On the road. Finally.

Best Western Hunky Dory Resort and Spa. Km 34 from Pathankot. Thursday 22nd June, 2016.  32.1 km today. (Wow!) Average speed: Not very much. Saving the current track to a file, then clearing the current track means I lose access to useful data such as elevation gained, average speed, etc. All I can get from the …

More

Sprint to the finish.

! was up around 7:30, before anyone else, but with a short day to Anantnag planned, there didn’t seem to be much reason to rush off. I changed tyres, from my Smart Sams to the almost slick Supremes now that it looked like I was back on fresh tarmac for the rest of my ride. I …

More

Over the top

To Daksum An eventful start to this day! My night was undisturbed by wild animals. Or by passing vehicles, not after a couple of late night travellers drove down the hill at around 9:00 pm. Up at first light, packed up and breakfasted on a packet of creme biscuits and a chocolate bar, and on …

More

Towards Sinthan Top

Sunday 10th August. Kishtwar – ? From Kishtwar, the nicely surfaced road dropped steadily in a series of hairpins down to Bhandarkhot (a descent of about 450 m in 12 km). Since most of the day would involve climbing towards Sinthan Top, this wasn’t actually what I wanted. The road crossed a bridge over a …

More

On to Kishtwar

Thursday 7th August, ? – Kishtwar Not a bad night, all things considered – hiding from mosquitoes inside the bivvy bag reading my Kindle until sleep took me. Kindles, or e-readers in general, are being supplanted by tablets for their higher resolution screens and app-running capabilities but, for travelling, you can’t beat the e-readers battery …

More

The (very special) road!

Wednesday 6th August, Killar – Sohal (plus a bit) This is the section of road that I’ve been waiting so long for! Although the early part of the day was pretty ugly… I’d promised myself a 6:00 am start but hadn’t really believed it. Not bad though; I was ready to order cheese omelette and …

More

Udaipur to Shour

Saturday 2nd August, Udaipur to Shour Good morning, Udaipur. Started with a little tarmac but it was just to tease. The rest of the day was rocky, sandy, windy, bumpy, tiring. It’s nice to see trees again after the almost total absence in Spiti. The valley narrowed and was probably quite pretty but it was …

More

To (the other) Udaipur

Friday 1st August, Keylong – Udaipur Udaipur is a well-known and beautiful city in Rajasthan. This isn’t that Udaipur. Not too early a start – breakfast around 8:30 am. No hurry, the hospital surgery won’t be open until ten-ish. I was there in time to bounce a baby on my knee for a while. It …

More

On to Keylong

Friday 25th July, 2014. Lots of tarmac and still spectacular views as Brian and I headed towards Keylong. But the magic of Spiti was missing. More traffic and hot but that wasn’t the reason. Spiti is special. I get the feeling that a lot of this traffic is going all the way to Ladakh so …

More

Chatru – Koksar

Thursday 24th July, 2014 The goats are only here in Spiti for two months in the summer. Then the shepherds walk them back to Kashmir, a few hundred difficult kilometres to the west. We discussed but didn’t seriously consider spending the night at this little place. It’s a wonderful location, alone in the mountains, across …

More