Beautiful road, beautiful people, beautiful mountains (though these are hidden behind pollution and dust mostly at this time of year)..
11 – 20 March: Maldah, Gaur, Balurghat, Darjeeling, Legship (Sikkim) and Pelling (Sikkim)

Everything north of Kolkata has been enjoyable, especially the Nepalese-type people in the hills up here :)

In India pedestrians don't walk across the road, they run:

and there's no limit to how much, or how many, can fit on a motorbike

but there was a limit to how much I could hold back my laughter at this photo

A few painfully rough and dusty kilometers south of Maldah lies the small town of Gaur and the remains of a 17th century fort and some mosques. One of which is where “...Fath Khan is believed to have vomited blood and died on this spot”

In a jovial mood we decided it was time for some photo challenges and we took turns pressing the timer then running or climbing into position.
Male Models

Cam = Asian Tourist, Torb = The Torb Pose

Cam = Don't know what else to do, I'll stick my bum out. Torb = Just made it before the timer went.

Get on your bike and ride!

“Cam, do something interesting.” Thinks “hmm, um, oh I dunno. Ok, I'm a tree”

Climbing up a rickety ladder to the top of this building was a little hairy and the jump off the side option seemed a safer way to get down, although landing on rocks with bare feet wasn't particularly enjoyable...for the next two days.

If anyone can tell me what these circles are I'd appreciate that, because I lost the game of charades with our non-English speaking on this one.

Leaving Gaur we headed 5km further south hoping to convince some border guards to let us cross into Bangladesh without the necessary visas. Needless to say, we had little luck. Discussions with the first border man were successful and he gave us permission to go one step further, but we hit a brick wall and turned around. “We are not friendship country with Bangladesh, we are responsible for you. We cannot let you even ask the Bangladeshi if they will let you. We are responsible for you any problem you have.”

A day later and further up the road I was hopeful that if we wound our way through some back roads and avoided an official border post we would be able to get through. We ran straight into an ominous looking fence right near a border control post and were promptly bundled off to the military checkpost and given a minor questioning.

Guns, for some unknown reason, make me a little nervous, but once the chai tea had been brought out I felt safe. In fact, I quite enjoy sitting in police custody once I know I have nothing to worry about – especially when we get free tea and biscuits :)

65km before Darjeeling the road begins to wind up through jungle and tea plantations. The miniature train line, which can't turn as tightly as the road, continually crosses from one side of the road to the other, causing havoc for us bike riders. Each crossing requires us to go out wide enough to make our cross at close to ninety degrees so that the tires don't get caught in the tracks. I think it was crossing number 15 that gave Torb his second tumble for the trip. Torb 2, Cam 0.

If only he had heeded the warnings!!

I counted 60 crossings on the main road before we were pulled aside by two Nepalis who lead us on a “short cut” that took us up an incredibly steep and narrow road that did away with both the miniature train line and safety rails. A fallen power line across the road was also thrown in to make for a fair obstacle course. The road was so steep that as I stopped to untangle from the powerline, my front brake wasn't strong enough to stop the bike from slipping backwards to my death. Well, death is what I was expecting until I got that right foot up to the foot brake.

Night fell which, combined with the climb to above 2000 metres, made for some cold fingers and toes! We pulled up to put on pants and jacket, but thongs/chapels/sandals are the only footwear I've brought with me, so improvisation was needed to keep warm.

Luckily we had the necessary ingredients: 2 dirty t-shirts and a roll of sticky tape

Darjeeling and north to Sikkim make me feel at home because the people are majority Nepalese and Tibetan origin and speak Nepali, which I understand, making for lots of happy greetings and laughter :) Darjeeling is close enough to the Himalayas that they should be clearly visible, but the pollution and dust from the plains is astounding and means visibility is very poor – more so in March than in Oct-Dec when the skies are cleared somewhat by the monsoon.

The 100 km from Darjeeling to Legship, a small town 25km from Pelling, took quite a few hours and entering the state (former Kingdom) of Sikkim was magical.

Roads with tight bends climbing and falling rapidly, so rapidly that my breaks overheated and I had to rely heavily on engine braking, lead down through the tea plantations, jungle and rice terraces back into the warmth of sub 1500m lands.

At one point the road wound underneath itself and back around again - I've never seen anything like this and I loved it!

There were a couple of gorgeous towns that had no accommodation and I was disappointed to not be able to stay. Gotta get in good with the locals to stay there!

Tatopani (literally 'hot water'), 4km before Legship, is a hot spring which has been harnessed into a small pool on the banks of a beautiful blue river and made for a nice morning walk.

Oh yeah, the water has turned from feral brown to beautiful blue. That always makes for happiness.

This accident must have been absolutely terrifying as the truck plummeted from the road a couple of hundred feet above.

Tibetan prayer flags add so much colour that they're hard not to photograph. The camera basically jumped out of the bag and started doing the work itself.

And for Mills and Tommy-girl, here I am doing the Brookesy strut on the bridge.

From Legship the 25km ride up to Pelling is just that, UP! Up, up and up. On the way my clutch cable broke and we were finally able to use one of the spare parts we've carried with us the last 6000km. It felt goood :)

I'm told the views of Khangchendzonga from here are spectacular but will have to wait until tomorrow morning for the skies to be clear enough to see.

Hotel Kabur in Pelling is a beautiful homely place with neat and clean rooms and a cosy restaurant with airy terrace. When the Torb and Cam band get wound up it's something quite special

Just like me (circa 1983) Kabur has been serving you since 1983

In conclusion, love is enough.