After a few days riding up to Muktinath we’re back in Pokhara.

The scenery from Jomsom to Muktinath will remain a highlight of our time in Nepal, I haven’t seen such huge expansive mountain views since the Andes.

Stunning barren landscape

The riding was rocky and bumpy, but not very difficult, which was a bit of a relief after the accounts we’d heard from other travellers and a bike shop here, that actually warned us against going up there.

Having said that, I managed to fall over once in some deep sand, no damage done but Sal was covered in dust from head to toe, hence the funny pic 🙂

Angry sandy Sally

We took it relatively easy, usually stopping mid afternoon, which meant some long afternoons/evenings sitting on a rooftop soaking up the remaining sun or around an open fire in the restaurant talking about the ride or the spectacular views from the day.

Posing in the mountains

Dave hired a Chinese 250cc trail bike, which while better than the alternative (an Enfield), was no match for Betsy on the rocky jeep track, it’s been a while since we did any off-road riding, but the way we could just eat up the rocks,  undulations and river crossings was pretty cool, Betsy just takes the hits and motors along happily, while poor Dave (and Sally!) was having the crap beaten out of him.

Snow capped mountains

It was hard going and there were very sore bottoms and tired arms from holding on (Sally!) but it was so worth it! A big thank you to Jane for recommending this trip to us even though there were times I was hating her!

Dave is leaving tomorrow so that means we are back on the bike and heading back to India…! No more nice breakfasts in fancys places or endless cocktails in different bars… back to an occasional beer and dahl… and no doubt at lot of horns…!