Apocalypse Cow

Sorry folks no pictures yet but soon as we figure out how to transfer them from the cameras we'll load some up.

Well... We thought we had seen everything with the traffic chaos in Chennai but compared to today it was like a sedate outing along the style of Driving Miss Daisy. But to start at the beginning....

We flew out of Chennai to Kolkata (Calcutta) last night and the security at the airports was full on. Both of us had both our checked and cabin baggage searched and we were frisked. Once we told them we were ex-cops (they did ask so we told them) they lightened up a little but the full checks were done anyway.

Arrived in Calcutta at 7:30pm with no accomodation booked so the Indian Airlines Station Manager was very helpful and introduced us to some hotel guys. As we had a 6:30am flight out of Calcutta we wanted a hotel close by. Their first bid was a suite at a mere $USD500. Not tonight Josephine! We finally settled on a deal at some mid-town hotel and it included both transfer to the hotel and early morning pickup at 4:15.

Our driver didn't speak much English and the car was a near new Toyota something but our bags were in and we were soon off to town. Intriduction to Indian traffic number 2! The drivers here were worse than in Chennai! The usual honking and tooting and all that but these guys would put Peter Brock to shame. It was close our eyes and hang on and hope for the best as we missed bikes, cars and trucks by millimetres.

Then Ian (seated in the front) called the drivers attention to a group of four cows directly in the middle of the road and in our path! Did he slow down? Not a bit... he floored it and deftly swung between them... and the cows didn't move an inch! So as well as the cars, bikes, trucks, auto rickshaws and pedestrians, cows were now added to the menu for possible slaughter.

This madness continued all the way into the hotel where we checked in and promptly headed for the disco and a few beers to steady our nerves.

Not much sleep and at 4am another driver, in an old Mercedes picks up up for the drop at the airport. At this time of night even Calcutta is relativel quiet but there are bodies sleeping everywhere and even in the middle of footpaths, under bridges and in auto rickshaws. The horn was still the preferred choice of accessory and suddenly he turned the lights off! We suggested it might be an idea to turn them back on, which he did reluctantly but not before we saw appear RIGHT IN FRONT OF US AND HEADING OUR WAY a large truck also without lights!

They say you see your life flash in front of you at times like this and so it was. I don't know if anyone screamed but just as the truck filled the windscreen and all seemed lost to eternity, the driver suddenly swerved left... regardless of what or who was there... and managed to avoid killing all of us! None of this seemed to faze him, he turned on the lights and we continued on our way.

Needless to say my stress levels peaked out and I am not sure I didn't disgrace myself but it was the closest shave I have ever had anywhere, anytime.

Calcutta airport security once again very thourough as was Guawhati and Bagdogra. At Badgogra we were picked up by Ganje for our 4 hours jeep trip to Darjeeling. If I thought I had used up all my good luck in the morning episode with the truck in Calcutta I was mistaken. I was totally and thouroughly terrified for most of the trip up to Darjeeling. I'll write more later but picture this... a wet single-lane pot-holed road, cloud so thick you could not see a car length in front, a sheer mountain face on one side and a drop of several thousand feet straight down on the other. A vehicle behind honks his horn and although there is no room to pass, it starts to pull alongside as Ganje hugs what little road there is on the left, and as the other jeep squeezes past a truck coming down the mountain appears in front. Nobody stops but the overtaker cuts back in, we don't drom over the edge and the truck sails past surely taking a layer of paint off our jeep. Welcome to the Himalayan foothils.

I'm off to bed... I'm tired, have been terrified most of the day and the thought of todays near misses leaves me in a cold sweat!

Stay Tuned......

Dave and Ian