Trip to Ranigunj part1

This was the trip that we were not sure we would do. Ranigunj is around 200 km outside kolkata,  and given the roads and the way everyone drives that was a long way.

All we had was two pictures of the house taken 10 years ago,  or should I say part pictures and a rough location,  which was walking distance from the local railway station.

Ranigunj was one of the first railways built in India,  in fact it was the second railway built to be precise by the East India Railway,  and was used to transport coal from the coal fields to kolkata.  On its first month of opening over 12000 people traveled on the train and this allowed the movement of people between ranigunj and kolkata.

Heathers great grandparents on her mother's side used to work for the railway,  Travis and Murtle Charles.  They were born around 1890 and lived in Ranigunj where Travis trained as a fireman and then become a loco driver.

We wanted to find the house they lived in and where Heathers mum Yvonne was born.

We had found a good English speaking divert called Mannu who we booked for the day and made an early start around 7 am to miss the traffic.

He reckoned around 3 hours travel time,  although this turned out to be closer to 4.

We left over the hoogley River and on a pretty modern Road that varied between three and two lanes depending on how many vehicles could fit in a line.

The first hour was pretty quick and we thought we were making good time,  and suddenly we hit a wall of traffic, which depressingly seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see.  As we were on a dual carriageway we were stuck and certainly not going anywhere for a while.

So drivers got our of their lorries and cars and started chatting away,  and as there was no traffic the other way either,  they stopped the odd motorcycle for news of what was happening.

Turns out there had been a disagreement between a lorry driver and car and the car driver locked his car and left it across the carriageway blocking both lanes!

The police had been called so there was nothing we could do except wait.  Our Driver was being asked who we were and where we were going and when I got out the car half the people wanted to talk and the other half just stared at what we were wearing. We never felt threatened,  it was just a curiosity.

Interestingly what happened was that lorries and cars that could cross the carriageway further back started going down the wrong side passing us basically going the wrong way,  which was ok as they're was no traffic coming.

Another motorcycle stopped and passed the news that the police had moved the car and the traffic would soon be flowing.
Heather had stayed in the car as she was the only woman around and as we had tinted windows it kept here of the radar!

So back in the car and eventually we started to move.  Cars and lorries were coming from the other direction as well but as we moved down havoc was ensuing as the vehicles that earlier had gone the wrong way now meet all the traffic coming the right way.  OMG how they avoid a major accident I have no idea!