We about to depart on a 30 day road tour through the mountains of Ladakh, Zanskar and Kashmir.

But when does a Tour cease to be a Tour and become an Expedition? Having ridden may long road tours, often for weeks on end, experience has taught that one has to be self-sufficient as far as possible when on the road. If the route covers longs distances away from major centres, in remote and sparsely populated areas often in changeable and sometimes harsh conditions, the need is there to carry spare parts, tools, maps and victuals enough to get to one’s goal.

On Friday we depart from Shimla - the capital of India's northern state Himachel Pradesh, for the Stage I of our annual Himalayan 'flagship adventure'.

On Stage I we'll ride without mechanic or jeep support for over 1200kms of some of India's toughest and most challenging mountain highways. Even as we plan our departure, roads ahead of us are blocked on other, more heavily used routes. Monsoon rains have caused large landslides, to extend of raining rocks and mud on passing vehicles.

We’ll carry essential spares, tubes, cables, electrical components, brake shoes, spark plugs, filters and more. We'll be prepared for all but the worst possible conditions. Apart from the rapidly changing weather conditions - hot sun to snowfall, we'll have to cross fast flowing rivers (nalas in Hindi) that grow in depth and 'liveliness' from the sun-up to sun-down. Get to them by early morning and they don’t seem so bad.

We carry tools, sufficient to fit all spares we carry. Roadside repairs sometimes have to be carried out in harsh and unforgiving conditions and if a breakdown happens late-in-the-day, we face the prospect of riding dangerous mountains roads in darkness.

And then it dawns on you. What you thought was a Tour, is in fact an Expedition. Perhaps not quite as dramatic as those of great expeditionaries of bygone years, but never the less, you get the feeling your riding on an Expedition, surviving on your wits and skills.

We reach Leh, and after a short rest, we head off again, further and deeper into remote and far off lands. Stage II begins.