Incredible India

OK, I admit to having been a bit skeptical about India. Overlanders don't always give it a good write-up, complaining about terrible driving, the overcrowded cities, and the oppressive heat. But while I've experienced a bit of each of these (and a lot of the first), India has turned out to be (as advertised) an incredible experience.

I'll pick up the story in Pokhara, Nepal. After doing the Jomson Trek with the Germans on rented mopeds, I headed west with them to Mahendranagar and the Indian border. The Nepali immigration folks were not too impressed that I had overstayed my visa by 5 days, and slapped me with a $45 fine before I could leave the country.

And I thought my ass was hairy (sorry mum!)

Across the border into India, the plan was to push on along the 74 Highway towards Dehradun, but navigating in India was a nightmare . Entering a town, we were typically faced with a crossroad. Straight ahead would lead into the market and a maze of alleys, leaving a choice of left or right, with no signposts to indicate which one would lead back to the 74. Furthermore, the 'main' (i.e., paved) road took long detours away from the route that was marked on the map as the 74. Eventually, we all ended up in Kashipur, having made much slower progress than expected and having taken a variety of roads to get there!

From Kashipur, I had resolved to split from the Germans and go solo again. I really wanted to see Dehradun and Rishikesh, where the Beatles stayed in an ashram and wrote a lot of the White Album. But Rishikesh turned out to be a fairly unremarkable (i.e., unpleasant) Indian town, and Dehradun turned out to be a fairly unremarkable (i.e., unpleasant) Indian city. To make matters worse, I didn't have a Lonely Planet for the area, so finding a reasonable hotel was hard work.

Next morning, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself - I realised that I was actually missing the Germans! Traveling solo in SE Asia was a lot of fun because it was never difficult to find a bar and meet the locals or other travellers. But India is different - people don't seem to go out and enjoy themselves, so meeting people is more of a challenge. Additionally, I was planning to ride the Spiti Valley, but I didn't want to do it alone because it involved about 800km in some very remote areas. So my solo travel lasted just 24 hours, and in Shimla I met up with the Germans again.

Shimla was a lot more pleasant than Dehradun, and I stayed at the charming Spar's Lodge. Parking was on the street, but the hotel was opposite the Lieutenant General's house, and the Gurkha sentries were more than happy to keep an eye on the bike. In Shimla, I finally had a breakthrough in the Great Tyre Hunt. I had heard of a guy called Vijay Parmar who runs a rally each year called the Raid de Himalaya. Turns out that Vijay is quite well known, because when I asked at the hotel if they knew where I could find him, they directed me straight to Motoworld, his workshop.

Vijay turned out to be quite a character. He told me all about the Raid de Himalaya, in which 150 motorbikes and 4WDs race around the mountains. It's been running for 10 years and has an attrition rate of 75%. He gave us a lot of information on our planned tour of the Spiti Valley, and confirmed which passes were closed. He loaded some of the rally stages onto my GPS for us to follow. But most importantly, Vijay had a couple of spare rear tyres that would fit my Transalp, so I was able to leave his workshop with a nearly new Bridgestone BattleWing - perhaps a bit too road-oriented for riding in the Spiti Valley, but hopefully good enough to get me as far as Turkey. As for the front tyre, it will just have to last (I don't use it that much anyway, heh heh). I also blagged a set of rear brake pads from the Germans (just trying to lighten their load...).

Race HQ for the Raid de Himalaya

In Shimla, we had a couple of encounters with other overland bikers. I was parking my bike near The Mall when I saw a yellow BMW 1200GS. Turned out it was Pascal and Arja. They're riding from Australia to Europe too, and we had exchanged emails a few times previously. A couple of hours later, another BMW saw our bikes parked at the side of the road and pulled up - this time it was Mark and Maggie Alsenbach, who are also doing Australia-Europe. I'd spoken with Mark a few times in preparation for the trip. So we had our biggest overlanders dinner since Bangkok, with nine attendees, and probably had the biggest party that sleepy Shimla has seen for some time...

Next morning we set off for the Spiti Valley. We knew that we couldn't complete the loop from Shimla to Manali because an 18km stretch between the Kunzum and Rohtung Passes was still and would not be open for another month. But we planned to do about 90% of the loop and turn back at Losar. On the first day, we covered about 150km to Sangkla. We stopped for lunch in Nagarta, where we ran into Drew, who had travelled up from Delhi alone and was a regular rider in the area. It was really nice to meet an Indian that showed a genuine enthusiasm for our trip - just like in Nepal, the locals normally skip any kind of welcome or introduction, and launch straight into the Three Questions ("How much does your bike cost?", "What mileage can it do?", "How many cc?"). Drew and I agreed to ride to Leh in a couple of years on Royal Enfields, and it's a commitment I intend to keep!

On the final stretch, we got our first taste of some of the terrain we would encounter... dirt road carved into a vertical cliff face... with no barriers... and blind hairpins... with the occasional oncoming truck to add a bit more excitement. That night, we stayed at the Hotel Kinner Kailash, where the staff were excellent, the dal baht was delicious, and we were given plenty of blankets because we were already at 2,800 metres.

View from the Hotel Kinner Kailash, Sangkla

You can just make out the road near the top of the picture... and the river 500 metres below

Next day we continued to the end of the road at Chitkul, where the mountain views were stunning. We then turned around and headed to Nako, hacking our way through some massive construction sites where new hydro-electric plants were being built. Half of India's entire electricity consumption is generated in this area, so there's a lot of activity. But past Pooh, the dams end and the landscape is beautiful.

Nako at dawn

After Nako, we rode on to Kaza. We arrived mid-afternoon, and decided to try one of the loops in the Raid de Himalaya that goes up to Kibber, the world's highest motorable village, and to the monasteries at Kibber and Komik.

The Spiti Valley - no further comment required!

The road was pretty treacherous - it hadn't been cleared of landslides so we were bouncing over 6-inch rocks on precarious tracks with some pretty hairly drop-offs. If that wasn't challenging enough, we were now above the snowline and meltwater made the track extremely muddy - I was starting to regret having switched to road tyres in Shimla. At Komik, the GPS showed that we were at almost 4,500 metres. The thin air didn't really bother me, but the Transalp was struggling, even in first gear. At the monastery in Komik, we were invited in for chai by the friendly monks. 200 metres later, the road was completely blocked by snow - end of the ride, and we backtracked to Kaza.

All-conquering heroes...

We'd heard that the road was blocked with snow about 10km past Losar, and if we couldn't make it all the way to Manali, we were determined at least to ride to the very end. Past Losar, the track got very bad - we were hacking through 10ft snow cuttings, and snow and meltwater was making for very slippery conditions.

Fine line between bravery and stupidity...


Better than skiing


Where we came from...


... and where we'd like to go

Eventually we reached the end of the line, just as promised. The road crew got quite a surprise when four bikes slithered around the final bend, but we received a warm welcome and chai all round.

End of the line - with the road clearing crew

It was 3pm and we were exhausted by the time we got back to Kaza, so we decided to stay another night . I didn't mind the fact that we were retracing our steps, because the scenery was so beautiful and it was worth enjoying the views from the other direction. At Sumdo, Claus decided he wanted to see the Tibet border, so we headed off along a side road. Just past the village of Gua, a concerned looking Indian soldier came running over, and we were invited to join him in his bunker for a chat.

Are you sure that you're not Chinese spies?

The conversation went something like this:

Concerned Indian Soldier: "What are you doing here? Don't you know this is a restricted area?"

Overland Biker: "Er, we wanted to have a look at Tibet"

CIS: "You must leave this area immediately. Would you like a cup of chai?"

OB: "Yes please!"

CIS: "Would you like to have a look at a 500-year old mummy?"

OB: "Why not!"

And that's how we found a 500-year old Tibetan mummy...

We finished our Spiti Valley tour with a night at the Golden Apple in Kalpa, which is a beautiful town just north of Rekong Peo. We then cut up the Tirthan valley and over the Jalori Pass. Already the countryside looked very different - much greener and more fertile. We camped by a reservoir in Largi, and pressed on to McLeod Ganj, just north of Dharamsala, a Tibetan community where the Dalai Lama lives in exile (and a very well-developed tourist spot). I'd been here 12 years ago - it's a fabulous part of India and it was fun to retrace my steps. A rest day gave me the opportunity to change the oil (lightening the German's load by a further 3kg - didn't they realise you can buy oil in India???!!!) and clean the air filter. Next stop is Amritsar, and then on to... Pakistan!