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Published: November 10th 2017
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Geo: 26.6692, 88.1219
The drive out of Kathmandu had been slow as queues of heavy vehicles lined the road verges either side of petrol stations causing serious traffic jams. We had been told there was a new road heading towards the eastern border that was a very nice drive so we headed for it. The afternoons drive was uneventful and we camped next to a small river complete with a couple of pigs.
The next day was a wonderful trip up to lunchtime anyway. Just after lunch we were stopped by police for our own safety. About 15 kms up the road there were some not so peaceful conflicts and uncontrolled road blocks. The local villagers are unhappy about the Constitution and it is their way of raising this issue. Any vehicles passing are stoned, smashed or burnt. Hmm this does not sound good for the Queen Mary so we heed their advice and wait.
Long story short four hours later I (Lisa) got on the phone to the Australian Embassy and asks for help. Several phone calls later they have arranged to sneak us through the troubled section complete with Police Escorts under the cover of darkness at about 12 midnight.
In the meantime we are escorted into the Police Compound and set up temporary camp for the afternoon. Ahhh!!! Options are limited due to the lack of fuel we have on board. We could not return to the middle border crossing even if we really had to as we would run out of fuel. We are currently about 350 Kms from the border and the nearest petrol station that actually has fuel.
So Darren and I spend the afternoon arming ourselves in the cab with everything we can, the slingshot, our whacking sticks, mace and the fire extinguishers ready to do battle in the middle of the night. The beaches of Bali are looking pretty good about now.
We awoke at 12 midnight and packed up not really knowing what was going to happen, parked next to the road side and then in my mirror I saw some lights coming…. And I got ready to go…. We got the wave from the Military man and we went with the speed of a 1000 startled gazelles…. it was on right from the start…. Now seriously if we have to travel this area at midnight so the bad people are sleeping then would it
not make sense to follow in a line and we all move at the same pace…. Well apparently not… why.. I guess it complicated… the mad fu**ers in the busses have something wrong with their brains.
So image this, it dark (derr is midnight) the roads are empty and poorly maintained we are driving at 80km/hr (whoo that's fast in these countries) and the mad bus drivers behind decide they are scared or something and want to be in front so on goes his high beam and down goes his hand on the horn…. So 2 points worthy of note here, firstly the bad people are sleeping so don't hoot the fucking horn dickhead and the second is it's a bad road so don't force me to drive in the pot holes…. Dickhead.
So a quick summary is drive fast, squeeze out the over-takers, hoot the horn and the best of all is give everyone a full face full of the 300watts of LED lightbars…..
Carnage summary we saw 2 trucks and 2 busses burn out, one truck stuffed his overtaking and crashed into the bollards at the start of a bridge and one dead motorcyclist. Oh and I forgot we also
3 little pigs
Surely there is good stuff in that bucketim helped remove one taxis driver's mirror when he had trouble getting his vehicle over to his side of the road… smashed it clean off the vehicle as our mirror frame is steel and quite solid, the dickhead. Made one hell of a noise as it smashed.
We arrived at the Indian border at 7:00am, crossed and things seemed somewhat better.
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Calvo
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Hey there Dazz and Lisa, the crazy adventure continues and glad to hear you both keep scraping through these tense/insane situations.Apologies but when you talk about those crazy fuckers I have to mention I think you are both right up there
amongst them!, maybe part of your survival technique???Love you both and keep staying aliveCalvo