Introduction
Cycling southeast from Taplejung on a combination of dirt and paved roads, down to the Indian border town of Charali, our route climbs, descends, twists and turns its way through a part of Nepal seen by very few tourists, and even fewer have seen it the way we are doing it.
After flying from Kathmandu to Taplejung via Biratnagar, the first four days are spent making our way south through picturesque villages and golden fields of rice and wheat to our highest camp on the Pauwa Pass, from where there are spectacular views stretching from Kanchenjunga to Mt Everest. From the pass, it’s a two-day ride through the tea plantations of Ilam [Nepal’s tea growing capital] to the warm plains of the Terai. We spend a day in Ilam to relax or to go exploring in the tea garden on and off the bike. The Terai with its colourful bazaars, fields of tea, fruits and vegetables and the ever smiling faces of the Nepalese. This area is completely unspoiled, with hardly any Westerners passing through – let alone mountain bikers. In only the first five days we cover around 240 km, with an awesome 5000m of ascent and even more awesome 7800m of descent.