My brain hurts!

Today’s been a fairly relaxing day as the pair of us have been out for a (socially distanced) lunch with Dee’s parents at a garden centre. Rather ironic when you think that the Government’s current Covid rules allow us to do that – but not meet them in their own garden! The current state of play with Government policy doing so many U-turns is they look like the fabled Oozlum bird. Any minute now they’re going to disappear up their own backsides.

The brain-ache set in when I got home and tried to reconcile the irreconcilable. I’ve a wish list of places that RAIL and I want to visit on my round Britain trip next week, but it’s impossible to fit everything in – no matter how hard I try and how many timetable permutations I look at. Somethings going to have to give, but I’m not sure what that’s going to be yet. Seven days continuous travelling around the the UK’s rail network sounds like a lot – until you look at the geographical spread of the places I’m attempting to reach – and get back home on a Sunday…

Still, this leads me neatly into the picture of the day. These are conditions I don’t expect to find on my travels next week.

This picture was taken in India on the 26th March 2011. I was on a solo trip exploring old haunts (and a few new ones) in India and checking out some of the rail network in the Indian state of Gujarat. I’d been photographing the narrow gauge railway system at Miyagam Karjan Junction an hour or so away from the town of Baroda (or Vadodara as it’s now named). I’d no idea what time I was going to come back, so I bought a 3rd Class (unreserved) ticket for a few rupees and boarded a late afternoon train. If you’ve ever travelled on Indian railways this is the point where you’re probably thinking “that’s brave”. Here’s what it was like in the compartment of the coach I managed to squeeze into.

It was hot and crowded, but it was absolutely fine. My fellow passengers were a bit bemused at what a Westerner was doing there but we soon struck up conversations and people were happy to have their picture taken – and in this situation digital cameras are brilliant – as they allow you to share your photographs with the subjects.

This sort of interaction is why I’ve always loved travelling by the less expensive class of train in India. OK, maybe not when you’re doing 48 hours solid (although I’ve done that in may younger days) but on journey’s like this of a couple of hours it’s well worth it.

If you want to see more pictures from my Indian odyssey (including the one of me when I gave one of these fellow travellers my camera to get a picture of me) follow this link.

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