Ever wanted to do an epic Indian rail journey ?, but would prefer some allies for the mission ?, but dont want to be surrounded with train freaks, just your common or garden India fan, and a few blokes who actually know what they are doing. Think you can handle Indian trains for 2 solid weeks with virtually no break ?, as long as the food and sanitary arrangements are worked out as best as humanly possible. Got a fortnight to spare in February 2011 ?. Then get in touch with yours truly, just post a comment in here
The Great Circular Indian-Railway Challenge
or turn up in here
We’ll be publishing the route in the next month or so when we’ve worked it out. The core of the plan is starting in Mumbai go to Dwarka in the west, Udhampur in the north, Ledo in the east, the Cape in way way down south, then back to Mumbai, inside 2 weeks. Oh, and try and keep to the edges as much as possible, no skiving it on express trains through the middle of the country when there’s a perfectly good express that keeps to the sides. The full journey will clock up over 11,000 Km and over 18% of the vast Indian Railways network.
Right now we’ve got at least 9 people up for the whole trip so far, they are, Mark, Andrew, Steven, Werner, Mick, Shantanu and his wife!. Rondel and Murli. And there are lots more who are on he verge. We’ve also got a number of people who are up for doing parts of the trip. If you would like to be involved with the adventure, but feel that 2 weeks solid is just a bit too much, please get in touch through one of the various channels. The Assam section in particular is an adventure in itself.
As a challenge, as if doing this in 1st Class isn’t going to be hard enough, the “winner” will be the entrant who completes the course in the cheapest seats they dare to book themselves into for a 2 week marathon, provided they are still on the train when we finally get back to VT. If you are a seasoned Indiaphile, and have therefor done at least a bit of train riding on the sub-continent, I invite you to hang out in SL class for the whole trip.
The blog is on wordpress here http://gcirc.wordpress.com
