[The Indian Himalayas]

For the last month we have been touring in the mountains. Breathing taking sceneries where we found wonderful quiet locations to take it all in.

The highlights would be taking a Ski Cable Car in Auli to view India's second highest mountain called Nanda Devi (7816m). From here we road even higher to Govindgat, where we left our bike and day trekked to Ghangariya. (3150m)

This small village nestled snugly in the valley is the gateway to the Valley of the Flowers and the Hemkund Temple (4329m), another important Sikh temple. The Valley of the Flowers is astunning wide open valley with snow capped peaks around it and it didnt matter so much for us that we had missed the main flowering season. The climb to the Sikh temple was really tough (we choose to walk instead of hiring a horse). More great views and as an extra gift, courtesy of the wonderful Sikh tradition, we received free tea and dhal in the temple, which was just 'The Thing' after a 4 hour all up hill mountain walk.

And finally Badrinath (3133m), the very last town before the Tibetan border (some 40km away but the road is restricted to military). Thus we have more or less completely crossed India from the Pakistan border to the Tibetan border.

In Badrinath we did lots of day walks, where the sun was crisp and warm and the nights cold. As you do in the Himalayas we met a swami (Holy Man) living on a crest of a hill outside Badrinath. He was in silence for 2 years, meditating only in his steel box inside his hut. He was guided to come out and meet people but by November 2007 he is told to go back into meditation until 2011. I can barely meditate for an hour! :-) He says he is the 8th disciple of Babaji and in a pooja ceremony he initiated us into this energy line, which felt special to us both.

After 2 weeks of high mountain energy the snow line was creeping lower, so it was time to go before it started snowing in the village.

We are in Nainital (1938m) now for the last week, which is really the last vestige of the Himalayas for us. After a month of electricity shortages, no internet (how did I survive!) it is nice to have these comforts again and to be able to order something different on the menu, instead of the usual dhal, chapatti and dhal. From here we shall head out of the mountain ranges and south onto the plains, towards Varanasi it seems.

To ride in the Himalayas was as much a dream as it was, ummm... er, to say- interesting. Some 10 years of motorcycling experience and I have never had riding experiences like I did in the last month. The worse was around Badrinath, coming down the mountain where the road was at times purely mud, carved up by trucks, jeeps and buses alike. I think Paul Simon summons it up well in a song- 'slip sliding away, you know the nearer the destination the more you slip sliding away'.

We had endless stream crossings, once half the bike went under water, including the muffler, and I was worried for just one moment there that I would stall and be stuck in the middle of this fast flowing, freezing cold rocky stream. (click here to see a short clip of one of our (stream crossings)

And the bike has taken a beating, so many deep potholes and rocky uneven mounds in the road. We have had to re-weld the luggage rack 3 times due to stress cracks and replace 4 broken spokes in the back wheel... All part of the adventure I guess ;-)

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