I arrived in Almora at night on July 3rd, around 9:30pm, and made it to Pushkar Guesthouse by 10. I have been relaxing and recovering, i feel quite productive up here and there is a lack of tourist which is quite a relief in it's self, as the locals are in a different mode in off-peak season. The rains have continued almost everyday, but only for a few hours generally in the evening, but some days the morning. flooding has continued to devastate Utterakhand, with many road closures in the mountains. The flooding 1month ago was so devastating that many towns were destroyed, and the Char dam yatra was canceled, after the complete destruction of Kedarnath, where only the main temple above the town was sparred by the avalanche/landslide when a boulder rolled down before it happened and stopped above the temple, protecting it from the massive torrent of rock and ice.
I have changed my oil, as it was more than 500km after my Piston/Cylinder/Head Kit was changed after blowing my piston up in Nepal. My bike is running like new, with way better compression and power then it ever had in my hands. I have fixed my rear brake light, in addition to installing the upgrade free-flow k&M air-filter that rohit gave me, and re-jetting to adapt for it. My mileage is excellent, getting 80+mpg, or 35+km/l unlike before at 50-60mpg, or under 24km/l. In Pokhara after seeing my massive ring gap it is amazing i had compression at all, but changing my rings without dealing with my real problem at the time (needing a bigend overhaul, and having a 'soft-seized' piston/cylinder, showing scraping spots, which was already 0.040" oversize, max oversize for both piston and cylinder.having the compression boost from the rings in pokhara pushed it over the edge, as not 65 km out of pokhara i blow my piston in half, and have to get rucked 100+km to Butwal, where the very nice and competent mechanics at the Royal Workshop did my bigend and new headkit, in addition to a few other tweaks. Right before i left Pokhara i look down at my rear shock after packing, and see it is rubbing on my rack, after closer inspection i could see it was broken at the rod internally, forcing me to delay another few hours before leaving butwal, and costing me another 2500npr for a single used shock.
Have read a number of books over the past few weeks, starting with most of hunter s thompsons work (hell's angels, rum diary, f&l), then tropic of cancer by Henry miller, then the new translation of siddhartha we were given before we left. I have also been writing as much as possible, both in my journal and about open-hardware/education.
In the past few days i have transferred half of my 1tb hd to my 3tb backup, which is now possible because i found a 12v powersupply and a fat barrel connector to power up my 3tb backup. I now can continue shooting photos at full speed. After the first day of transferring i came home to find my battery charger (for both cameras) was belly up and dead, but after opening and fixing a cold solder joint, it now works with 12v input at least, and the cap that is swelled up is probably the only thing keeping it from working on mains, which will be an easy fix once i find a replacement. I am really glad i bought a soldering iron in nepal, because i have needed it at least 6 times, and will let me rewire/cleanup the wiring on my bike reliably.
Next stop will be Manali, where i will then plan the Leh/Ladock trip. Myles just left for this tour, and it will take a month or so. This is supposed to be the most amazing bike tour in India, with much of it virtually offroading. If you look at a map the one road goes from Manali stright up to Leh, where there is an amazing lack of roads for hundreds of kilometers. This requires a bike in top running condition, and people on the tour who can assist in repairing. Like always I will have my tool kit, but will also invest in a tire pump, a set of tire irons, and an innertube and patchkit. This plus a set of all cables for the bike (brake, throttle, decompresion, clutch) will make the chance of surviving much higher.... Also mandatory is sleeping bag, tarp/shelter (ideally tent), warm clothes, smaller jets for carburetor for 18000ft pass (or you will run way rich).
BTW, please comment more if you read this, i dont get much internet access so comment are a good way to talk.
