Three Wheeler Driver Arrested

We are on the train to Darjeeling. New Jalpaiguri to be exact. It started 7 hours later and has managed to consume more time still while moving and we are now late by 16 hours. Newspapers have been read, put down, used as dinner plates and then re –read so with little else to do the laptop comes out of the bag and I type.

The first tour of the season is over a whistle stop, fast paced, mini monsoon sloshed 9 days of hard riding, some hard carrying, outlandish Himlayan views brilliant descents and all round tough but brilliant fun. For me and probably the group as a whole it was almost impossible to fit anything more in, every second of the day was used up to keep us and the bikes moving or ready for moving; with in the end, the tour finishing in somewhat comical fashion as over £20000 pounds worth of bikes arrived on the back of a giant rickshaw (not the expected jeeps) at Delhi airport with just two hours left before the flights departure. Not one of MTB Kerala’s proudest moments but good for the camera’s. Enquiries are still being held here at MTB Kerala’s HQ. In a final ludicrous moment the rickshaw driver was arrested just after the delivery of the bikes on Delhi airport’s bye- law that restricts entry to the airport for three wheelers. We spent an hour on the tarmac near departures pooling our rupee resources to secure the release of the driver and his driving license.

To all who came out on the tour thanks for coming and making it so memorable, night riding will never be the same without the aid of a 60 Rupee torch bought from a Kharmi sweetshop!!