8th January: Day 12

Suri - Raiganj - Siliguri

Whoops - left the spare petrol can at the hotel! Fortunately the lack of petrol that caused the engine to cut out every 200 metres once we had left Suri wasn't due to a lack of fuel in the tank.... so more sucking and blowing duties that Paul kindly agreed to perform (I think something may be going on between him and the Tuk Tuk behind my back). So another visit to a mechanic!

Strike day throughout West Bengal....the first problem we had was buying fuel - but taking a photo of the petrol attendant and his friends was all that was needed for him to become a scab and break the strike! The other problem was the road blockades: a double edged sword as they meant no lorries or buses on the roads, but did hinder our journey. The first few we encountered were friendly and we passed through waving. Other teams we met on the way (Dave/Lou/Oli, Mat/Mike, Mat/Caroline) also found the waving approach worked. As the day went on though the mood changed. We managed to run one small road block that the locals had forgotten to keep adequately guarded (we weren't going to stop to give them time to finish their lunch and make their way back to the road!) Later that day we tried to follow an ambulance through a blockade....and had the roof hit by sticks - the guys involved looking surprised that we didn't decide to stop to let them hit the Rickshaw more! Finally at the next blockade we were cornered. This was a large blockade on the motorway, with armed police in attendance. Paul was able to stay with the rickshaw (and another rickshaw runner - Julian) - but I was led away to listen to the speaker. The crowd were friendly (and very short!) and kept pointing out to the organiser that it was pointless me being there as I couldn't understand a word. But he insisted I stayed so I got my map out to show the guys around me where we had come from and soon had most of the crowd helping me with our route to Siliguri. Having had his thunder stolen the organiser soon decided to let us through early (much to the disappointment of the Indian drivers present who had already been waiting all day instead of 30 minutes!)

The strike officially ended at 6pm, but as some blockades decided to do an encore, the congestion on the roads was horrendous. We tried an alternative route through some "roadworks" - something everyone in the UK must have considered at sometime? - but found that these particular "roadworks" were genuine and so had to turn around.

Originally we had planned to stop driving about 6pm and find a hotel. BUT the towns were too congested to enter and there was some trouble brewing in a few areas so we decided to continue to Siliguri which would be far enough from the strike zone to be safe.