A tourist bathes an elephant in a stream in Jalpaiguri district. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, Feb. 28: Bathing and feeding elephants, followed by a wobbly ride on jumbo back through the tropical rain forests of India, may be the ultimate fantasy of many a Western traveller.

But to a handful of British tourists, the fare — though they enjoyed every bit of it — was a poor consolation for being denied a dream ride up the Himalayas on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) because of the ongoing Gorkha Janmukti Morcha strike that entered the eighth day today.

“It is very disappointing,” Keith Froom, the leader of the 22-member group, said. “We are tourists and not party to the dispute. We had planned this holiday trip one year ago and kept the amount for it. When we came here, we were told that we could not charter the train.”

The group came to the region on a five-day trip wholly centred on the steam-heritage train, which is listed as one of the top 25 train journeys in the world.

Also among the tourists was Froom, the chairman of the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway Museum, aka Middy, and its 13 members. Middy has an interesting story to tell about itself.

Started in 1902, Mid-Suffolk Light Railway, which had“gone bankrupt even before it got started” completely closed down in 1952. It was in November 1990 that 70 people met to form the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway Society. Next year, they had formed a museum — complete with a station, buildings, workshop, refreshment room and a quarter of a mile where “demonstration trains” ran.

“I loved the toy train ride and that is why I joined the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society,” said the retired lawyer, who now works full time for the preservation of the heritage museum. “I had a ride on the toy train last year and while returning home, decided to get more friends and members of the Middy to experience the joy on the steam wonder. But that was not to happen.”

The group was supposed to take the dining charter between Siliguri and Rongtong on the first day of the trip. The next day, it would have been a charter from Siliguri to Kurseong. Having spent a night in Kurseong, the group was to have chartered the DHR to Darjeeling on Day3. They had planned a Darjeeling-Ghoom DHR joyride the next day. Even their return on Day-5 was planned to be on the toy train.

“I have no words to explain how miserable I am feeling,” said 74-year-old George Wells, a retired steam locomotive driver, who has driven the Flying Scotsman (said to be the world's most famous record-breaking express steam locomotive) for 48 years.

“My interest in the steam-hauled DHR is obvious. I am ageing and I don’t know if it would be possible for me to come back to the region. I will live through the regret of not being able to take the DHR up the hills after having come here,” he said.

The group had to contend with a DHR dining charter between Siliguri Junction and New Jalpaiguri, a visit to the loco shed at Mallaguri, a broad-gauge steam charter till Chalsa and a date with elephants at Dhupjhora in the Dooars.

Although they enjoyed the alternatives, they left with a sigh: “Nothing is comparable to the DHR.” Each of them is spending about Rs 1.5-2 lakh for their India trip, which also includes Delhi-Agra-Jaipur Golden Triangle.