It has been a while since I wrote the first piece our Enfield Tour in the stunning state of Himachal Pradesh.
I hope it was worth the wait - the adventure on our Enfield Bullet continues.....
We had now arrived at the top of the Kinnaur Valley and the headwaters of the Sutlej River. This is one of the Himalayas most important rivers and just one of 4 rivers to originate from Mount Kailash in Tibet.
A Buddhist Stupa in the village of Puh high above the River Sutlej
As we headed down the valley, it started to gorge up and the road became a little more extreme.
The road had been carved into the gorge wall thus making it accessible for not only us on our motorbike but it is the only way to head into the Spiti Valley in the Winter bringing in essential supplies.
Jochen and Martina were close on our tail.
Steve parking the bike under a cliff and running to get the above shots.
We finally arrived at the village of Kalpa, with absolutely stunning scenery.
There was a great little walk that took us through the village, where we got to see temples and some really old Himachali houses.
The wooden carvings on the doors to the temple were extremely intricate!
The renowned Himachal apple season was drawing to a close and the final batch of apples were getting rubbed/polished and packaged ready for the trip to Delhi.
The next day we headed off towards Narkanda. The Sutlej has been devastated by hydro projects and now the river is more like a trickle than a raging Himalayan torrent. Unfortunately for the locals of the Kinnaur Valley the river is re-directed through pipes in the mountains and this has caused devastation to an already fragile area.
One side of the mountain completely collapsed, thus making the authorities build a bypass which entailed riding up some 1500 vertical metres to cross the point of the landslide and then back down again to the valley floor. The traffic was supposed to be one way but that was not the case!
Finally we got back onto some tarmac and again we were riding on a road carved into the mountain side!
We stopped at the Bhimakali Temple for a spot of culture and a hot sweet Indian Chai (tea).
The old house was one of the most peaceful settings we had seen for such a popular temple
However, it was not too long before hit the road, this time though we decided to take the back road and get off the main highway.
It was absolutely stunning, though there was little tarmac to enjoy riding on. The scenery however was amazing and so were the locals, I do not think they have seen too many tourists riding here.
We decided to stay the night in Narkanda on the ridge that takes you to Shimla the state capitol.
The following day we rode to Shimla but it was not long before we had had enough of the town and so we headed back down the valley. The Autumn harvest was drawing to a close and the local mountain farmers were bringing in the grass for the animals to feed over the Winter.
Talking of Winter, we headed over the Jalori Pass and got caught in a big downpour, however as we headed further up it turned into hailstones and after a while they got bigger and bigger making us dive for cover.
The final day of our bike trip brought us down to the Kullu Valley, the sun was out the sky was blue and life could not have been better.
It was a fantastic trip and now it was time to eat some chicken at the Upper Johnson's restaurant.
Next was a few days exploring and trekking around Manali, then the big move to Rishikesh to kayak on one of our favourite Rivers, the Alaknanda.....
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