I'm back

 Well, after my website for 4 years it has proved a bit too expensive and completely under used. The blog was the only thing of use and that was temperamental at best. It was very difficult to update and use on the road. So I have ditched it and come back to the blogspot site for free. I am going to put all the blogs onto my new page which you will find here.

New Website

I have now created a website and I am transferring my blog to there. Please come and visit you can add comments and subscribe.

Find me here:
www.ride-the-planet.co.uk

Thanks
Geoff G

Day 18 & 19 The end and homeward bound

Lazy morning Saturday....

Took an auto to the ASHA HQ at RK Purham with Dean as Simon and Jim had gone on his motorbike. On arrival met some of the drivers and staff I knew from the past visits. Nice to catch up. Dean and Jim were taken into the slum behind the HQ. I tagged along, we went to the ASHA centre and found all the children there in full party mode for one of the older students who is off to Australia to do a Msc.

There were two volunteers from London in the centre.

They told us about the work of ASHA and we met some of the students. Simon even had a little dance with the kids. It was fun and reminded me of my volunteering in 2014.

On leaving the centre a managed to slip on wet concrete and put my foot in a drainage gulley. It was disgusting (not poo etc) The residents rushed to my aid and checked buckets of water over my foot and trousers. All very kind and washed the yuck off. Only damage was my pride and felt a compltete idiot.

Went on the metro system to Connault Place (Oxford St of Delhi) and then to a locals market underneath. Managed to buy a few gifts.....

Me and Dean returned to the flat to pack via the metro to Chattpur and a auto. Went and bought drinks in the local market. Spent the rest of the day packing and drying kit. Simon and Jim had been up to old Delhi on a rickshaw ride and got back around 7pm. We changed and Simon wanted to take us to a bar at the mall close by. The bar was called Strykers andI had seen it in 2014. Simon then proceeded to take to the wrong mall and when we finally found the right place it had closed down. Note for the blog: Simon is the worst tour guide ever. I cannot repeat what I called him.

We ended up in Chillis where went on the first night of the trip. Veggie burger, nachos and the most fantastic pudding ever all washed down with cold yogurt drinks. 

Got Autos back and even managed to the get the drivers to race each other. We won (me & Jim).

I went almost straight to bed as I has to be up at 0530am.

So after a very hot sweat night the alarm got me at 0530 showered and put on my new Royal Enfield T-Shirt, a present from Lalli. The driver arrived 30 minutes early and at 0630 went to the airport with the driver and Simon. Said our goodbyes (not that emotional) and went into the airport. Got a window seat and went through customs and immigration without issue.

Now sat at the gate writing this and reading a book. Hot Macdonalds coffee in hand. Looking forward to going home but sad to leave India, a country I have fallen in love with.

I will put another entry on the blog once home and after I have had time to reflect. Plus a few comments on the trip from the rest of the team.

Off to enjoy the luxury of BA for the next 8 hours. What shall I watch........

Day 17 The return to Delhi

We woke up early and got onto the bikes. A big day today as we have to ride to Delhi and it's a long way. Bikes packed and off we go and the traffic is remarkably light leaving the town. We make good progress down the mountain. We take a wrong turn and go through a very crowded town rather than go around it. It only delayed us slightly. 

We get near to Chandigrh and we see crossing the road the most enourmus lizard you have ever seen. It must have been a metre in length. It didn't like the road and plodded back into the verge. Once though Chandigrh we found the favourite Macdonalds for some air conditioning and cold drinks. Had a Spicy  McPaneer, very good.

The Grand Trunk Road (Highway 1) is busy and all sorts can be seen. A few examples today

Tractor pulling a motorbike

Motorbike pulling a cycle

On coming tractor, car, motorbike

Pedestrians

Bricks in the road

Dogs, cows

Horse drawn carriage

Broken down vehicles some being repaired others not

Maniac buses

Sucidal lorry drivers

horns horns and more horns

It's about 200 miles and the heat and humidity is very high. Well into the 40's and even with my jacket undone I was sweating buckets. We stopped every hour for fluids. 

Another problem was the key foe the flat and making sure Lalli was available to return the bikes but nobody was answering their phones. We decided to split. I would take Dean and Jim to Lallis and Simon would track down the keys. We separated in the NH1 about 35 km outside Delhi. Luckily we made contact with Lalli and he offered to help if needed. I managed to get us within his 2 miles of Lallis workshop before giving up and phoning him. His mechanic came and rescued us. Whilst trying to get through the traffic an auto (Tuk-Tuk) ran over my foot  - don't worry no damage to either although I did have a few choice words for the driver.

We returned the bikes and de-kitted the bikes sorted out the deposits and explained any issues. It took some time to arrange a taxi but eventually we got to the flat at Vassant Kunj arriving at 9pm.  It's still 36 degrees  here very hot and sweaty. 

Managed to order pizza online for tea. Collapsed into bed exhausted. I think I'm gonna need a holiday when I get home., Not work at 8am the next day....

Now I understand I have a new follower on my blog. His name is Max and he lives in the West Country. He is Deans son and has been following our trip through my blog every day even at school. So I would like to say 'Thank you' to him for following me. Here's a picture of me and Dean saying Thanks Max.

Day 16 The return to Shimla

Well what an interesting day...

Last night after I wrote the blog I went down to the resturant at Hotel Grotty. There we found the staff watching an Indian soap opera and much more interested in that than us. Two rabbits were hopping around the dining area. When we came to order nothing we wanted was available so ended up with chips and nan bread with a chick pea dal.

Well glad to be out of there this morning and I found a bit if wood with a nail set in it under my from tyre. Luckily I didn't get a puncture. The first few Kim's were unmade road and shook the bikes to bits. We then got onto Tarmac and the road was cut from the side of the cliff. The road was very twisty and a real please to ride.

We stopped at a darbha and I put my bike on the stand and it promptly fell over the stand had snapped. Bugger. We carried on and the trip from Tapri to Shimla was 208 km.

At 4 km from Shimla my bike gave up the ghost and conked out right in front of a welding shop. We spent some time working on the bike changing the ECU and spark plugs. We eventually got it going again and I got the guy to weld up the stand. Total cost 100 rupees  = £1.

Simon decided to get some stickers make up at a shop next door. Pic below.

Me and Dean left the other two at the sticker shop and went on to the hotel we like in Shima. The short cut tunnel was closed 1 km so had to take the long way round 22km. Bugger That's the three things today.

The hotel was fully booked so went back to the hotel we stayed in 10 days ago but this time we had water. Tonight we are going for street shaves and a meal. Hopefully no monkeys in the room tonight. Tomorrow is the run into Delhi and we should be able to return the bikes to Lalli and get a Tax

 I back to the flat.

Saturday is a shopping sight seeing day then Sunday I fly home on BA.

Update: had a street shave and I feel normal again then went for a meal: Paneer tika Malasa.  

The street shave...god I look knackered.

Day 11 to 14 - Spiti Valley

So we had our hotel breakfast packed up and left. Nice to have wifi, you don't realise how much you need it these days.

Headed to Tandi and made it to the petrol station my spare can leaked so that got ditched. After fuel went to a monastery close by we had been told about.

Headed back towards the Rohtang Pass it was raining all day and it was cold. Had some lunch at a darbha close to the police checkpoint then following our passport check headed up the Rohtang. Now we were looking for the Spiti Valley turning and a few miles up the road we found it but oh boy has it changed since we were at the junction 3 years ago. It seems to me they are ruining the pass and the highway, It made me a bit sad to see the destruction of such a beautiful place.

So anyway with the rain it made the road muddy and slippery. The start of the Spiti road was gravel and down hill it was in a very bad condition. With the rain we were concerned with the water levels of the rivers. We decided to ride a short distance and see how it it goes. We stopped a couple of other bikers and they gave us info but it didn't seem to be looking good. We came across a darbha in the middle of nowhere the guy spoke English and was very helpful. The place was a little bit of heaven, chai boiling on a log fire. Awesome place. We had water crossings, river beds, mud, rocks. Very technical riding. We made it to a cluster of buildings which included darbhas and a camp site. We stayed the night there, met a Cornish girl. It rained all night but the tent held up. The new tent is very much coffin shaped but effective.

The next morning the river levels had dropped and we saw a bus and various tourist vehicles heading further up the valley. We all decided it was game on. We had two major river crossings to do. One was short and knee deep the other was longer and shallow. We all successfully crossed them. My bike was struggling again and having to turn the fuel on and off.  Spiti Valley is awesome, quiet and the views are out of this world. We came across a Buddist temple on the top of a mountain, we stopped they offered us chai and they were cooking curry for 200 people. They refused money for the chai. 

We made it to a place called Kaza and is a big town in the Spiti Valley. We had to stay in separate hotels, me and Dean, Simon and Jim. We met for dinner but had to walk across town to a darbha, no street lights. We had been told that we needed permits to travel the road close to China. The next morning the guys had photos done and at 10am we were outside the permit office with three Isralies. 40 mins later and 20 pence lighter we had our permits. Yes 20 pence is correct.

Fuelled up but the pumps had no electricity so had to wait for it to come back on. A guy gave me a plastic Coke bottle to have as spare fuel which I starred on the back. We left Kaza at lunch time and headed towards China. Hope we don't get lost of take a wrong turn as it could end up as an international incident.

Eventually we came to the checkpoint, the rather grumpy copper wanted passports and permits and we got 20 questions about who owned the bikes. We then headed into the DMZ between India and China. Basically it was no different to India. We rode all afternoon and abut 5ish we came across a sign  for Nako Lake. We though we might be able to camp out. We found a guest house for £10 per room and had a terrace overlooking the lake. Beer available and the resturant had food to die for. Between us we had paneer, momos, Dal, chips. It was by far the best meal I have ever had in India. All for about £6. A cracking nights sleep then on the road again.

Nearly in Pooh, had to be done.

Wednesday is little G's 23rd birthday. I have a habit of being on my travels for her birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY babe. Paid the bill and started riding. It wasn't long before we wer stopped due to a landslide and once the road was clear we were off. Anyway this happened 3 times and we wasted 2.5 hours in total waiting for the road to be cleared. This really hampered our progress. We eventually made it to the checkpoint the other side of the permit area. Passports and permits all checked and recorded. The roads were terrible and we could not build a huge mileage. No Tarmac just gravel and sand. We had to to take a diversion over a mountain which took at least an hour and at the end the mileage boards showed it had been reduced by 8 km. It was getting late and on the verge of darkness and we arrived in a town called Tapri. Only one hotel very grotty and over the top at £10 per room. Nice to have a shower and a quick bite to eat. Tomorrow the last 100 miles into Shimla then back to Delhi.

Day 8 to 10 - Altitude Sickness hits

A great nights sleep in the Darbha and fresh Chai when we awoke. We packed up paid the bill and set off towards Leh. My bike started to run really bad at altitude a lack of power and a misfire. The only way to get anything from the bike was to turn the fuel on and off to make the mixture leaner. We crossed Baralacha La at 4980 m and down the other side. I managed to lose a petrol can which bounced down the road splitting open. We managed to save 3/4 of the fuel which went into my bike. We crossed into Kashmir at Sarchu and showed our passports at the military checkpoint. On we travelled the roads in quite good condition and the views spectacular. 

We ended the day at Pang but I was in a bad way suffering from Altitude sickness. Pang is 15,000ft and staying the night was the only option it was too late to ride anywhere. We went to a Darbha with a bedroom and we decided to stay. I went to bed, felt sick, headache, drained of energy and nose bleed. Managed to eat a roti and drink chai and water. We were joined in the room by 3 Indians and and a guy from Israel. 

Slept well but but woke with a headache still feeling the effects. Dean was also feeling the effects and we decided we would not travel on to Tagland La (Worlds highest roundabout). We had also decided we did not have enough time to go to Leh and get back to Delhi.

We all left and went up to the Moray Plain only about 10 minutes away. 

Simon and Jim were going to make Tagland La me and Dean were going to return to Sarchu and wait there for the other two either later that day or the next morning. We split up and watch them ride off across the plains. We had to travel up to get down twice. We really felt the effects and it was a slow plodding day back to Sarchu which we arrived at just after lunch. At 4pm the other two had not arrived so we found a darbha with a room (£2). We read books, washed clothes and drunk chai. At about 6.30pm the other two arrived we ate and had an early night. Sarchu is still high at 13,000 ft and we were still suffering.

  Not the best of nights but up and away, had a dicky tummy today...no sneezing etc otherwise could be trouble. Today is Saturday haven't had a shower since Tuesday and I am starting to smell.

Met a really nice India guy called Ssaajanm from Bangalore who was riding his KTM. Had a really great chat about motorbikes and India. He is also blogging and his is at www.getridingyoubum.in

The lady in the photo is from the darbha and looked after us very well.

We tried to make an a telephone call from the military base at Sarchu but no luck there as the guy was at breakfast. We started out trip south and had a few river crossings, I managed to hit a pot hole and nearly went over the handlebars. No damage to me or bike. By lunch we were down to a respectable height and the symptoms in both me and Dean disappeared. Altitude sickness is a weird condition as I was fine last time in the Himalayas. I went onto reserve with my fuel tank and i have no spare, Dean managed to get a couple of litres at £1.50 per litre which he has kept back. We are about 20-25km from the fuel station at Tandi. Should make it. (Fingers crossed)

So as I type this I am sat in a hotel in Keylong which has hot water , showers, proper toilets and wifi. It's £12 each but includes dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. And yes before you ask I have had a shower and it was great.

Tomorrow the plan is to get fuel and head into the Spiti Valley heading back to Shimla. We have had varying degrees of information from other riders as to the condition of the road and the time it will take. We are going to give it 3 days so hopefully be reporting from Shimla on Tuesday or Wednesday.