Before we start the ride we do a briefing. The dangers of the highway, amongst other things. …if its narrow and you 'rea not ‘hugging the ditch’ and travelling slowly, you’ll be in DANGER. Stuff like that, you may have heard it before.

What's a Highway Mantra? “There’s a Tata round every corner, roaring towards me...There's a Tata round every corner..." And in case we forget to say it…

Friday before last we saddled up and went for a nice sunny but brisk mid-winters day-ride south of Sydney through the Royal National Park situated between Sydney and Wollongong, spanning 132 sq kms of coastal bushland and forest.

Taking off from Collaroy beach on the north side we bustled through the congested Sydney traffic before finally...

I came across Free Spirit Adventure Tours via RoyalEnfield.com and all just sounded great.

This will be probably my first trip where I am following a set itinerary.

Normally I just drive into the day without a fixed destination following my motto “Life is a journey and not a destination”. Let’s ride!

Afternoon-time (the other day) Sherap and I returned from a 'flash visit' to Helambu, the mountainous region in which his mother was born and grew up.

We drove on Monday evening for 4 hours, half of it on broken mountain roads and arrived at 10pm at a small village of Quel. After chatting with the lodge-keeper we were served dal baat* and given beds in a simple room outside and upstairs

There are not many special things in Kargil, if one discounts the people and their tasty roadside kebabs of course, but it does boast a Silk Road Museum. I was told of its existence by a friend whom I first met in Leh in the summer of 2004.

Roman* told me only, that I had to cross the Saru river and turn right, somewhere at the top of town you'll find a 'silk road museum'.

On trips to his mother's home as a boy, Sherap would travel by bus with his family from Kathmandu to a small village at the end of the road on the way to the Helambu Region, to the NE of the Kathmandu Valley.

6 hours on the bus, stop for a quick snack and then another 6 or 7 hours walk to his mother's village, at over 3,000m it's a climb of about 2,000m above the road.