Like released coil springs we fired out of bed ready to go, we then felt the slight hang overs and sat back down for an hour. The previous nights good bye beers had been maybe too plentiful.

We said goodbye to everyone and set off on our way, was great to finally get going. Soon after setting off however, we realised our first problem, how the hell do we get out of Manali?!?!?!?

There where no sign posts! Just a mess of small streets. We asked a local and he said aim for the bridge and turn left.

Once on the road we thought was right, we were greeted with confirmation. I think Lara wished she had never seen the sign post as it said ‘Leh 478km’

Our first few days were going to be purely uphill to the Rohtang Pass, this was also to be the busiest part of the road we were to encounter, as many Indian tourist drive up to here from Manali to see snow and even have a go at skiing (no lifts). All the way up the road are little huts renting out 80’s ski suit one-seys and skis from God knows what era.
The ride up the valley was very green and the road surface was very good. We bumped into a couple of Spanish cyclists who were coming down, we stopped and talked to them, they were going to do the same route as us but starting the day after, they were just out for a spin.

The traffic was quite heavy with all the cars going up to Rohtang and Army trucks heading up north with fuel for the military. I am not sure how old these trucks where, but they sure kicked out a big cloud of black exhaust which was horrible to breath in as at even this relatively low altitude one breathes heavily up the hills. These trucks were to become the biggest nightmare of the trip, but also a saviour……

The trucks were not the only smell that we had to contend with:

On the bottom right, that is a dead cow, this thing stank and was rather hard to try and pass it with not taking in lung fulls of rotting flesh smells, Lara is demonstrating the hand over mouth technique that I could have told her does not work!

After a few hours of cycling we stopped at a dhaba, a small road side cafe that serves basic food,
we stopped at this one and interrupted a serious game of cricket, we were invited to join in, so Scott was first up to bat. I say bat, it was a rudimentary bat carved from a bit of four by two. He got a couple of fours but his baseball style soon saw him get out.

Next up was me, I did not let the British down getting a couple of crackers, unfortunately I was a bit to eager and walloped the ball straight into the forest, after about 20 minutes of searching we finally found it and I thought it was time I gave ‘Lara the cricket pro’ a go.The local guy seeing it was a women bowled the ball slowly (how sexiest I though) old cricket pro smacked her own stumps then hit the ball into her face. It was time to make our excuses and get on our way quickly.

Back on the bike the truck traffic was getting heavier, thankfully we came across a truck that had snapped it suspension and had blocked the road.

Nothing could get passed and it caused a huge traffic jam, perfect for us as we had now got clear roads. We passed a small reminder of how dangerous this road is; the remains of a truck that had driven off the road.Time was getting on and we decided that we were not going to get over the Rohtang Pass that day. We aimed for a small food stop called Marhi where we could get some dinner and find a place to camp.
These dhabas had put tables in the stream, was lovely and cool and we had some more curried Dhal. We then set off to try and find a bit of flat land to pitch our tent, this proved a little harder than we anticipated. Eventually a little higher up we found a semi suitable place and as the sun was going down though it better to camp there on a slight hill than go on into the dark.

There was a river next to where we camped so a quick strip off and a wash was in order as it had been a hot day, to my horror I found out half way through that my delightful wife was sitting there taking pictures of me washing in the river, most far to graphic to publicly post, but she insisted I put one up as she thought it was funny. ha ha ha.

On arrival in Manali we got off the bus, collected our bikes form the hold and immediately started getting hassled for “taxi Mr” and “you stay at my guest house, best in town”. Thankfully our new friends are seasoned travellers in India and better rested than us so they piled us into a taxi and we all went to the same guest house.

The guest house was perched on top of a hill in the Old Town. It was lovely to be somewhere with peace and quiet. This was until the local snake charmer turned up and produced a couple of Cobras and a baby Boa for us.

I am well known to be a snake lover, I immediately went and hid in my room! I am not ashamed to say I am scared witless by the demonic little buggers!Scott is braver than me and was holding them, above is the baby Boa. Hats off to him!

Manali is full of hippies. I think mainly due to the vast quantities of dope that grows everywhere.

It just grows by the side of the streets, in the gardens and next to the pavements in huge bushes. I giggled to myself at some of the others who newly arrived with us as there eyes just got bigger and bigger as they saw it all growing everywhere. They obviously had a different agenda to us!

After a bit of rest it was time to get the bikes built and make sure they survived the journey, the local guys in the guest house were keen to help.

And curious about the bikes.
Once built we decided to go for a wonder around town, it start to rain heavy (it is monsoon season after all) and was quite refreshing to be cooled down by the rain.

In the evening we went out to a restaurant with our new found friends and had dinner and a few beers.The conversation mostly evolved around “where have you been?” a comparison of temples and how long they have meditated for continuously without even a toilet break. When we told them we were here to ride our bikes to Leh, after their looks of “idiots” had vanished we decided it was time to get out of the restaurant, as all the hippy psychedelic wall murals were starting to freak Scott out. So we decided it was time to go on the hunt for a beer.‘A’ beer turned into quite a few and a great night was had, meeting people from all over the world – Israel, Peru, Germany, Australia and a couple of fellow Brits. A few of them were planning the same trip as us, but on motorcycle.

We woke up in the morning with one of the guys from the guest house mowing the lawn

We had one more day to get the last and final bits ready for the off the next day. We jumped into a Tuk tuk to go to the local ATM.

After queuing for just under an hour, as this was the only ATM in the town and the last one until we got to Leh, we took out the money for the next 2 weeks. Talking to a few other travellers it was advised that we only took small 100 rupee notes (about £1.25) with us as the smaller places would not be able to give change for larger notes. Of course the ATM only spat out 1000 notes. bugger, off we went to try and change them down.Scott, after his successful mission to change the notes down to 100’s. It was rather a large wedge of notes, but still was only about £120 worth!

We were now ready and eager to go!

So with the van packed up and mum having thoroughly checked all our gear, we set off. We flew from Munich, Germany so we could fly directly to Delhi and not give baggage handlers the opportunity to throw our bikes around any more than needed. The trip started brilliantly: The French filth thought that I was driving too fast and decided I owed them £100 for the pleasure.

The lovely french police lady.

Once at the airport we parked in what seemed like the worlds biggest car park, got on the flight and headed to DelhiComing into land at Delhi it looked like a normal city from the air. We picked up our bags and found thankfully the luggage handlers had not been jumping up and down on them and we ventured out to get a taxi. By this point none of us had really slept in a day and a half and we were a bit wired. The idea was to leisurely do a bit of sight seeing and catch the over night bus to Manali that evening. As soon as we got out the airport in the taxis it became evident it was rush hour.

None of us where really expecting what we saw; we all knew India was slightly dirty and busy but we were not quite prepared for just how dirty and busy. The first introduction to Indian life was a bloke having a no.2 on the pavement.

This is his mate doing a No.1 (could not bring myself to taking a picture of the other action!) The roads were covered in litter, and I mean covered!

We went to the tourist travel agency to book our bus, they did not accept plastic, so Lara and Scott set off to the local ATM being shown by a local guy. Lara , again being the hardened traveller, once she had got money from the machine got busy stuffing it in different body locations to be safe. So occupied by this, she forgot to take my cash card back out from the machine… great! 4 hrs here and she has already lost our primary money source!

With a very short ‘team talk’ we decided to scrap all ideas of sight seeing and did the hardened traveller thing and went and hid in a posh hotel until the bus arrived at nightfall.

We found Delhi to be a little too much for us, especially after no sleep for a long time. We got our taxi to the bus rank later on in the after noon, thankfully not one of these:The one we got had air conditioning! A real relief as the heat in Delhi is intense.Cyclist were everywhere. This is definitely one place I would not cycle as these guys are really playing with death, there are no real traffic laws I could see being followed here. If your side of the road was busy, then they just drive on the other and honk their horn at on coming traffic.Wonder if this guy is doing the same trip as us?

Once the bus arrived we argued with the bus driver that we really did not see the need for buying another ticket for our luggage, as it was only going in the luggage compartment and consequently got our first taste of haggling. On the bus we were to meet some friends that we would bump into for the next 3 weeks. The bus was 16 hours long and went through the night to get to Manali. I shudder to think what the bus driver was on to keep him going, but the bloke had speeding issues, so we resolved it was best to try and get some sleep and not think about it!

Spent this morning packing. After the last attempt at packing and forgetting all sorts of important things, I wrote a check list and got my mum to check it all off

She was a teacher for the best part of 20 years, so she was in her element with the red pen checking things off. So we all are pretty sure we have everything we need.This is all my kit. Seems a little bit on the ‘I must have forgotten something’ side. But I have a sleeping bag and a tent and my wallet, so I am sure I will survive.

So we are off first thing tomorrow morning, we will not be near telephone or email for 3 weeks so there will be no updates or checking of email. We will both let people know we are alive as soon as we get near a phone at the other end. So until then, hope you all have fun and expect a picture bombardment when we get back!

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How the hell did that happen! Suddenly we are two days away from going to India. I know I have been saying we have been doing stuff in preparation but we have not really been thinking about it. We woke up this morning and it hit us like a stone. None of us have been over there, or done anything like this so we are all very excited, but with that excitement there is a certain amount of nervousness. ‘Will my bike last?’, ‘Will I get AMS?’, ‘ Will we be eaten alive by wild cannibals?’ (last one only flashed through my mind once).

This morning Scott and I went to the pharmacy to get all the medical supplies for our first aid kit; we bought most of the the French supply of imodium. I had slight difficulties with the bloke behind the desk, he was one of those French people who can not understand you unless you pronounce it just like a local. So we asked for imodium in my best french accent – he looked back at me blankly.

Ee-mo-dee-um s’il vous plait – another blank face.

So with embarrassment I resorted to hand gestures that made the women next to me blush, the bloke behind the desk went – aaaaaah ee-mo-dee-um. Bloody frogs.

Apart from that today has been spent drawing on maps:

Lara spent most of the day writing her book. Yes she is writing a book! But shhh I never said that. Tonight we are doing some more preparation for India, Scott is cooking for us. So if we don’t get the shits tomorrow we shall be ok for the whole trip!

Keen to try and get as much altitude in us before we go to India, we decided it was time to go and try the big one next to us. The Barre Des Ecrins is the largest lump in the Ecrins, it stands 4102m in height an is the most southerly 4000m mountain in the Alps.

So we drove to Ailefroide and started the walk in. From previous experience we decided that walking up in mountain boots wrecks the feet so we decided to carry the boots and walk in in trainers

Scott and I starting the walk in, and yes I do have a bit of climbing tape on my conk ( I slightly burnt it the day before biking). Our packs were heavy and the weather was hot.Arriving at the snout of Glacier Blanc. We walked up to the right of it, and kept on the rock as long as we could. We then changed out of trainers and put on our mountain boots and roped up and got onto the glacier. The weather forecast was for storms in the afternoon and it was coming up to 5pm, and the weather was closing in, so we hot footed it up the glacier. Our aim was our sleeping place for the night the Refuge Des EcrinsA great Mountain refuge built over 80 years ago. It sits high up on a rock ledge and as the glacier has receded it has got higher and higher so the final bit to get to the refuge was a steep scree slope. The Barre Des Ecrins can be seen in the back left.Scott and Lara climbing up the last few rocky bits to the refuge. Once there, we were shown to our dormitory by the guardian and then went and joined the rest of the people staying there in the main room. Everyone sits on long bench tables and eats together. We got talking to a Romanian climber and had a few beers. Lights out in this refuge is at 9pm, it is a bit like having jet lag. For those of you who have stayed in a refuge you will know what the dormitories are like; basic and comfortable, but cramped. Imagine a room with 2 mezzanines in it sleeping around 30 smelly climbers. It is like an international snore off competition, and those who do not fair well in this comp, usually do well in the international smelly socks comp. Ear plugs and a few beers to aid sleep are essential!

We got up at 3am to get ready for the climb, this is a god awful time , eating is hard, bowels are usually paralysed and the world is generally a hazy fuzzy place. After getting our stuff ready we set off at 4am

Lara and Scott leaving the refuge, it is not the best picture but I believe it relays the way we were feeling rather well.

Walking down onto the glacier from the refuge. Because of the popularity of the route there were about 20 people attempting the same peak of us. Most of them ahead of us due to our mountain jet lag (as I call it). So the sun is not due to rise for another 2 hours, the snow is hard and getting along the glacier is easy (ish) Lara at the bottom of the climb, the dark sky is starting to get lighter, but it was still rather cold as we are now at about 3100m.Looking up where we are going is rather a cool view, from this bad photo (it is very hard taking pictures in this light with no tripod!) you can see the head torches of the people in front of us. So we set off. The wind picked up and the temperature plummeted due to the wind chill, at least we were walking up hill to keep us warm.Yours truly looking a bit like a gimp, with the sky getting brighter. The going is easy with only a few major cravasses to negotiate. The sun rise brought brilliant colours and a bit of much appreciated warmth.

Unfortunately we saw a climbers fall and take the other 4 who were tied to him off after climbing up the steep wall at the top and they all fell into the Bergshrund, it resulted in a helicopter shipping them off, speaking the guide who was close to them and called the helicopter, thankfully they were not too hurt and will live to tell the tale.So making sure everything we had was correct and with sure foots steps we set off again, we got to the Col were we had a small rock step to get up onto the ridge to get to the top and the wind was blowing a gale and it was freezing. After very short talks we decided not to attempt the ridge and join the other 5 in the helicopter. We went the other way up the neighbouring mountain which offered us more shelter and an easier option ,the Dome de Niege which stands at 4018m.

From where we were it was only 30 minutes to the top. We were greeted by some incredible views and still a good sense of acheivement. The wind was still strong and ice cold on top here, so

We grabbed a quick few pictures and hot footed it (or cold footed it) back down. The walk down was going to be long, as we decided to go all the way back down to the valley to the car in one go.Coming back off the Dome De Neige with the Ridge of the Barre Des Ecrins in the background (left for another day).Me back down and back onto the glacier (I have drawn our route in red). From here it took about 5 hours to get back to the car. I have never walked so far down hill in all my life. it was just over 2250m from the top to the car. By the time we got down we were pretty finished and with our last bit of energy we ate ice creams and rubbed our extremely sore feet! A great few days, with some lovely mountains and climbing. I love this place.

The initial plan for today was to meet up with Matt and Emma again and go up into the hills again and climb, the weather had different ideas for us. Tomorrow is forecast for storms with 120kph winds, so we decided to think again.

So, instead we are going off on a short cycle tour to test out all our stuff for the himilayas and make sure it all works and that we are not carrying too much gear or too little.

So off tonight and shall be back tomorrow. Be ready for some red faced pictures!

After checking the forecast the evening before and seeing that it was going to be bad weather again the next day, we decided to go for another water based activity. Having swam down a river a few days before that we decided it was time for something new. So Canyoning it was. To those who have no idea what it is – you put on a wet suit, a harness and a helmet and swim/jump/squeeze your way down a steep gorge in the river.

I decided it s time to finally pull my finger out and use my Xmas present from Lara – my helmet cam. So above is a quick edit of the video I took. No music just a quick hash so people can get an idea of what it involves. I shall make an effort to take more video and spend some time editting them to a higher level next time.

Matt from the outset decided it was not for him as he is not to keen on water. Lara and Emma where nervous, Lara not being keen or comfortable in water did brilliantly jumping of every thing, Pulling some hilarious faces in the cold water. Emma was a hero and jumped off everything and squeezed though everything. Scott and I both loved it and are keen to go and try bigger and harder canyons. We have been told we shall be doing it alone……

After running home and dumping all our dirty bike clothes, we re packed the van with other bits and pieces and ran off to the Querya’s to Meet up with Matt and Emma. We had a few beers over the evening catching up on each other’s news and making plans for the next day. We decided to go climbing. On waking up in the morning the sky was a threatening colour but we decided to go for it any way. Half way there it started to piss it down. So a change of attack was needed. What best to do if it is raining than to swim down a river. So we all swam down the durance again. I don’t think i will ever get bored of swimming down white water! No pictures i am afraid as water is not kind to cameras.

Next morning we decided to try and have another go at the climb we wanted to do. This time the weather was on our side and we had a beautiful sunny day. So we walked up into the hills to do

It is an 8 pitch mountain route. Lara had decided that she was still tired from racing so decided it was a day by the pool for her and I was to climb with Scott and Matt and Emma climbed together.Above the route can be seen by the red line I have drawn on the picture and the offenders that swore their way up it. The climbing was great with some great moves up this huge slab.Me on the 2nd pitch before crossing the snow, the snow was rather hard and we had to use “tiger claw” as demonstrated below to safe guard ourselves
The next 2 pitches got a little more interesting with the crux of the climb being an overhangMatt at the top of pitch 5 happy that he conquered the crux, We then were on a grassy ledge were we sat and had lunch an admired the view. From here the climbing was easy again and was just lovely movement up easy rock in a great surroundingMe belaying Scott on pitch 7 just below the top of the climb.Scott at the top “me mountain man” pose. He wanted to run off and build a fire and find meat to eat , but we had a long walk down again so he had to be restrained……. A great day’s climbing.