The Crash
It had truly been a nightmare journey up from Badami in southern India. We
had lumped most everyone on a direct train to Varansi while the three truck
drivers and a few die hard truckers stayed on for the 72 hour continuous drive
north. Along the way a psychotic bus driver tried to run us off the road resulting
in a heated discussion with him when we caught up with him and a resulting
afternoon relaxing at the courtesy of the Indian cops.
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Then we followed advice on a route through a huge Indian town to find a low bridge that we could not pass under and the road behind us was one huge heaving breathing mass of trucks, buses, cars, rickshaws, cycle rickshaws and people. Non of which could turn round or reverse themselves as they had people behind them. The local kids amused themselves by throwing rocks at us from the bridge above and the we started to inch our way out persuading the more recalcitrant rickshaw drivers by the international sigh language for, “please let us through, we really are in rather a hurry old boy”. After many hours we were free and continued out drive north. With Madonna and John Denver keeping us company we arrived in Varanasi on time. On time that is to do some work on the truck on the gear linkage until the small hours of the morning.
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Having met up with the group again we saddled up and hauled off in the morning
looking forward to leaving the hassles of India behind and with Nepal ahead
the day was going to be a good one, one from the top drawer. With Wayne at
the wheel we were only a few hours from the border when disaster struck. An
oncoming bus decided to overtake a rickshaw thinking that we would make room
and move over onto the hard shoulder. What the mentally unbalanced oncoming
bus aimer did not see however is what both Wayne and I could from the cab.
And that to not put to fine a point on it, was a huge great sod off tree leaning
in at an angle above the hard shoulder on our side of the road. There was
no room!
Wayne
had the choice of head on with the bus or tree. Some choice! He wisely chose
the tree and full on the breaks avoided the bus and with great driving almost
the tree as well. The Physics of solid objects however let us down and our
willpower to proverbially suck the belly of the truck in also failed. There
was a noise like a door slamming in the depths of hell as the tree caught
the very corner of the roof and the shock reverberated through the truck.
As
Wayne watched the roof peel off in the wing mirrors he brought the truck to
a stop and everything went silent. I sat for a few moments to collect my thoughts
and prepare to sort out the situation, whatever it was on the back. Getting
out we got everybody off the truck and our doctor and nurse were soon checking
everybody out. The worst injury was a couple of bumps and bruises and shocked
hot rockers.
Attention turned to the truck we had lovingly made in England and the first
scan revealed some pretty major damage. The force of the impact had not ripped
the roof off but because it was all made of excessively strong steel it had
bent it all back probably saving serious injury but resulting in the whole
thing leaning off at a crazy angle. I started to get the group into action
and everybody was soon hacking at the hanging metal, holding back the gathering
crowd, directing other vehicles around us, sorting out all the kit which was
strewn over the road. Others were looking after those in shock and most importantly
making a brew.
With
hacksaws and hammers we made the truck safe and tied on securely that which
we could not. Within two hours we were repacked, back on the truck and after
it was declared safe by the mechanic bob we drove the few miles down the road
to a workshop where we had electricity and could get the angle grinders we
were carrying to bear and hack off the rest off the hanging superstructure.
After all off this had been removed and any sharp edges smoothed off or taped
up we were off, spirits high and Nepal on the horizon we drove up to the border
in our new convertible.
The group pulled together amazingly and responded well to this set back and
continued to put a smile on as we drove up over Tibet with no roof. Topless
in Tibet. Duncan's version of the crash from the back of the truck is below.
Today we completely top-ended the truck.
Someone very powerful indeed smiled on us this day. At sunrise we went on
a boat trip on the Ganges complete with floating corpse. Then we met up with
the truck after our train ride north and there was a fantastic sense of excitements
at getting into Nepal. I was sitting on the back seat just beaming to myself.
In general everyone was just so happy to be getting out of India.
India was hard, but we're gonna party in Katmandu!
So
we are driving along, making good time. From where I'm sat I suddenly feel
the truck break hard and pull left. There is an odd crunching noise and we
stop dead. Instantly the truck looks different - but it takes a second to
register exactly how. And suddenly everything changes. We pulled hard over
to avoid an oncoming bus that gave us no room whatsoever. The big tree on
the roadside gave us less !
I looked left and saw Rog, bent double, with the whole top-locker rack on top of him! Following a shocked silence he seemed to be okay. Aine and Helen on the seats in front were also moving, but had clearing taken the locker impact squarely on the head! We stumbled off the truck, just in total shock. Climbing down from the cab Stiggy looked unbelieving. Within a couple of minutes everyone was busy. The tent locker was toast; that whole section of the climbing wall ripped free and flapping from the back of the truck. Sleeping bags, tents and mats were strewn along the road behind us. We picked up passports out of the grass verge.
The shock of what had happened was huge. People were clearly struggling to
comprehend the situation. It was an absolute miracle nobody was seriously
hurt, or worse. The adrenalin surge was huge - I came close to losing it.
I think everyone was thinking 'game over'. Our truck was wrecked; it was just
unbelievably gutting.Having checked out the extent of the damage with Bob,
Stig got everyone working. The truck could still be driven but there was work
to do.
Every last article was removed and piled on the roadside. The truck had to
be made safe, and a crew quickly set about with hacksaws removing the top-lockers,
roof canopy and what was left of the tent locker. In the best of British style
everyone really pulled together; tea and biscuits were served to all. In a
little under 4 hours we were back on the road again - minus roof, and celebrating!
