Knock on the door at 6.45am its Amrit the managed apartment concierge (in all but name) with chia. Rajesh the owner is also here to catch up before we head off. Cloudy looking outside, not like yesterday morning. The crew help us relocate the bikes and bags down the four floors of terraced side stairs to the slightly crumbly road. Rajesh presents us with Katas in a Nepali pattern before guiding us to the lower bypass road back to the highway by driving in front pretty much all the way. Almost like having an escort.
Brake seems to be behaving okay if a little light, so favoring the front brake and feathering the back in times of higher need as we join the descending highway traffic. Gradients overall fine but between side road work and delivery drop offs the traffic occasionally swerve and brake as the road especially for a highway is quite thin, maybe two and a half lanes. As a result and to keep the accumulating descent speed easy riding the front brake, when the truck in front ( with blow horn in big, almost floral, painted capital letters on the tray back ) brakes suddenly take evasive action by swinging to the inside and squeezing hard on the rear brake. So far so good.
The descent continues down the semi urbanised hillside with apartment blocks and stores in the base occasional views through to green patches beyond. Miss most though as concentrating on the traffic. Just before Ranipool touch the front brake and the lever comes all the way in. Shivers. It appears I have lost my good brake. In Ranipool a taxi reenters the stream of traffic suddenly. The back brake is holding. Pull over on the first level piece of ground, a patch of dirt just before the bridge at the base of Ranipool.
From the bridge the descent winds around and follows the developing river down towards Singtam. Traffic spreads out and so does the housing. Down feels much better then up though and it is hard not to take a few chances with the brakes. The front brake seems to have come back so maybe it was just a momentary slip or the product of too much heat from the continual descent with weight to Ranipool. Brings a little comfort. Wave to the odd group of school children in their blue and white uniforms (maybe government) as we pass.
At the traffic control booth at Singtam we veer right and down onto the main street. Back to Hotel Shimma, the restaurant we had late lunch at before cycling up towards Gangtok four days ago. Eizack our little waiter from last time does a fantastic job of looking after us as a range of people stop out the front to inspect and the odd person, touch the bikes.
Out of town and waved through the turn by the smartly uniformed beret wearing female traffic officer. Across the bridge before swinging around the face of a new valley past the river confluence and following the combined river now to our right. The colour of the water split muddy brown from Gangtok and light green from the Tista (sometimes Teesta) river coming from further north.
Pass an army cantonment with a painted mascot of a black cat. A sign erected within the camp encouraging, in three lines "Guts Gumption Glory."
Continue to follow the river which appears to have a mixture of enterprise established on it from gravel, to hydro, to fishermen and river rafting. Continue heading south beneath the overpass turnoff to Naya Bazaar. Sections of road missing top surface tar, in progress road widening and bank retention. Road crews tend to be very smiley, including the women with scarf covered hair sarong pants and thongs. Some working with hoes to clean accumulated stagnant decomposing gutter build up. My nose makes an involuntary clench as we pass followed by a quick smile and namaste.
Into Ranpo on the state border where we have to stop just before an arched entrance and bridge crossing. Inner line permit stamped recognizing our exit. Bridge marked with the eight lucky signs (or Tashi Tagye in Tibetan). A landslip tunnel, currently just a half concrete tube thanks to no recent slips to cover. Road continues to be patchy and the trucks we are sharing the road with are pretty smoggy. Encounter a group of monkeys just near a section of road work. We tend to be cautious around the Rheus monkeys but as we pass these ones react overtly angrily and growl. Unfortunately we hit them on a rise so we are uncertain just what they will do. Thankfully bar the initial response they move past us. Given that there were twelve of them and two of us it could have turned nasty. Tourist battles monkey funny but not positive potential headline. Grab some chilled water that is cold enough to give me an ice-cream headache.
Unfortunately not out of the woods yet and we encounter a second group again on a hill, they react exactly as the first group. These monkeys (versus Languars) tend to hang around on the edge or roam human habitation areas and as a result are generally chastised, as a result their response is not that surprising, more surprising that more of these guys normally act so timidly. Roll through as a passing car blares it horns whether for our benefit or the monkeys I am not sure.
Vehicles on this road are more painful then most we have decided. When there are periods of no cars the road is great with the jungle quite dense and a cool breeze coming off the river below. With cars smog and horns are a constant companion, plus quite a few of the drivers have little spatial awareness and I have a few close brushes as they swerve across your front to move over for an oncoming car rather then slowing and considering options. The worst are the buses which have reappeared now that we are in the lower hills.
Pull up for lunch. Pass on the option of rice and dahl and opt for Chow chow (or as we know it more commonly instant noodles) with egg. Quite tasty. A cat passes under the table, from a distance it looks quite luxuriously furry, but then when it turns, man, that is one ugly cat. It has a face only a mother could love.
Soph also takes the opportunity to wet her face and when she comes back it looks like she has just come above ground from a coal mine. The dust and smog that has accumulated on us is a fine layer and also a little tacky by the looks of Soph. Some serious scrubbing with a cloth helps and by the time she finished she just looked like she had a bit of smudged eyeliner. Out to the bikes and try and take a photo of the cat now outside. A car coming in to park at the restaurant lines up a spot currently occupied by the cat. The cat stays still, the car honks, the cat sits still the guy in the car decides to park where he is. Cat with attitude.
Climb up and over a ridge and back to the main river. Pass groups of local tourists who appear to be here for a Hindi temple before spotting the Coronation bridge. This being the only bridge crossing in West Bengal of the Tista north of Siliguri. The bridge is quite impressive but made a little camp by it's paintwork. Such is India though with an attraction to Coney island colors.
Past the bridge the road which is now a fine smooth tar descends out of the hills and back onto the flats. Cross a rail line, this in itself is confirmation of the plains as bar the toy train no full size train line goes into the hills. Down further the road continues though a wilderness reserve, identifiable thanks to forestry signs and offices along the road. Following the park a huge military base on both sides of the road. Plenty of military on the roads up this way, not surprising given the history of the border area further north.
With the army base traffic of all sorts begins to markedly increase. From bikes, to rickshaws, auto rickshaws and then normal vehicle traffic. Add to this the beginning of crazy hour and we are engaged in an ongoing battle to achieve forward momentum especially as we still have five to six km to Siliguri. With urban sprawl comes greater road side building and development. Sugar levels must be getting low as the traffic is more annoying than interesting or funny. Hit the Sevoke Rd junction before the clouds open and cool raindrops start to fall. The frequency and intensity of the rain increases as some take cover to the sides whilst others drive more erratically.
A power line crackles and sends sparks into the air as we pass, some people ducking for cover. At a set of traffic lights and road junction Soph is cut off suddenly by three motorbikes weaving through the traffic. Gets one clip out but not the other due to the suddenness of the stop and tips over.
Confirm road directions to Hill Cart Rd which is made more difficult by the rain. Finally after two wrong turns we make it and having passed across the Mahendara bridge the rain eases then stops. Thoroughly soaked we settle back into our same room as before at the Conclave hotel. Both so happy to have made it and settle in for some showers, food and cable.
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