We were introduced to our bikes, or rather just take the one you want. It was like Henry Ford you can have any colour you want, as long as it is black. In our case it was green and these Enfields were the Army Green models.
The ride was through the outskirts of Katmandu to the south-west, due to the national holidays the traffic was light, but it was still a surprise to some of the riders who had not ridden in Asia. Gaps that you did not think existed the locals would find them. They would be playing chicken with the oncoming buses and lorries who only had two speeds fast and even faster. It was interesting to sit and watch each rider and see how they coped. By the end of the day, it was clear there was a competition between the French and the Brexit as they like to call and remind us.
First blood to the Brits as deadly Dom, went around a corner and was faced with a 4×4 coming straight towards him, he braked but slid and fell. He snapped his left footpeg clean off as well as getting a very muddy arse.
The roads were a mixture of tarmac and semi off road, where the roads had been flooded, we would soon get used to this. Another 90 minutes later it was 2 – 0 to the Brits as KTM had a front wheel puncture. The Brits were all smiling under their helmets.
It rained on and off and so the waterproofs were coming on and off, whatever we did we were wet. my waterproofs kept me dry from the outside, but with temperatures around 30 degrees C, I was sweating inside! it was a no-win situation. I was longing for the lunch stop, but this seemed to be in confusion due to the rain. We stopped at a roadside shack, where we got one samosa. The Mechanic went off and got a bunch of bananas and a bag of apples. I really hoped that this was, not going to be the trend going forward.
After our lunch break due to the rain and two unforced stops, we had to make quick progress to our overnight lodgings. We encountered roads that were just blocked and had to ride over the earth barriers, onto unmade roads. The light was fading fast, the mechanic was using a spare bike as flash had not yet joined us. He took the lead with Ravi bringing up the rear. A group of 5 of us broke away from the group. We were now in total darkness, apart from the little candlelight from our bikes. The roads were not roads they were like farm tracks and the bikes were bouncing around under us. It was only the fact that I used to do off road biking that i was keeping up with the group and the fact that I had ridden Rajasthan earlier this year and knew the sides of the road was the place to be. After an hour or so of darkness, we arrived at the Barahi Jungle Lodge. https://www.barahijunglelodge.com/ . We did not know what the place was actually like as it was all so dark but it had a pool and a bar.
