This was the ride that was never meant to be... I had considered riding with a group in Nepal on a few occasions previously however the country seemed rather small and the choice of routes seemed limited. I did take a look at what other companies were doing and they all seemed to be doing the same thing, more or less. Nepal was put on the back burner. That all changed very quickly.

We had planned to ride to Mount Everest Base Camp however the Chinese army refused to let foreigners across the Nepal-Tibet border. We can only assume it was due to the previous years earthquake, we don’t know, we were never told and we may never know. Time for plan B to kick in. The problem was that there was no plan B.

With around 4 weeks to go we all decided that it would be better to ride somewhere rather than nowhere at all. Nepal seemed the natural choice, as Kathmandu was to be our base for the now defunct Everest ride.

I will assume that every rider wanted a challenge. Why else would anyone sign up for a motorcycle adventure? They are after all one of the most formidable, demanding and arduous events you will ever participate in.

It’s fairly safe to say that the route we chose to ride was ambitious. Yes, ambitious is definitely the word, as it required great effort and ability. Time was not on our side when it came to planning. The experts informed us that no one ever rides these routes. We were advised that our schedules couldn’t be met and what we wanted to do couldn’t be done. We soon found out why we were given such advice.

What can I say? We did it and we did it well.

I always knew that planning a recce ride in a country that I had no real knowledge of was a bold assignment right from the start but that’s what we do at Nomadic Knights.

Was it difficult, yes at times it was very difficult but every rider got through it one way or another.

Alex Pirie
Founder and owner of Nomadic Knights