Himalaya, India - 2017

Neil and I went for the big one and set off, from opposite sides of the world, to the Himalaya to ride Royal Enfields across the highest road in the world.

Getting there is half the fun... unless you're a boob

Things did not start well. Part of the plan was for me to ship my wife and daughter off to New Zealand, I would do the India trip, then carry on to NZ, see the family, then travel back with wifey and monkey. But it was impossible to get reasonably priced flights that we could all be on. So the solution was for them to fly out a day before me and, although leaving NZ around the same time, we'd be on different flights. Not really fair for wifey looking after a 4 year old for 24 hours of long haul.

Flights were booked for Thursday and Friday, then I came down with the dreaded lurgy that week; only just well enough to fly by the Friday.

Now, look at a map and draw a line between London, Delhi and Auckland, you'd think that would be the easiest route. Well, that ain't the way we do things. I first flew to China (12 hours), then back to India (6 hours). The original plan was for Neil and I to meet in China and fly to Delhi together, but Neil had a brain-fart while making his reservation and booked the flight 24 hours prior by mistake.

I get to Delhi, close to midnight, absolutely shagged, lo and behold, no tour company to meet me. I may have lost my rag at the staff when I called the hotel. I managed to get a cab and headed in the direction of the hotel. 30 minute drive took an hour and a half as the cabby didn't know where he was going... but I got there.. eventually. Neil laughed at me on arrival.

Delhi and Agra

We spend a few days in Delhi exploring, and also booked a driver to take us out to Agra for the day to do the Taj Mahal and Red Fort.

We had a good laugh playing silly buggers; some of the highlights were:

I accidentally adopted this lovely Indian family. It was rather an awkward conversation with wifey when we got back.

Our driver did such a good job of taking us to Agra (apart from falling asleep at the wheel on the motorway), that we hired him the next day to take us around Delhi. We wanted to shout him a beer and left it up to him to find a bar. This bar was more expensive than London, so we spent his tip money on his beer. He didn't smile so much after that.

The best food we had in India was in the hotel we were staying in. Here's Neil having a quick snack before heading out for dinner.

The Himalayas

Day 1: Delhi to Manali. 550km.

After 3 days in Delhi it was time to head to Manali, where the real adventure begins. All we had to do was endure a 16 hour bus ride, starting with a 3:30am wake-up call! There was a tour get together the night before and the more adventurous/less-responsible members of the trip decided to power through... this would later be their downfall once we hit the incredibly winding road of the Himalaya foothills.

Arriving at our resort well after dark, we got our first glimpse of a Royal Enfield Classic 500 that we would be riding for the tour... well.. half the tour... as we will later discover.

After a meal of traditional Indian pizzas and a few beers by the fire we headed back to our room to discover we were sharing our lodgings with a third guest, a Himalayan Huntsman. Now, I admit, I'm not the most manly of men, but I do actively seek out sharks when scuba diving and have no problem handling large snakes, but a spider bigger than a 10p coin summons up some prehistoric fear in me that I can not rationally explain. And this facker was the size of a dinner plate. I walked in first and saw it on the wall above the bed - stopped mid-step - Neil was behind me: "Neil, what are you like with really big spiders?" Neil: "Ohh, I'm alri...FAAACCKKK!". A Benny Hill sketch then follows where we do our best to ride our lodgings from our uninvited guest; culminating in me ending the episode with a well lobbed hotel-directory folder from 15 feet.

Day 2: Exploring the Kullu Valley - 85km.

In the morning it was time to meet out Royal Enfield 500 Classics. They were all lined up in the hotel driveway and really looked the part. The day consisted of a wee pootle around the valley to get used to the bikes and road conditions, which was great fun. For a brand new bike I was surprised how agricultural it was; but it was fun to ride, and to be honest, if you had anything faster you were just going to die sooner due to the roads and what uses them.

The Classic generally came with a single seat, but I wanted to use the pillion seat to carry a tail pack, so asked them to put one on. In the typical Indian nearly-but-not-quite approach, they had put the pillion seat on Neil's bike, so we swapped bikes.

According to the tour brochure, we would visit the Naggar Castle, Hindu Temples and the hot springs at Vashisht; but all I remember doing is riding up to the ski field. Still a fun days riding and we got back before the torrential rain kicked in.

Day 3: Manali to Keylong - 110km.

Time to start the real trip! Manali is at a height of 6,700ft and we needed to get to Keylong at 10,100ft while going over our first pass, Rohtang La at 13,050ft. On the climb up the endless switchbacks we passed a vulture on the bank at the side of the road; as Neil went passed, it took off and flew over his head, only missing him by a couple of feet.

The views were spectacular and very quickly changed from lush-green forests to arid mountainous plains and peaks.

The first chai stop of the trip was held in the clouds; thankfully this was the only time of the trip the views were masked by the weather.

We could already feel the affects of the altitude; and, unfortunately it had a marked affect on my ability to drink! For the rest of the trip I never had more than a couple of beers each night, if that.

Most people were in good spirits once we got to the hotel and we had a drink on the roof and got to know each other. Za Germanz were very friendly, demonstrating this by stripping down to their pants, a custom I was unaware of.

Either the beer or the altitude hadn't agreed with someone, as there was a large pool of vomit in the hallway in the morning. Ve suspect it vas za Germanz!

Day 4: Keylong to Sarchu - 115km.

Up, up and more up! On this day we had to get over a pass of 16,020ft before getting to our tent-camp of Sarchu at 14,070ft. The ride was pretty spectacular, but the roads were starting to get pretty rough. I went a bit off-piste and knocked my foot peg off on a large rock.

The boys in the support vehicle fixed it in no-time and I was on my way again.

The Young Aussies were really putting the Royal Enfields through their paces; both being accomplished off-road riders. Lets just say they made sure they got their money's worth from the trip!

Once we got to Sarchu we could really feel the altitude. I was pretty wiped out; One of the older Aussies had to spend a bit of time in the support truck on Oxygen. The dust when riding was a big issue and you had to wear a mask of sorts to keep the worst out. One of the German lads didn't wear his and got a nasty cough that knocked him around for a few days.

A couple of the guys had bought each other Top Gear styled "gifts" for each other; one, a giant wok, the other a huge sack of rice. They strapped them to there bikes. They did not last long. The wok was bottoming out on the road when cornering (who needs knee sliders) and was used as a toboggan for the evening's entertainment. Neither the wok or the rice made an appearance the next day.

We had a bonfire that night, but it was bitterly cold and the altitude was dilapidating, so most people were in bed early.

Day 5: Sarchu to Leh - 240km.

Waking up in the morning the camp resembled a war zone. Pete, the medic was doing the rounds of the tents as lots of people were suffering from the altitude. I had a bad headache; when I got up out of the tent, I abruptly vomited for no apparent reason. It was time to get moving and get to a lower altitude where we would all feel better.

But first, we had to get over two of the world's highest passes, Lachalung La at 16,683ft & Taglang La at 17486ft.

The riding was getting really tough, and the bikes were loosing power due to the lack of oxygen. At one point we had to fight our way through a military convey of trucks while going up a pass on a very rough rock-strewn "road". I got completely stuck in rut while passing a truck, my rear tyre just spinning, I couldn't go anywhere.

One of the Aussies ditched his bike behind me and pushed me out of the rut to get me going while I gave the poor Enfield absolute death.

Leh was an absolute nightmare, traffic and dust wise, really hectic, obviously had grown far to quickly and the services hadn't been able to keep up.

The hotel appeared very nice, but we quickly understood why the tour staff referred to it as Faulty Towers; they couldn't get anything right. But, hey, we're in India, relax!! So we did, with a few beers in the garden. That night we all went out as a group and had a fantastic meal on in one of the roof-top restaurants.

Day 6: Rest day in Leh - 0km.

Day x Pangong Tso

We stayed at the Pangong Travel Camp.