Day 2 - Somewhere in India - " When 4 wheels are better than 3" !

We'd been on the go for nearly 12 hours and not only was it dark but the rain was torrential with our drivers vision becoming exponentially worse by the minute with a mist shrouded windscreen ! While lack of vision of our coming doom might have been comforting the increasing sound of the front wheel threatening to tear itself off was not ! Not only were we still 100 kms from our destination at Rekong Po but a reported landslide was between us and our destination - our days journey was fast becoming a calamity !

We'd started off OK sadly leaving our hotel complete with its very own German style brewery heading towards the hills and the lovely hilltop getaway of Shimla favoured as a hill top get away during the British rule and now by Indian tourists escaping the sweltering summer temperatures .

With hills come steep roads so for 5 hours we travelled at at a speed slightly faster than snails pace (30 kms/hr) to our lunch time destination at Shimla by now weary of the potholed roads , threatening traffic and the incessant winding roads

By the time we'd exited Shimla we'd been caught in the first of the days downpours, short but heavy rain in line with closing monsoon season

Fast forward to 7p.m. and we were still over 100kms away when our vehicles front wheel started to screech !.Our driver pulled over failing to find the cause of the screech  ignored the bubble in the rear tyre wall and just simply put some more air in the tyres before continuing !

Only 15 minutes on it was obvious there were serious problems afoot. Pulling over again our driver was told of a landslide ahead that would make our ongoing drive dangerous

As most good adventurers do we ignored this information and our screeching wheel until hit by a torrential downpour !

By now we were doing 5 km / hr with the wipers unable to keep up with the rain and our driver having difficulty seeing more than a car length in front of him in the conditions !

Thankfully common sense prevailed as even Kiwi Pete (normally unflappable or asleep) was starting to worry so we turned back towards the nearest village picked out a hotel and promptly drove into a chain barrier guarding the hotels car park that just proved how little our driver could actually see !

Needless to say a few high strength beers and prayers of thanks were needed as we recapped our challenging first full day on tour !

The Trip Begins in Style !

Day 1 - Chandrigarh India - "May the heat be with you"!

You really know you're getting old when you can still recall the excitement of plane travel when seating seemed spacious, service was first class and meals good enough to feature in a top class restaurant !

These days you're just happy to "arrive'" to end the torture of confined spaces, force fed meals and the yuk feeling of not being able to move or sleep for lengthy periods !

All of us (Pete from NZ & Graham from UK / Poland) had to endure 20 + hours to arrive in steaming hot Chandigarh for the beginning of our fabulous Leh adventure.

For self there were a few memorable highlights including a close encounter with a fellow passenger on the Singapore leg that threatened to turn from a Bromance into a marriage proposal as he progressively slid further and further on to me in his sleep while a run in in a confined lift with a squad full of Indian soldiers equipped with semi automatics in Delhi had me wondering whether my insurance policy covered accidental bullet wounds caused by someone forgetting to leave their safety on !

With about an hour's sleep behind me I did what most Aussies would do and headed straight to the micro brewery next door to our hotel catching uo with Kiwi Pete who i'd not seen since our Tibet expedition in 2010 !

With intro's out of the way our small expedition heads towards the Himalayas tomorrow on what will be an arduous 10 hour journey to Reckon Po where we get our first taste of altitude at 2,500 metres and an opportunity to size up our bikes

There are a few advantages to turning 60 ! A seniors card that gives widespread $2 discounts, two free yearly rail tickets on a sometimes working Victorian rail network and the freedom to undertake harebrained adventures that come your way !

Cycling over 1,000 km's to Leh (the former desert capital of Ladahk) over the highest roads in the world on a mixture of breaking tarmac and trails comprised of nothing more than rocks and dirt certainly meets the criteria of an adventure !

The Redspokes tour takes us (a small group of 3 cyclists) through the beautiful enclave of the Spitti Valley to Leh surrounded by high mountain ranges that only provide for access for a few months of the year.

Now it's time to put those thousands of km's training / would you believe hundreds of km's training / how about a few rides up to the supermarket - to work as I take in this incredible part of the world !