Audi Great India quattro Drive 1: Day 6: Siliguri to Cooch Behar

It feels good to eat a full breakfast before setting off on a new leg. It's a luxury we haven't been able to enjoy since Jaipur. Everyone has second helpings, some have thirds. We have only 145km to cover today, so we can afford to leave by 10am, rather than 6am like we usually do. And in the wake of yesterday's unintended off-roading adventure in Bihar, the cars could really do with a cleanup, so we treat them to a proper power wash.

There's a bit of an argument with the satellite navigation about which way we need to go to get out of Siliguri, and unfortunately, we end up taking the road more travelled. The longer route would have taken us on a picturesque forest road, and could have made for plenty of great photo ops. It's not like we're in a hurry. Instead, we're on the main road, NH31D, which goes through just about every town between us and our destination.

It's a pretty uneventful drive, unless you consider huge potholes to be events, in which case it's just about as action packed as they come. It's all dual carriageway, all of it elevated slightly above lush green farmland, all of which is mostly growing corn. There is, however, a beautiful and long bridge that takes us across the river Teesta.

Our hotel, of course, is not actually in Cooch Behar proper, but rather in one of its peripheral towns. The area is quaint and quiet, with most of the life having already retired for the night as the Audis roll in at about 6pm.