John and Fred with Hank over the Ganga
We decided to break this leg of the journey down into three days - a Sunday arrival in Kolkata being the goal. But by this point we both knew that goals, aims or expectations are not something that Hank likes to be constrained by. We ended the first at the Holy Buddhist site of Bodygaya - the site of bodhi tree under which the Buddha became enlightened. Having been to Amritsar, Varanasi, Ayodhya and Bodygaya is this the holiest rickshaw in the world?
Hank in front of the giant Buddha making him the holiest tuk in the world
We were now 424km from Kolkata and passed the 1000km marker to Delhi - we were getting closer!
Fred overjoyed at the 1000km marker
Lorry driver gets a phone call whilst driving. Of course its illegal to be on the phone whilst driving so he stops in the middle of the carriageway for a little chat.
Hank and John at the 1000km marker
The going was once again good up until Assansol where we hit a traffic jam stretching into the horizon. After Fred had climbed down off the roof of a Indian lorry to view the nose to tail jam we skirted off down the outside of the road following the motorbikes in trying to go around the endless traffic. This involved going through a series of large puddles (small lakes more like) and as we found out the next morning drowned the oil filter. Stuck in a tiny village in the pitch dark we decided to hide Hank behind a Chai stall and get a local bus to a hotel 6km away.
One drowned oil filter
Hank showing signs of wear. All our fuel (and fuel cap) was nicked so a T-Shirt was used instead!
After a brief push up a fairly large hill and another trip to a mechanics we were back on the road once more - just 214km to Kolkata! We were counting down every kilometre as Hank crawled up and over the Hazaribagh Plateau. As Freddie reclined in the back the diesel smell returned - we had cut through another fuel cable. We were now only 60km from Kolkata and had to get a quick fix. We stumbled across a town to get a quick road side fix and we were back on the road with half an hour of sunlight left. We weren't going to make it to Kolkata but we planned to stop in Singur for the night - 25km from our ultimate destination (after Freddie losing his passport we knew we wouldn't be able to get across the border into Bangladesh). And stop we did. As we left the GT road to settle down for the night we heard a load crunk and then lost all traction. With no light to analayse the problem we tried unsuccessfully to get him started again but to no avail. We pushed him into what we though was Singur and dumped him for a second night and headed to a 'hotel'. This hotel turned out be the local railway lodge - the cheapest room was less accommodating than a heroine addicts mattress and the 'deluxe' room only slightly better.
Waking up in a suburb of Kolkata and facing long wait for a repair we decided to cut our losses and save some time by selling Hank for whatever we could get for him. We were both secretly hoping that he had been stolen in the night (but without a working engine we had no idea how) and the reaction when we found him once more was a mix between despair and relief. We found a seller who was willing to take the gamble on the rather abused Hank for Rs 20,000 (£230). Having a closer look at the engine they almost didn't pay us that! We were happy to be rid of him in the end but there was a pang of sadness at letting our travelling companion for the last two weeks leave our sides as we boarded the local train to Howrah station, Kolkata for the paltry sum of Rs8 (10p).
John with Sangreet having brokered the deal. Good luck to him!
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