The best way to travel around these hilly parts is in a shared jeep, so I left my Siliguri hotel and, following reception advice, walked towards the nearest "checkpoint". This turned out to be around 1km or so, quite enough in 30-odd degrees with a heavy rucksack - and I was a source of much humour to all the local villagers on the way.
The checkpoint turned out to be a garage, where the majority of jeeps pull in to refill, and there's also a small office. I didn't have to wait long, two jeeps pulled in in quick succession - the second was not quite so full and also included women, so I was glad to end up in it. The local official made it clear that I would have the back seat, checking several times that this is ok - it's over the axle so not the comfiest place on poor roads, but I was grateful for anything that didn't involve blisters!
My travelling companions turned out to be two small boys and their youngish parents, I think probably cousins or friends, middle or upper class Bengalis from Kolkata, with reasonable English. The journey was spookily remniscent of our trips from Delhi to the hills - one of the sons was sick (and his mother nearly was), the parents pointing out local features - especially monkeys - to the children, and the eating snacks. They complained all the way of the heat :-) - they must be used to air conditioning, because it honestly wasn't that bad, especially compared to Kolkata.
The rains have been very heavy this year and in many places the roads have been washed away, or have sunk 5 to 10 feet. In other places a landslide has dumped a mound of the local clay onto the surface. The workers are out in force repairing, with a few diggers scraping off the excess. In a few places the road is down to one lane wide (and don't look down...), and at one point we had an extended stop to wait while a digger cleared one of the bigger landslides. It was about an hour into the journey, we were just starting to climb, and a good opportunity to get out and enjoy the shade and my first almost-fresh breeze since arriving.
19 Oct 2007
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