A Winding Downhill Day

This morning we woke at 0500hrs as some of the group walked to a lookout place to watch the sunrise over the eastern Himalayas. As the sun rose through the haze we could see the sunn lighting up the 3rd highest mountain in the world. This was one of those mornings if the haze had vanished down the valley the view would have been spectacular.

Following breakfast we looked around the shops trying to find a local cap big enough to fit my Noggin. Sadly that mission was a failure by the time we have to leave town for our 96 k drive for the day.

Everywhere you go in Darjeeling there are lots of water pipes and hoses running along the street, I think everyone must have there own water pipe from the top of the hill where the spring is located.

As we headed down the mountain fighting with the heavy steering around the endless corners, I decided that since I had fully overhauled the steering box before our departure I’d try removing the steering damper. Removal only took about 5 mins and we were off again. Pulling away from the roadside the steering was considerably lighter and I was excited until I hit the first pothole 10 metres later, then my dreams and aspirations of light steering came crashing down. The death wobble that I had fitted the steering damper to fix was still there. As I pulled over Charlie the rally mechanic who had come up behind us at this time refitted the damper, so in no time we continued the drive back down to the plains and on to our over night stop at Chalsa.

This trip was not without some mild hindrances in the form that we lost a very slight amount of paint. A local had started to over-take us and slowed down in the process to take photos then ended up trapped out there had had to pull back in behind very quickly for oncoming traffic. His next overtaking move was a complete fail because in the process of passing and rubber necking he pulled back in too soon and creased his rear door and rear left panel plus tore half of his rear plastic bumper. He pulled up in front of us jumped out of his car and while we were taking photos of him he said “very very sorry Sir, very very sorry Sir” then jumped in his car and drove off as quick as he could.

Julie was most excited about getting to our accommodation this afternoon as she was collecting the Saree (Sari) she had ordered from Siliguri. I have to say she did look stunning in it for dinner last night (some may say I’m biased).

The day’s drive has ended at a quite nice retreat in the forest near Chalsa and tomorrow morning we are off chasing the One Horned Rhinoceros.