Nacho Vidal rides the Himalayan crossing

On our Himalayan crossing last June we were joined by a friend and fellow rider who shares our taste for motorcycles and for leaving the usual track. Nacho Vidal himself signed up for this high-altitude route of passes and bends. He rode as one more member of the group of 12 motorcyclists who crossed the valleys of Ladakh.

He rode the Royal Enfield Himalayan for the first time, the model that handles mountain ground best, and the days also opened a quieter side of himself. The ride brought him closer to the landscape than anything he had done before, and in his own words "it is impossible to describe in videos or pictures: you have to go there to believe it".

The bike answered well, the views held his attention, and the food pulled him out of familiar ground. A trip worth the name always has a little unpredictability, sometimes on the plate.

Life in a group, long talks at the table, the hug at the top of the highest motorable pass in the world: all of that belongs to his first trip to India. We rode with him the whole way, showing him a piece of this strange and extravagant country, on roads away from the tourist flow and in quieter corners of the Indian Himalayas.

At Rakatanga we think the best way to get to know this country is on two wheels, starting from the roof of the world and on the most classic bike of all, the Royal Enfield.