Day 132. Siliguri - Bongaigaon

We set off this morning in fine weather. We were expecting a slow ride out of town but it wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately we then ran into the road from hell, I have never seen so many trucks all crawling along over some  of the worst roads ever. It was hot, dusty and diesel fumes thick in the air. I tried overtaking, undertaking, dirt tracks, mud tracks you name it just to keep moving. 

All jammed up trying to get round a corner and through the middle a motorbike sneaked through. 

The pot man. 

We stopped in a small town to use an ATM, when I came out there was Robyn, only identifiable by her pink T shirt absolutely surrounded by a large group of men all checking out the bike. 

Just as well we had this diversion as we had covered about 70km in three hours! It wasn’t fun and wrestling this heavy bike through the craters of the moon at such low speeds had my arms hanging out.

Soon after this there was a sign directing the trucks away as there were unsafe bridges ahead. 

Whew respite, and what a treat it turned out to be. Quite a narrow road but perfect tarmac, busy with bikes and tuktuks so not very fast. We followed through what must be the garden of India or at least West Bengal. 

The road was tree lined with bamboo and banana trees and we rode beside rice fields and other crops absolutely delightful. The ladies mostly dressed in colourful sari and many employed drying rice on tarps beside the road. 

It was sunny so there was lots of colourful washing hanging out to dry. 

Walking home from school.

Cows, goats, dogs all over the place added to the scene. 

This big boy wandered in front of us. We let him have the right of way. 

We noticed a lot of bamboo being transported on carts, some of the trunks must have been 8-10 metres long. 

We then noticed each village had entrance arches being constructed from bamboo and on the local green or football pitch large bamboo constructions were going up. 

Also many many deities were being made from straw and mud and then painted, some of the quite elaborate.  

Also these decorations airing in the sun. 
We surmised there must be a large festival about to happen, perhaps something like a harvest festival. 

Finally we emerged back onto the main road but by now it was a concrete construction dual carriageway. Well mostly, sometimes one bit of road is missing so the traffic swaps to one side or the other. Sometimes if the truck traffic has built up on one side, cars will swap anyway for a while. There is no signage, the first you see of it is a car or truck coming towards you.  I tell you there is never a dull moment riding here. 

So we were at last making good progress but looking ahead the sky was black, we wondered if we might get lucky but with 15km to go the heavens opened up, it was 5pm and almost dark, really had to be careful as there was much surface flooding. 

We arrived at a quite posh hotel and dripped all over the marble floor, a guy with a mop followed us about.  

Anyway they let us in and we’re sitting in the bar feeling like we’ve earned a drink today.