Overlanding in India
By Rob
India, a land of smiles, colour, smell, richness and poverty. So much to see, so many places to visit. One Billion people, city after city, beaches, temples, cows, elephants and just about everything else.
Gareth and I had spent a month travelling around the India on our own before joining Encounter Overland on their Bombay to Kathmandu trip. In hindsight it would perhaps have been better doing it the other way round. But, hindsight is a great thing and we managed a month on our own in this truly amazing country. I say on our own, but really, I don’t think we were ever truly on our own. Every where you go in India there are people and at night, in your room, there are the little eyes on the little creatures watching you as they share their room with you.
Arriving at Bombay airport we thought it was going to be a nightmare. We were expecting people to be coming at us like flies to fly paper. We were wrong – there was an orderly queue to go through the passport control and customs, a few backpackers with their rucksacks, people travelling back from the UK to see their families, families returning to families. Gareth and I were then beckoned over an official…oh dear, what have we done? After experiences of officials in Morocco a couple of years ago, we feared the worst. Apprehensive about travelling to a developing country? Just a little bit.
We needn’t have worried, he asked us what we were doing in India, how long we were staying, told us to have a good trip, enjoy India and passed us through the passport control and customs with no fuss at all. Then out into the wilds, still no one harassing us, we got a pre paid taxi ticket, bustled into the beat up old 1950 style taxi and were winging our way along roads in the heat, dust and smell of Bombay. Fantastic. We were finally on out way to experience this wonderful assault on the senses.
We tripped around Bombay, Goa, Hampi, Mysore and then, there, as if my magic, there was the Overland Truck we were going to join. They were camped up on a piece of land in the centre of a hotel complex. We made introductions tried chewing on sugar cane with them, (I think I prefer beer) and went our separate ways, to meet once more in Bombay.
The journey to Kathmandu was a long one, a month with a group of people we didn’t know. Risks of being ill, risks of damaging the truck on the terrible roads, sun burn, dehydration, mosquitos. Everyone was pulling together to overcome all the obstacles that India could throw at us. Ruth, the driver was head of this, smoothing the way with officials, getting locals on board to show us around towns, finding the best places for us to stay and indeed these were some of the highlights of the trip.
One night we stayed in the grounds of an old Raj’s palace, woken at sun rise by the calling from the peacocks, and as beautiful as they are, the noise is an ear splitting screech, not very welcome at 5am. Another night we were in the grounds of a large hotel and had full access to their facilities, the most important being the immaculate swimming pool.
The great thing about the overland truck journey was that it makes it easier to see those out of the way places and places that you may never have seen. We even stayed in a big tree house run by an ex-pat over looking a large river, giving plenty of water to get clean in. Useful when you have just spent three days out in the open, camping in fields with no water to wash in and a trowel to dig your toilet hole.
The truck was called Bertha – to me that was a good typical name for a truck, I’ve no idea why, but it made it sound strong enough to get us around the continent. And it did. All I remember Ruth doing was a strip own of the gear box, because it was due.
The group of people were a mixed bag, old, young, English, American, Australian, Scandinavian and a couple of Irish in there as well. They were from all backgrounds, students, teachers, pharmacists, shop workers, computer programmers, there is always someone that you will click with and get along with. It’s like having a band of ready made friends all with something in common, the travelling and the wonders that India 
gave you at every turn. With the group you do everything, cleaning, cooking, and guarding the truck. Buying the food for the next couple of days was always an adventure, into the markets to be bedazzled by gleaming tomatoes, ladies fingers and countless other fruit and vegetables, washed till they gleamed and neatly stacked in piles that you daren’t touch for fear of knocking them down.
The brave went to the butchers, I think this only happened once and that night we braved fresh chicken, the stories that the buyers had about the butchers was awful, but it didn’t put most of us off tucking into this protein.
The entire truck journey was amazing, delivering us to Kathmandu on time with no real problems, only little adventures. I would fully recommend it as a way to see a place for the ease of use, different experiences and, importantly to some, the security and safety that it can offer. Start your travels with an overland truck safari, it will introduce you to the different worlds gently and give you the confidence for the rest of your trip. Enjoy.
Rob has spent several years travelling around the world, including interailing around europe as a student. He can now be found mainly walking and mountain biking around Sussex and sneaking off to the ski slopes snowboarding whenever possible.
