home hits home a point

after only 17 hours at home, i’m back at the airport en route to vienna. although i was fully aware of this trip before i left, it still forces me to confront my normal working life head-on without any settling-down time. what aggravates the situation is that no-one knows that i’ve been gone and everyone assumes that they can come back piling even more work on me since i’ve resumed normal service with on-site availability… switzerland and austria are strange places to be after 3 weeks in india. the quiet, the calm, lane discipline, so much personal space (i.e. less […]

WAVE India Day16: Final Stage to Mumbai

our last day on the WAVE india. this last stage will take us from the pune plateau down to hot and steamy mumbai. we first set out to pick up the think-driving part of the WAVE at another hotel close to pune. very spontaneously we decide that this might be a good time to take some group photos. the roads today promise to be beautiful, since jean-claude and i have decided to use the expressway. we even are ready to negotiate with police and toll plaza operatives… three-wheelers are NOT allowed on the expressways in india! coming from mumbai we […]

WAVE India Day 15: Kolhapur – Satara – Pune

today, again, we need to split up, since the “big battery” cars are still charging and want to have enough time to fully charge their batteries before setting out and then have enough time to charge the batteries at the first stop in satara. the “small battery / fast charging” battery cars, Reva and TWIKE head off to a local college in kolhapur at 0900 and are greeted by an amazing crowd. this especially since it is saturday and this is a non-mandatory event for the students. the student interaction part was inside a packed hall. lots of interest and […]

WAVE India Day14: Goa – Belgaum – Kolhapur

we leave early and drive towards the hills. we decide not to charge at the first stop where everyone else just eats breakfast but to press onwards, albeit very slowly. we are sure that with very economic driving that we can make it or that we just need to charge for 15-30 mins somewhere. the climb is very steep but the road is mostly ok, we therefore even have some time to concentrate on our surroundings which are stunning. lush green forests and palm plantations. we get to the plateau and quickly do some maths – we are about 1.7kWh […]

WAVE India Day13: Goa

a non-driving day. i empty the TWIKE and set out with Louis to buy some gifts and souvenirs for my loved ones. then desaster strikes again: the TWIKE suddenly stops working (…again!) we have to tow it back to the hotel and i start delving back into the TWIKE’s belly. what i see is horrible. many cables have been damaged by rubbing against eachother or against some part of the chassis. furthermore, the source of the fault this time is another one of the same connectors which literally disintegrated due to vibrations. fixing and insulating the exposed cables took me […]

WAVE India Day12: Honavar > Goa

after a short night in a hotel which was built along the lines of maximum sound propagation inside and maximum sound absorption from outside, we arrive at the lobby to be greeted by a local who wants to invite us to his house for breakfast. just a few kms down the road we arrive and are greeted by the extended family. the food is exceptionally tasty – a far cry from what we get at the restaurants! the rest of the trip is uneventful – the state of goa seems to have much more money to spend on road maintenance […]

WAVE India Day11: Chickmagluru > Honavar

today we start out at 6.30 am. the guys at the hotel promise us again, that the road will be beautiful. our next destination is the jawaharlal nehru national college of engineering in shimoga. but before we need to negotiate some 103kms of roads through the mountains down to a the plain on which shimoga is situated. the road was pristine! small it might be but more than 90% was perfect tarmac, allowing us to complete our most efficient stage yet: 32Wh/km @ 45km/h! (granted, we decended some 400m of altitude, too) the landscape was beautiful, too. early morning with […]

WAVE India Day10: Chickmagluru

a drive-free day. louis and paul head off to the wildlife sanctuary, whilst jean-claude and myself are planning to do some shopping and shaving throughout the morning (night in switzerland). after that i will start working and conf-calling in order to hold up the illusion of me being not too far away. 🙂 our breakfast consisted of goat leg curry and some chiapattis. louis and paul then discovered that the entry to the wildlife sanctuary needs a permit which can only be obtained in bangalore. they then decide to head off to some kind of wildlife lodge some 100kms down […]

WAVE India Day9: Bangalore – Tumkur – Chickmagulur

today, we have a short and long stage. the first stage to tumkur technical college with only 70kms is going to be a breeze for us in the TWIKE. nevertheless, jc and i get up early and set off as the first team at about 7am. the road is beautiful and we settle into the european relaxing routine of driving and looking at the sights going by. we’re so much ahead of the schedule that we decide to leave the motorway and drive through tumkur > which turns out to be a brilliant idea – we find a monkey shrine […]