They're off!

What a grand couple of days we've had in Silguri.  Situated in a bit of India that is only 12 miles wide before it balloons out into Assam and up into the hills, it's a booming city just getting on with itself with little for the tourist, but no worse for it. 

Heidi, with Charlie and his team had worked very hard to get all the cars in tip top condition, decorated and lined up ready to greet us.  An exciting moment. 

We've been magnificently looked after by Vivek Baid and his team at The Cindrella Hotel.  On the first night we had dinner by the pool which had been decorated for Diwlai for us. Millions of marigolds, including a fully coved cycle rickshaw, Diwali lights, a mandala, and amazing food.  It was truly stunning.  

After dinner, we had the Rally Round inaugural tuktuk race. Never was so much fun had in a tuktuk.  The joint winners were Chris and the lovely Maria. I presented them with their very own model tuktuk fashioned from the finest plastic known to man.

We had a good shake down the next day, up into the hills a little bit, to Rangtong where we visited the little school built supported by the Cindrella Hotel.  Before it was built, the children of the village had to walk many miles to get to the nearest school.  They laid on a charming welcome for us.  The children were very excited to see us and all were dressed in immaculate uniforms and looked lovely. We presented them with a small stove, which they had asked for, so that they could provide a hot lunch for the children.  We also gave each child a pencil case stuffed with goodies. 

We moved on a little bit to enjoy a wonderful picnic that Vivek had organised where we were entertained by local dancers. Julie got up to dance - she is very talented - Pads and Richard not so much, although Richard's wife Alice, who is a ballet dancer, would have been very proud of his pirouettes!  What they lacked in talent though they made up for by making us all howl with laughter.

Several cars, including Adrian and George's have followed Paddy's lead and had a local sign writer paint the cars with appropriate motifs. Stanley Buick now has flames and dragons on it.  I have decorated the Car for A and G in "Punjabi baroque' style...

We had chartered a Darjeeling Himalayan Steam train to chuff up into the hills whilst we enjoyed a feast onboard.  We had two steam engines, to push and pull our heavy load, in the out anyway.  What actually happened was that when we stopped for water, the rear engine had to be uncoupled and, for some unknown reason, it wasn't put back on and so just chugged merrily along behind us.  The poor old girl pulling us had a bit of a breakdown shortly before our destination, but it was alright. We had all had a lovely time anyway.  

This morning: the official start. We had a touching good luck ceremony performed by three monks and all the crews had to smash a coconut in front of their cars.  I am now whizzing up to Darjeeling, on a different raod to the rally, to make the preparations at our hotel - the incomparable Windamere.