Barftone
Well-Known Member
Well the big adventure finally came to pass. After having to postpone a trip to Nepal last Nov because of my torn achilles, myself and friend Tony moved the holiday to the Spiti Valley trip in northern India with Blazing Trails. We flew into Delhi not to meet our guide. After hooking up with fellow bikers (7 of us) and a few phone calls back to the UK eventually our "helper" showed up and taxis whisked us off to a hotel for a couple of hours before we got on the train to Kalka. The heat...the number of people...the smells....Michael Palin was right when he said India assaults all your senses! Sort of first class was OK but we could not get tickets for the toy train to Shimla so we had a minibus driven by an Indian advanced motorist which gave us our first hairaising taste of driving. About 4 stress filled hours later we ended up in Shimla at a decent hotel for a night to recover before the bikes the following day. Shimla was the old British summer HQ to try and get away from the heat of the Delhi plain. They were so desparate the incredible railway was built to climb its way up to the himalayan foothills.
Shimla
Our trusty steeds were 500 Royal Enfields. Suprisingly competant on the tarmac and dirty stuff apart from its sloth like gearbox
After a couple of beers and a good nights kip we were introduced to the Enfields and their right hand, back to front gearboxes. Soon afterwards we launched into the traffic with horns blasting everything...I found it strangely exhilerating trying to navigate on the roads where there are no rules....the biggest vehicle rules and we were pretty small! We headed up the Sutlej valley to Sarahan where our temple room awaited at Sarahan. On the way we had our first Dhuba experience...Chai and Momo,s...just dont look at where the dishes were being washed
Sutlej valley
We headed up to Kalka for a couple of nights and a free day to relax in the shadow of Kinnaur Kailash, a mountain in the Kinnaur district of the Indian state Himachal Pradesh. The Kinnaur Kailash has a height of 6050 meters and is considered as sacred by both Hindu and Buddhist religions
more later!
Shimla
Our trusty steeds were 500 Royal Enfields. Suprisingly competant on the tarmac and dirty stuff apart from its sloth like gearbox
After a couple of beers and a good nights kip we were introduced to the Enfields and their right hand, back to front gearboxes. Soon afterwards we launched into the traffic with horns blasting everything...I found it strangely exhilerating trying to navigate on the roads where there are no rules....the biggest vehicle rules and we were pretty small! We headed up the Sutlej valley to Sarahan where our temple room awaited at Sarahan. On the way we had our first Dhuba experience...Chai and Momo,s...just dont look at where the dishes were being washed
Sutlej valley
We headed up to Kalka for a couple of nights and a free day to relax in the shadow of Kinnaur Kailash, a mountain in the Kinnaur district of the Indian state Himachal Pradesh. The Kinnaur Kailash has a height of 6050 meters and is considered as sacred by both Hindu and Buddhist religions
more later!