Nepal Himalayan Motorcycle Tour

Fifteen nights across Nepal on dual sport bikes, combining a jungle safari at Chitwan with a ride into Upper Mustang, and reaching around 16,400 feet with a doctor and oxygen carried with the group. The hire is included and the price is per person sharing.

Kathmandu and a flight to Pokhara open it with a lakeside welcome, then Bandipur, an old Tibet trade village, and Pokhara’s longest suspension bridge. Chitwan follows on a jungle riverbank ride with a Tharu cultural evening, and then a jeep safari and boat trip in the national park, where one-horned rhinoceros, gharial and elephant are usually about and Bengal tiger occasionally, though nothing can be promised.

A community day back at Pokhara takes in a children’s home, a recycling plant and a waterfall, with sunrise from Sarankot. Tatopani follows for the hot springs, then Kagbeni on the edge of the Kali Gandaki, which by some measures is the deepest gorge on earth, with Dhaulagiri and Annapurna on either side of it and a yak burger at the tavern.

Upper Mustang is the object of the trip: a restricted area requiring a permit, Tibetan in culture and language, where Lo Manthang is walled and holds a fifteenth-century monastery and the surrounding desert is cut with ancient cave dwellings in the cliffs. A full day covers the valleys, the cliffside monasteries and the highest golf course in the world. The descent returns by Kagbeni and Poon Hill. Prices are quoted in US dollars. Altitude is the governing factor on this one, and the medical cover carried with the group is not a marketing line.