Tuesdays’ speaker was past president Dave Birch talking about his motorcycle trip to the top of the world.

 

Dave recently undertook a trip to the Ladak region in India. Whilst there he did a motorcycle tour of the region which is located strategically on the border between China and Pakistan.

 

Dave’s original intention was to do a walking tour, but his knees got in the way. It seemed easier to make the tour on a motorcycle.

 

Dave said the original intention was to fly to Delhi and then take a bus to Manali and then travel on to Leh which is the largest town in the region. Unfortunately, the road between Manali and Leh was closed so the group Dave was traveling with flew into Leh instead.

 

Dave told us that Leh’s altitude was at about 3,500 meters which meant there was an immediate issue of altitude sickness.  It took about two days for Dave and his companions to acclimatise to the high altitude.

 

Bikes. The steed of choice was a Royal Enfield motorcycle manufactured in India. These bikes were designed in the UK but manufactured in India from the 1950s until the late 90s. Dave named his bike Harry which was on a play of words based on the comedic character Harry Enfield.

 

Dave told us that there were very good roads in the region because the area is of significant strategic value to India and as a consequence there is a very solid military presence bending off both incursions from both the Pakistanis and Chinese. Discussions with army patrols met on the road quickly became friendly when it was discovered that Dave and his companions (except two French chaps) came from New Zealand. This meant the topic of conversation went from who are you where are you going to chat about cricket.

Climate. Temperatures ranged from 21 degrees during the day down to one degree at night so there was a large diurnal range. Dave said that he experienced 14 days of blue sky without rain. Lucky him. He made the comment that he took a pile of a gear with him on the trip but it did not get used for its intended purpose.

 

One of the places Dave visited was called Kargil. Dave described the place as a hole in the ground without any redeeming features. On the positive side if it was on a bucket list it is now ticked off and Dave never has to visit the place again.

 

As part of the trip Dave and his companions visited the highest motorable Road in the world. At that time 17,982 feet and altitude. Apparently, another road has been built at a slightly higher altitude so the honour of the highest road has moved on.

 

Dave commented in closing that India is a country of contrasts full stop it has recently landed a spaceship on the moon yet poverty is rife. We were showed a picture of a village in the Himalayas where the residents have only just moved from caves which they have occupied for millennia to houses. The contrast between that and space travel is stark.