Imagine starting the new year on a long trip , on a long trail , which becomes ragged in some parts , probably asleep or watching the night dust on the road ahead.For some there lies an old fantasy of spending the final hours of the calendar year in one part of the world and celebrating New Year’s Eve , in another .
Some have referred to the occasion as a passing comical brag. And the passengers who booked to travel to the border destination of Lethem with Carly’s Bus Service , will be added to the list of “braggers” , having started the trip in 2016 in Georgetown and at one second during the 20-hour sojourn , celebrating the beginning of 2017 on a trip hundreds of miles away to Region Nine .
The trip to Lethem begins around 18:00hrs daily and the buses leave for the long drive, fully loaded with passengers whose patience levels must be enduring enough to complete the trip ahead. For many the special occasion that Old Year’s/New Year’s Eve is revered for globally , is seen as a normal working day , a normal journey which will entail rough patches along the stretches of road from Linden onward to Lethem and several stops along the way for fuel and food .
Carly’s already had a list of passengers on Saturday for the trip later that evening. At the base of the bus service in the city, the drivers gathered and chat as preparations begun for the trip. But while the passenger list was not completed as the minutes ticked on Saturday, it was confirmed that “Big John “would definitely be behind the wheels to Lethem, persons at the bus service reported. If the passenger list grows, another of his colleagues would take up the slack.
But not all the drivers have experienced the trip. Derrick Paul, or “Uncle Derrick “ as he is referred to by some , has never completed the trip on Old Year’s night . But he knows for sure what it entails to spend such occasions on the trail. Only a week ago he spent Christmas Eve on the trail to Lethem. Christmas Day started with his navigating between the rough patches along the trail. On Saturday, he told this publication that he will be seeing the start of the new year with his family.
“We work every day , and I spent it (Christmas Eve ) on the road , one or two parts a bit rough but it was a normal drive “, he said. According to Paul, as long as there are passengers who are ready to travel, the trip is undertaken, even on a night as revered as Christmas Eve or Old Years.
“This been happening a while now, as long as we have passengers, we travel daily to and from town “, a female at the bus services’ Rupununi base reported. She said that for years, the buses would leave the capital city with 30 to 40 passengers on December 31, arriving at Lethem on January 1 around midday. “We were not planning this year but we have at least one (bus) leaving “, she said as she reiterated that the bus service operates daily.