Globetrotting Kriega ambassador Chris Birch has recently returned from a week’s trip to Nepal. We wanted to know more…
‘There were two reasons for this trip,’ explains Birchy, ‘Number one, I’ve always wanted to see Nepal and secondly, it was a scouting mission for future tours that I will run in Nepal with Himalayan Adventures. The best part was the group was made up of friends from around the world: Andy from the UK, Ned and Tim from America, Rob from Germany, and Alex from New Zealand. In total there were six of us, plus two guides and Mandil, the business owner.’
Birchy lives in New Zealand, and says it’s not that difficult to get to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, from there. Unfortunately for him he wasn’t travelling from home. ‘I definitely made it hard. I had a dirt bike coaching event the week before in a very remote part of China. The day I left there was a big storm that closed the airport. A short flight turned into a three-hour drive with rock falls, fallen trees and flooded roads to navigate, then five hours on a local chicken bus to a bigger airport before two flights to Kathmandu. The adventure started early.’ He was ‘stoked’ to learn the airport code for Kathmandu is KTM, though.
Due to his long-running relationship with the Austrian bike manufacturer, Birchy was riding the new KTM 390 Adventure R. ‘It arrived in Nepal the day before I did so it was meant to be. The rest of the team were on Royal Enfield Himalayan 450s and CFMoto 450s. The Himalayans had the most power, but weird geometry. The CFMotos were very smooth, but don’t seem to fit people over 6ft tall,’ he says.
Like most of these fly-ride adventures, Birchy’s crew were supported by a truck carrying the majority of their luggage. ‘But we needed enough independence to allow for the truck getting held up along the way. I packed my Kriega T18 with wet weather gear, toothbrush, a small tool kit, Kriega Stash travel wallet and camera gear.’
He describes himself as a country boy, so heading out of the capital to pick up the Manang Highway towards the Annapurna mountain range took him a bit of out of his comfort zone.
‘Leaving Kathmandu was a bit scary, the traffic is intense but it’s all a part of the adventure. The trails were not so difficult. I’d describe it as fun, off road-focussed adventure touring. There was a huge amount of variety in the ride as we went up and down in altitude. There was nothing that was going to hold us up but always fun. It was not all big mountains, the lower jungle-like country was awesome too.
But what was the high point? ‘About 5000 metres,’ he says, ‘Oh you mean the best part? It was the same time. I got permission from villagers to ride a switch back trail to a saddle looking down into Mustang Valley. It was a real challenge to get up there but totally worth all the huffing puffing and sweat.’
The only thing he’d change was to have a bit more time. ‘Due to me having a tight schedule we had to make it only a one week ride. This made things more rushed than I would have liked. We sometimes had to ride past places I would have liked to have explored. This will change next time. The accommodation was varied but always clean and comfortable. The highlight was in Gurkha where we stayed in a mountain-top lodge in beautiful rock cabins with unreal views. A consistent was always friendly and welcoming people at each stop. Nepali people are great. The food was good, nobody got a bad stomach. We had no safety concerns at all. The views are indescribable. If you want to join me on a tour next year in Nepal, check out Himalayanrides.com and bring your Kriega backpack.’
Birchy and his mates used the TRAIL18 backpack in the coyote and orange colourways. To get your own, order directly from kriega.com or head to your local dealer for a closer look
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