seen halfway down a mountain pass.
Pressing on to lunch at Debring,
the road looked deceptively fast and
straight, but the drainage channels
every 500m or so soon let us know
that the 100kph that the Classics were
comfortable at was fast enough. We
climbed away from the plain to travel
through the third highest pass in the
world, stopping for the obligatory
selfies, before taking on more
treacherous roads on the descent.
The danger of the roads was
further enforced as we cut through
a deep river valley to find a group of
very distressed looking bikers. One
of their number had just overcooked
a corner and thrown he and his bike
into the water. As he sat still dripping
on the roadside, his inverted Enfield
lay in the fast-moving water and we
all had a moment. Our support truck
arrived, providing straps and ropes,
to retrieve the surprisingly intact
bike from the river. We pressed on
like some gang of bike riding Good
Samaritans.
By the end of the day we were
safely booked into our hotel in the
northern city of Leh. The area felt
prosperous, clean, and altogether
more relaxed than Minali, and we
took advantage of the shops and bars
in this fascinating place.
A rest the following day was
scheduled allowing morning
shopping, shaves, and for some,
shishas.
The afternoon provided an
opportunity to break out the jeans
and leather jackets and on the bikes
visit a couple of awesomely serene
and ancient Buddhist monasteries,
before blatting down the streets like
we are in a 1950s biker movie …“What
are you rebelling against? What have
you got?”
With one more day of local riding,
to the Lamayuru Monastery, 125km
north, the next stage of our tour
involved a stupidly early start, due
to the internal politics between bike
hire companies in Leh and Minali.
TRAVERSE 105