technique the drivers are very helpful
and put on their indicators when it’s
safe to pass. I was still yet to differ-
entiate the difference between this
and when they were moving over to
miss a pothole, and now I knew how
a sardine feels.
Binod, who was leading, had to
pull up abruptly as another truck
came around the corner on the
wrong side.
Once we passed through Mugling,
a large town on the India route, we
turned off to Pokhara and the road
was a lot more traffic free; only those
pesky goats to contend with.
The country flattened out and
the valley opened with several large
bridges to cross. We were now able
to flog the bikes a little and were aver-
aging around 90kph.
About 20 kilometres from Pokhara
the road was very low and must sure-
ly flood seasonally as the basic bitu-
men road was undulating with many
repaired and unrepaired potholes.
Sometimes it was easier to ride off
the road altogether. Yet, a conse-
quence of this was vehicles weaving
all over the road to pick the best path.
TRAVERSE 77
It was another high concentration
zone and again the usual assortment
of domestic stock wandering amongst
it all. The sacred cows have right of
way over everything.
One story has it that the locals
drive their stock on the road in the
hope that someone will run them
over and must pay exorbitant com-
pensation.
With only 10 kilometres to go, I
knew as I was right next to one of
those concrete marker posts, I had a
crash.
The small truck in front of me