pyrate munkies

Gone were the winding mountain passes that have characterized our trip thus far… No more of the friendly roadside dhabbas our road trip became hideous, irrepressible heat, dust storms, motorway services, blaring horns, drunken guest house owners, more heat and an abundance of traffic… to say that initially we missed the mountains would be an understatement… It is just more peaceful up there… Chandigarh was our first stop… As soon as we were out of the mountains the heat was intense, the Grand Trunk road became a three lane motorway and the trucks, buses and thousands of other vehicles all vying for the best position… swerving round sleeping oxen and kamikaze motor cyclists coming the wrong way only served to exacerbated the heat… Getting to Chandigarh we were struck with the uncanny similarities between Milton Keynes ... read more

Getting up early is not something Katie is ever in favour of yet she woke this bright promise filled morning singing sweetly in tune to the frolicsome birdies as Chris whistled along to the merry tune. We packed our bags and waved at the congregated village children, who where enamoured by our sweet, sweet music and as we drove out of town we waved as the villagers wiped their eyes sorry to see us leaving… Ahh, we would all like to live in fantasy and that has got to be the biggest pile of shite we have ever told (well one of the biggest piles!)… THE TRUTH We woke up, heavy with sleep and communicating in grunts, farts and the rudimentary sign language of early morning neanderthals… loading the bike annoyed us, it was bloody cold ... read more

To travel into Spiti requires an ‘Inner Line Permit’ available at Recong Peo… So after the soldiers had push started our way out of Chitkul we headed there... We arrived in Recong 7 hours later with Poulet ailing and us exasperated at the stalling, the pushing, the fucking bike!! We immediately took her to the doctors… The guitar on the back caused a great deal of attention and a couple of ‘music teachers’ strolled up and engaged Chris in a conversation… difficult to have two conversations in pigeon English at once, but with Lucky the mechanic discussing Poulet and the brothers Grim pushing for a music date we had to manage… Poulet was fixed up and we headed off to find a room… we eventually stumbled on to a neat little room and bargained the owner ... read more

From Mandi back up the Kullu valley and across the Beas took us toward the Jalori Pass - a steep climb to 3222m… The ride was Poulets first real test… Vertical, dirt roads, landslides in places, rain and loaded to the gunnels with us and our luggage… It was a hairy ride, we stopped at one point to hide from the thunder storm in an abandoned camp, put on ALL of our clothes (it got fucking cold!) ate ALL of our provisions (biscuits) after Katies scare mongering tactics (“We might get cut off!”) Chris made pathetic attempts to get us water (cups in the rain, a cm of dirty water… we’ll make adventurers yet!) after a harrowing, biscuit munching 20 minutes the rain totally cleared up, the clouds parted and the sun glimmered along the edge ... read more

Ten hours in the saddle, the wind in our hair, the flies in our sun cream, the rain on the mountain tops, the dhabbas (cafes) at the side of the road, the tunnel under the mountain, the collapsed roads and our first taste of single track mountain riding….. BLISS…. We arrived in Jari, dirty, tired, hungry and very, very happy…. The roads were incredible, and the reality of what having a bike in India would mean dawned on us…the open road stretching before us… we could go anywhere (bike allowing)… the roads are sometimes rough and tremendously difficult but they are yielding, true maybe Katie has to get off and push occasionally but we did manage to get where we wanted to go. Jari is a small farming village in the Parvati Valley. We stayed in ... read more