A bit more of the story

We have hot water, but still a wet floor

This morning, in anticipation of a long day, we had a more substantial breakfast with our meagre fruit plate. At 9:00 am we were met by Lobsang and the taxi he had arranged for our trip to New Delhi. More sad farewells. We even loaded Lobsang with a few items discarded from our luggage and we were off along the lane – past the digger from the other day (How did they get it down there??) and off down the mountainside. Our driver, in our opinion a maniac, drove at breakneck speed. Driver's window open to let in passing traffic's fumes. Now I mention this because almost everything we passed was old and belched black smoke. My jacket made a good face cover. Indian drivers overtake mostly on blind corners and this guy was no different. Pure luck that speeds we low. In fact anything over 40 or 50kph felt as though we breaking the sound barrier. We had a few close calls with on-coming traffic and half way down we stopped at a food stall for about 10 minutes. Our driver had got out to bargain for a couple of bags of apples and brought back one (rinsed) for each of us. Yes, they were tasty. More close calls and past yet another truck/bus crash site.

Finally, after about two hours we left the mountains and the aircon went on as instant heat took over when we reached the flats near Kalka, the first big town since Shimla. Howard and I congratulated each other on reaching the flats in one piece. Here the road was to merge with the new highway and approaching a roundabout which would feed us onto the highway, our driver momentarily lost concentration and slammed into the rear of a small car, stopped because of a traffic jam, and pushing that car into the car in front of it. Bang! End of trip! Our seat belts saved us but our driver kissed the windscreen. Immediately about 12 young males converged on the cars. Howard, fearing for our safety said, stay here, don't get out, so we stayed put. The third car, an SUV had no apparent damage so that driver left the scene. Police were quick on the scene and directed us off the road to the side of the roundabout. The road building project seemed to be stationed here at a hot and dusty jumble of part built road, rubble and ditches overlooked by a hillock with a tree, under which the cops also had their “post”. At least twenty onlookers, mostly males were by now surrounding the combatants and police, each with their version of events. The number of others with opinions fluctuated over the time until this debacle was over. No-one paid us the slightest scrap of attention except our driver came to turn on the aircon to try to make us a little more comfortable. However, this had little effect. He also tried to blame the other driver for the accident. Eventually the car being hot, we got out and were invited to wait in the shade by what may have been the site office. This after one of the cops explained that everything was ok and we could leave. Clearly not though.

On the mound was a shambles of a shipping container which may once have been shaped into an office, now had some tiffins, may have been the lunch room. Outside, several plastic chairs in varying stages of decay beckoned. The site engineer was perched on one of these, leaning his planning pad on another. Hi-tech road building indeed. By now our driver had made contact with his boss, who luckily lived (or had his office) not too far away and he was on his way with a replacement car for us. About 15 minutes we were told. Only problem, the same traffic jam that stopped us, was also holding him up. For two hours! The driver of the other car had some English and he talked with us, trying to help us understand what was going on. In my head, why didn't we two just pay off our driver, then get a lift into town and engage another car. This couldn't happen. We had to wait for the owner.

After more than an hour in the heat and dust and, against the counsel of Howard, I did my nana. So this silly old European woman shouting (not comically jumping up and down though) had the net result of nothing apart from smirks from the two cops who continued to ignore her. The other poor victim in this tried to calm me down and even apologised for the predicament we found ourselves in. We almost had a competition of who could apologise more profusely. No, I did not feel better, nor did Howard. I can't even remember whether I did any coughing.

One of the other side's friends even went into town to buy cool drinks which were offered all around.

So, two hot hours later the boss turned up with two big guys. Much talk between them and the police, our driver and the injured parties, with the occasional look over to us. After a few minutes one of the big guys led us to the car, a much more comfortable SUV with bucket seats for the passengers. This was an improvement. We were helped to load our stuff. The big guy asked for the 5100 Rupees, apologising for this as our journey wasn't yet finished, but they needed it to pay off the police as they had decided not to formally charge our driver. The other driver may not have been up to date with his insurance and wanted the owner to pay for his repairs. What a schamozzel! With a round of apologies including good luck wishes from the injured driver we set off in air conditioned luxury. We have no idea as to the fate of our first driver.

https://picasaweb.google.com/irenewheatley/ShimlaToDelhiRoad?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Can't remember whether I'd posted these photos before. Sorry if it is a repeat.

This is not the end of our trip, we have a long way to go before reaching Delhi. Hang onto your hats.