The Fairy Queen

It is not often that you can say I was able to give my husband the best birthday present ever and it was called the Fairy Queen. All sorts of images might come to mind but actually she was old, as all the best things are, elegant and smutty and here she is:

She was built in 1855 and she is the oldest working steam engine in the world so this weekend we boarded her and headed off to Rajastan where the average temperature was approximately 45 C but were we worried about this - not in the least we were so excited to be part of this historic event because it is not everyday that opportunities like these present themselves. She is  a locomotive steam train, pulling a passenger coach,whistling and hooting all the way with people greeting her enthousiastically everywhere we travelled. Indian railways had planned this so well that even when she broke down on the way down, there was a diesel engine behind to help us complete the journey, the kind of foward planning you don't often expect here !!

She was fixed and on the way back she even picked up speeds of some 60 kms an hour which is pretty impressive for someone 145 years old with hubby firmly on the plate watching eagerly and accumulating so much smut that all his clothes will have to be binned.

She is in the Guinness Book of Records and a great favourite of all steam train afectionados everywhere. This was a trip organised by Indian Railways one of the largest employers in the world and it was wonderful from the lovely service on board the train and the catering to the enthousiasm of all those who help the Fairy Queen to stay in prime condition to the excellent and clean toilet facilities on board !

This is a steamy kind of happiness

Hot work shovelling the coal into the furnace

And after the hot work some hot food to get you into the spirit of it all.

One of the 16000 trains a day on the Indian Rail System with faces of such complexity and diversity that you never tire of gazing out the window.

One of the many families who greeted us along the way.

The journey was picturesque travelling through the most primitive rural villages with smooth mud huts and courtyards where water buffalo grazed and lazed. Camel carts pulled loads along the roads and tea shops offered much needed refreshements. The women toiled in the baking sun, the countryside was dry and at one point there was an enormous dust storm that covered the sun and everything in sight. We arrived at Alwar station to a paparazzi welcome with photographers jostling for position and flashlights popping. I looked around expecting to see that one of us was the mystery celeb but found that we all were.

What a welcome fit for royalty and what a day for the boys.

More on the safari side soon.