For those not on Facebook normally (me included) here is the last report at our greatest milestone in Calcutta.
Just a quick 5,000km in Australia at 60kmh to go.
Having now arrived in Calcutta we have a number of route choices.
The Burma/Myanmar border is now sealed to all crossing by the Indian Government. This means we can not proceed on Birtles route from Calcutta to Myanmar.
It is not the end of the world as Bev and I drove that route in preparation for the Bean journey 10 years ago. We bought a car in Calcutta and drove north into Assam and through the mountains into Manipur to Imphal. It was here that Birtles and Stollery started their horrendous month cutting a road through the Naga Hills into Burma. Birtle's track is now very closely followed by the very winding current road and we drove this to stand on the border at Moreh where they crossed in 1928.
Photos below of Bev and me at the Moreh foot crossing between India and Burma. Birtles drove through here in 1928 after beating the Naga Hills. They had never seen a car before Birtles and Stollery emerged from the bush half dead from dysentery and malnutrition.
There is no vehicle crossing in town now but the vehicle crossing is a short distance away with a WW2 portable Bailey Bridge still serving the limited traffic. Unfortunately this sole crossing is now sealed shut.
To read about our Birtles Calcutta to Burma trip in 2013 here is a link to our website story.
next-horizon.org/expeditions/indian-expedition/
So, where to?
In 1927/28 Birtles was caught by the monsoon and flooded rivers after he arrived in Burma and was forced to load the Bean on a ship in Mergui and take it down the coast to Penang in Malaya. He then drove the short distance to Singapore before shipping to Darwin, Australia.
We have an opportunity to also ship to Penang from Calcutta and take the two day drive to Singapore before reloading on another ship for Darwin.
This option is economically irrational as we are entirely self funded with no corporate sponsor, press team or support crew. As well as the administrative debacle of entries and exits and reloading containers we can not justify well over $5000 for two days driving.
As a result we are now shipping direct to Singapore then on to Darwin to resume the last 5,000km of Francis Birtles trip from Darwin to Melbourne. There could be a 3 to 4 week (who knows?) transit time before we hit the road again in Australia. The Calcutta shipping people are working on it.
