The ride to Kolkata (Calcutta) is 615K and we’re going to chop it up. It’s a notoriously bad road, but mostly we need secure overnight parking for the bike, and hotels that have that on this stretch are few and far between, and they determine the route and stops. I’m showing an abundance of caution until I’m a little further south.
Day 1 to Siliguri is just a short hop
But worth doing it this way to shorten the distance to tomorrow’s shitshow, Google Maps is showing lots of red
There are two ways down the 6500′ descent. We take the longer way as it follows the beautiful mini railway like this
Sometimes you even ride on it
I was thinking maybe it was abandoned down this far until near the bottom we caught up with one. There, on the right (video below). You have to love the centre line down the mountain, dividing the road into useless 6′ widths. The railway gauge is 2′
It’s India, anything can happen. And on the rare occasion it doesn’t, it’s blissful. Hence hanging out in Darjeeling, the calm ahead of the storm, lol.