DAY 3    POKHARA TO BANDIPUR

Day 3 of our bike adventure would take us on a wild ride from modern, touristic Pokhara to the ancient town of Bandipur, high in the mountains, lost in time and seemingly isolated from the rest of the world.

After a nice breakfast by the lakeside in Pokhara, the bikes were loaded and we were on our way again, back on the road in beautiful Nepal.  Once again the scenery was fantastic, and the riding a little quicker now that the guys had relaxed with us.  Aajit took off ahead and silently 'challenged' me to a race, and it was on, at times pushing a little harder than we should, but great fun! 

A couple of quick stops for pictures, snacks and cold drinks along the way and soon we were at the turn off into Bandipur, the start of a tight, steep winding trail engulfed on either side by jungle or treacherous valleys, that took us through amazing mountainous scenery and almost back in time.

Once again the weather gods were unkind to us and a massive storm hit us half way up the mountain, to the point of being quite dangerous.  Rain was whipping down heavy on us and in our eyes, making visibility a nightmare, winds were gusting so hard that tree branches fell, dropping around us or whizzing past our body on this tiny one lane track up the side of the mountain.

At one point, a piece of tin about 2 foot by 1 foot went flying over Julian's head as he ducked it, mere inches away from hitting him.   We just kept riding, nobody wanted to stop so all we could do was continue on, ducking fallen power lines also as we neared Bandipur.

I think we all felt relieved as we pulled into the ancient town of Bandipur, cold and soaking wet again, it was clearly a unique little hillside community and we were quickly helped to put our bikes under cover and be given a hot drink and freshly cooked local snacks to warm up with out of the rain.