arrived in Delhi on Sunday, it’s monsoon season and it was like walking into a sauna. Experienced the full onslaught of monsoon rain on Sunday afternoon and it was so refreshing, the temperature dropped by 10 deg C in a matter of minutes, the city bathed itself as I stood outside and got a well needed soaking.
24 Hrs later we came to Shimla, after a nightmare airport experience trying to get permission for our bikes to be transported on the small prop plane, it was only after much pleading and stripping down of the bikes that we finally succeeded, all this at 5 in the morning after a few hours sleep the night before. The plan was to spend a day in Shimla doing some sightseeing, getting the bikes ready, getting supplies and ironing out any problems, but as we’d had a only a few hours sleep and a lot of travelling in 48hrs we decided to spend an extra day here catching up on some sleep.
After a nice rest we went out to see Shimla; Shimla lies at 2200m in the foothills of the Himalaya and was originally a hill-station for the British Raj, a place to escape to during the unbearably hot Indian summers, the climate being a pleasent 75 Deg C. The town itself is built on the side of a huge mountain with buildings seemingly stacked on top of each other up the steep slopes, interspersed with with narrow alleyways containing bazzars selling all kinds of goods, foods and spices, connected by steep staircases, crawling with monkeys, who seem to rule the roost and without a car in sight!
We spent the evening eating curry and drinking some kingfishers and strolled back to our hotel at about midnight ready to head off next day.
But all was not to be as i woke next morning to a nasty stomach bug and spent the next 24 hrs between the bed and the toilet, Delhi belly had hit me for 6 and put our plans on hold for the immediate future.
As I sit here typing I’m starting to feel better after a day of drinking water and eating fruit and finally this evening a stomach settling pizza (I can’t face curry!) The plan is to head out tomorrow for the first leg of the journey, the bikes are ready, we’re as ready as we can be, 2 days later than planned, but better late than never eh?….
Links to a few pictures….
Andy, hope you recover soon. The sunset picture is beautiful.