Today was a very long day, and the main task was to get as far as possible. The problem was the height that we climbed up, now we need to go down from 3800 m to 1200 m. There are two most difficult parts of the road: first is between Muktinath and Kagbeni and from Kalopani all the way down to Tatopani.
That was not an easy task to get down with 300 kg bike and two people, plus luggage. Such steep road down can be very hard to drive with a heavy weight, taking into account that every 10 m it can be a pit hole, a rock or an opposite traffic. In some very steep parts of the road, Kate as a passenger had to go on foot, sometime holding a bike from behind, to make sure that the back wheel goes down lightly. We noticed that we got a couple of dents on the bike exhaust and were trying to safe as much of it as possible. We had to admit that for Royal Enfield classic bike this road is quite rough and its exhaust is located very low and gets all the rocks and obstacles on the way. Passenger and luggage are not making things easier. So, our descent was quite slow, but the weather was fine and we kept riding all the way to Tatopani.
We’ve stopped for a coffee in Jomsom, there is a lovely coffee shop next to Om Hotel, where delicious cappuccino is served. Barista showed us where the post office is located and we’ve sent some lovely postcards to our parents and friends.
After 6 hours of driving we made a stop for a lunch in Kalopani and dried up our bags and shoes after passing another river.
Another 4 hours of driving and we’ve finally made it to Tatopani, very tired and hoping only for the hot springs and beer. Lucky for us hot springs are open till 9 pm. We got a room in Dhualgiri view guest house, made order for a dinner, and soaked ourselves into the hot bath…. Amazing… This was worth all the dust, pain and struggle we had that day. The was only one final hard part of the road left – Tatopani to Beni. After Beni only things that you should mind are traffic and crazy Susuki Marruti drivers.
