.
Northlander Dan Morrison and his two mates are tackling the Rickshaw Run – the 3500km race across India in a tuk tuk
They are all sports-mad.
Before the team took off from Fort Kochi, their rickshaw was given a custom paint job, which features cricketing legends Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor, and the NZ Warriors logo.
Morrison, Trebilcock and van Dijk have also taken a cricket bat and ball, which has proven to be a great conversation starter - even in different languages.
While the distance they will cover will be great, the size of their vehicle is small.
Their humble rickshaw has been described as a 3-wheel, “7-horsepower glorified lawnmower.”
Meeting the locals is one of the highlights for Northlander Dan Morrison as he races across India in a tuk tuk
While the event is promoted as light-hearted fun, the event organisers stress that by its very nature, the undertaking is extremely risky.
The teams are given a start and finish point. It is up to them to chart their own route and make their way to the finish unsupported.
Morrison, Trebilcock and van Dijk are racing against 167 other competitors in 68 rickshaws.
The Rickshaw Run first started in 2006. This year’s April 2023 edition is a “doff of the hat” to the first ever route, “when nobody thought it was even possible to chart this route or drive up the mountain ranges in a glorified lawnmower.”
