In today’s Lesson From The Saddle Of My Bullet (my Indian motorcycle) we learn about an essential ingredient for success that many people overlook.
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I hurtled towards a left hand corner on a dusty dirt road cut out of the Himalayan mountainside. I was aware that this could be the last 5 seconds of my life. The sharp corner had appeared out of nowhere and was getting closer and closer with each passing second.

Dirt road has a lot less grip than tar and I needed to slow down fast. Braking on dirt road is like a delicate balancing act. If you pull the front brake too hard, you lock up the front wheel. Pull the back brake too hard and it will also lock up without slowing you down.

If I didn’t slow down enough, I would be forced to lean my Bullet into the corner at an angle far greater than its tyres would cater for and the probable outcome would be a few broken bones at best. Getting around this corner upright was going to be a calculation of note – a dance with the forces of nature as I juggled the variables of momentum, traction, acceleration, gravity and trajectory.

I applied gentle pressure to both brakes at once, focused my eyes on the apex of the corner, shifted my bodyweight to the left of the saddle and entered the corner too fast.

The tail end of my Bullet twitched as my rear wheel passed the apex of the corner, threatening to give up traction at any second. However, seconds later, the dusty mountain corner was in my rearview mirror and I was still alive. Phew, that was close…

Bullet Lesson #5: Practice makes perfect

The reason I was able to make those calculations so quickly and survive that dangerous situation without falling off had little to do with luck and everything to do with practice. I have been practicing riding motorcycles for 18 years, attended advanced motorcycling courses and covered hundreds of thousands of miles on 2 wheels around the globe.

What I am pointing to is that I have PRACTICED cornering thousands of times before and the practicing gave me the skill to get out of this sticky situation alive.

Success in any endeavor does not happen by accident. It happens when practice meets opportunity.

“Practice as if you are the worst; perform as if you are the best.”

The easiest way to prepare for success is to practice in a simulated environment, where failure can be explored. In such an environment, you can move out of your comfort zone and test the limits of your capability, because growth only happens outside your comfort zone. This is particularly useful when real world failure could cost you money or your life…

For example, I became a capable motorcyclist through attending training sessions on a racetrack (a simulated road environment), where I could fall off safely. Knowing I would be safe, I could push my riding skills to their limits, and quickly grew as a motorcyclist.

Pilots practice in a flight simulator before and after they have passed their pilots exams.

In the Stock Market, a new trader practices ‘dummy trading’ before investing his real money in the market. When you ‘dummy trade’, you trade the stock market with monopoly money. This way, the trader is safe to explore what happens if he places ‘risky’ trades or plays it safe. By practicing first, the trader stands a far greater chance of success when he invests real money in the stock market.

Here are two examples of simulators I use:

- If you want to become wealthy, you can practice before investing your own money by using a game like Rich Dad’s Cashflow 101. I have the eGame on my PC and can play it anywhere – very cool indeed!

- If you want to manifest an important goal, use the Relaxation For Manifestation to mentally simulate your goal and program your mind for success. I use it daily and get truly miraculous results.

Great success requires great practice.

When you are doing what you love, the practice will be so enjoyable, you won’t want by stop.

So, find yourself a safe environment to practice in and get practicing.

Till next time, go gently on the corners,

P.S. If you are enjoying these lessons, you can get them in your inbox each week by signing up to the Moving Mountains newsletter at www.designer-life.com.

This morning, as I sat down to write this week’s ‘Lesson From The Saddle Of My Bullet’, a concern popped into my head: I keep writing about motorcycle crashes or near misses as I rode my Royal Enfield Bullet through India. I thought that perhaps this time I should write about some of the happy experiences we had.

So, I tried to remember what I had learned from being at the top of the snowcapped Baralachla Pass (the 2nd highest road in the world) or visiting the Tibetan monks in the highest village in the world.

Guess what? I couldn’t remember even one lesson I had learned from any of those times! A moment later, the lesson hit me on the head…

The times when I learned the most were not when I was admiring the view from the side of the road, but when I was riding my Bullet.

- It was when I was battling to keep the bike under control that I learned that ‘the faster you go, the smoother the ride’.
- It was when I almost got squished by concrete roadblock that I learned about relaxing.
- It was watching Adele get back on her bike after crashing in a river crossing that we learned about courage and determination.

BULLET LESSON #4: The journey is more important than getting to the destination.

On my first trip to Southern India, I spent 12 wonderful days with 150 bikers crossing India together. We rode in packs and before long, close friendships between us blossomed.

There were two ex-military guys on the trip who had arrived together and who approached each day like a race. They were always the first to cross the finish line and when we arrived hours later, they were sitting in the bar drinking waiting for us. I don’t think that they saw much of India, because they essentially spent eight hours a day racing through India to drink beer on their own! Needless to say, they were also the ones who complained the most. They were so focused on the destination that they forgot to enjoy the ride.

Think back to a time when you accomplished a worthwhile goal.
You probably invested a whole lot of your time and energy into achieving your goal.
Now, remember the moment when you actually accomplished your goal.
You probably felt euphoric for a minute or two or perhaps a day or two if it was a really big accomplishment, but then you moved on and continued life as usual.

I think that it is important to understand that the moment of achievement is usually a very short ‘peak experience’ in comparison to the time it took you to achieve your goal. Yet, so often we are so focused on ‘getting there’ that we forget to appreciate the beauty of the landscape we are travelling through and the thrill of being in the saddle.

Have you ever wished that success would just hurry up and happen? I know that I have.

To think that, however, is to be ignorant to the way nature works. A tree doesn’t just appear. It grows over time. In the same way, it is only when we leave our comfort zones and the wheels feel like they are about to fall off the bike, that we can soar to new heights.

If you are feeling frustrated that a goal of yours hasn’t manifested yet, know that this is life’s way of telling you that you need to grow some more. Give thanks for the tough times for they contain the lessons to grow you to where you want to go and most importantly, remember to enjoy the ride…

Till next time, may your saddle be lined with sheep skin,

Bruce

“The path to our destination is not always a straight one. We go down the wrong road, we get lost, we turn back. Maybe it doesn’t matter which road we embark on. Maybe what matters is that we embark.” – Barbara Hall.

Would you like each day to feel like a holiday? If so, read on…

Yesterday, I rode my motorcycle through four countries from London to Amsterdam to surprise my wife, Adele, who is in Amsterdam on business.

Over breakfast, one of her colleagues asked me what work I was going to do today…
“Well, first I’m going to write a newsletter to my Moving Mountains subscribers. Then I’m going to film a video lesson for my blog on one of the canals in Amsterdam and then I’m going to set up my portable recording studio and finish recording my next CD product, Mind Mastery 101.”

His face was visibly surprised. “That’s not work!” he exclaimed. As I left breakfast, I gave thanks that my work feels like play to me.

I believe that a fundamental part of being successful is being able to wake up each day and do the things you love to do. Work then feels like play. Once you figure out how to successfully make a fortune from your playing, life takes on a whole new dimension. This usually doesn’t happen overnight though. You have to prove yourself first by earning the right to success. Today’s lesson is all about what it takes to earn that right.

BULLET SCHOOL LESSON #3: The courage to get back in the saddle.

I watched, beaming with pride as Adele crossed her first river. Her submerged exhaust gurgled in a cloud of steam that trailed behind her as she navigated her bike through the rocky river. Two meters before she reached the other side, she hit a submerged rock and her Bullet fell on top of her in knee high water (watch the video below).

Still wet and in shock, Adele got back in the saddle and rode for another 10 minutes before pulling over complaining of an excruciating pain in her foot. It turned out that she had fractured her foot during the fall and could no longer use it to change gears.

She burst into tears, more from disappointment than from pain. She had come all this way, spent so much time and money preparing and only three days into our trip, it was already over for her. She spent the rest of the day in the ambulance.

The next morning, Adele showed me her foot. It was swollen and black with bruising. I nodded my head gravely as if to say, “Tough luck, honey…” One thing I know about my wife is that if you tell her not to do something, she becomes even more determined to do it.

She looked at me with disgust and said, “I didn’t come all the way to the Himalayas to ride in a bloody ambulance! Pass me my boots please…” She screamed in agony as we persuaded her fractured and swollen foot into her damp bike boot. I piggy backed her to her bike and between us, we figured out a way for her to change gears using her heel instead of her foot. As long as she did not put any weight on her fractured foot, she might just be able to ride.

That day, 30 bikers rode through some of the toughest terrain known to man (the Himalayan Mountains). Adele was one of them. She fell off many more times, but each time she chose to climb back on her Bullet. Nine days later, not only was she the only woman to cross the finish line, she was still the only woman on the trip.

Adele is no different from you and I. She is an ordinary person with an extra-ordinary commitment to being successful at whatever she does. Her story contains many powerful metaphors:

- BE CREATIVE: Through finding a way to change gears with her ankle, she learned that there is always a creative solution to any problem. You just need to be willing to look for it.

- BE COURAGEOUS: She learned that the only prerequisite to success is finding the courage to get back in the saddle and continue riding. Life works in the same way.

- KEEP FOCUSSED ON YOUR DREAM: She completed the trip because she never gave up on her dream of riding through the Himalayas, even when it was extremely painful to keep going. If you are willing to keep going, even when the going get’s tough, success will follow you wherever you go.

- USE A TEAM: 30 bikers rallied together to help her complete the 12 day trip. She never would have finished had she tried to do it on her own. Make sure you have a team supporting you. Otherwise, success can be hard and lonely.

Next time you face a disaster, will your dreams become yet another casualty of war, or will you get back in the saddle and ride off into the sunset? Choose.

If you choose the ambulance, in two years time, your life will probably look the same as it does now.

If you keep choosing the saddle, you will eventually reach a point where each day feels like a holiday, as you live the life of your dreams.

Till next time…

Stay in the saddle,

Bruce

I pride myself on being a safe motorcyclist, but after 10 days of tearing up the Himalayas on some of the roughest roads known to man, I was getting cocky with my Bullet and riding faster than I should have been.

Having just visited the Baralachala pass (the 2nd highest pass in the world at 5000m above sea level), I was racing down the snow covered mountain looking forward to a hot bath at my hotel at Jispa.

Suddenly, the tar road turned into dirt track. Normally, this would not have been a problem, except that this time I was hurtling forward at 80km/h heading straight towards a concrete roadblock just 50 meters away!

Slowing down on dirt road is a tender affair. One almost has to almost stroke the bike into submission. If one grabs the front brake lever even slightly too ambitiously, the front wheel will lock up and skid. Unfortunately, if I did not brake in time, I was going to end up much like the insects that were splattered on my visor.

Time slowed down as the roadblock came closer and closer. Contrary to my natural instinct, my arms relaxed their grip on the handlebars and my unconscious mind took over steering the bike. I felt as if I had been temporarily ejected out of my body and somebody else was steering for me while I watched…

There was no time to think or brake. The only option was to attempt to persuade my Bullet to somehow go around the roadblock. I had about 5 seconds left before I would become dinner for the local vultures.

I knew that if I jerked the handlebars even slightly, I would lose traction and skid, so I did the only thing any sane man would do in this situation – nothing! Well, almost nothing….

I focused my attention on the right edge of the concrete block in the road and miraculously my Bullet began drifting to the right hand side of the road. Inch by inch and what seemed like hours later, I scraped past the roadblock, missing it by millimeters. I still do not know how I made it out alive, but that evening as I sat around a campfire warming my hands, I reflected on some valuable lessons this experience taught me about biking and about living.

Bullet School Lesson #2: When the sheet hits the fan, relax…

When it looks like you are going to crash, relax your grip on the handlebars and focus on your escape route, not on the obstacle in front of you. Your bike goes where your focus goes.

My experience shows me that life works in the same way.

When the sheet hits the fan and I don’t know what to do, I step back and observe the situation, take a deep breath and relax. The minute I relax and let go of having to control the outcome of my challenging situation, a solution usually presents itself to me. I equate this to loosening my grip on the handlebars and allowing my unconscious mind to step in and guide the bike for me.

Next, I choose the outcome I want and I place my attention on making that happen using every ounce of focus that I have. Before long, if I have managed to stick with this process, my solution has blossomed and I am over the worst of the problem.

If you are facing some challenges right now, why not step back a little, take a deep breath in and assess your situation from a distance. Then, choose the outcome you desire and place your focus on making that happen. Be sure to focus on the solution and not on the problem. Visualizing your desired outcome will help you stay focused on it.

Above all, remember to relax. When trees are being blown about by a storm wind, they do not resist the wind. They flex and bend to accommodate the wind until it passes. If they did not, the wind would uproot them.

If you can relax and flex like the trees when the wind is blowing your life around, before long your storm will pass and you’ll wonder what you were worried about…

Till then, have a miraculous day.

Bruce

P.S. Next time you encounter a biker, use the following lingo and appear cool:
“Grab a handful” refers to pulling the front brake lever hard.
“Throwing it down the road” means to lose control of your bike and go sliding down the road with it.
Combine them for added effect “Last week I saw some dude grab a handful and throw it down the road!”

If you regularly read my musings, you will remember that my wife and I spent a month riding through India in the saddle of a ‘Bullet’. A Royal Enfield Bullet is a 500 cc single cylinder, 1950’s designed motorcycle.

Our last trip through the spectacular Himalayan mountains contained many life lessons for us – from finding Adele lying in the middle of the road after an accident with her Bullet hanging precariously over the edge of a cliff to being humbled by the sheer beauty and enormity of the mountains.

In the following series of emails, I’m going to share some of the life lessons I learned from the saddle of my Bullet while discovering India and how it all relates to living an Effortless Life.

Bullet School Lesson #1

It was day 9 of our 15 day Himalayan crossing. What I hoped would be a quick 200 kilometre ride, turned into 9 hours of focussed riding through some of the bumpiest roads known to man.

Having ridden the first 10km of the day on rock infested gravel road, I was already beginning to lose my sense of humour. My ass felt like it was going to fall off and my hands were numb from the vibrations coming through the handlebars of my Bullet.

In the middle of all this, I remembered my guide saying something about the faster you ride, the less you feel the road. As counter intuitive as this seemed to me, I increased my speed from 20km/h to 30km/h. My ass still hurt, so I kept opening the throttle. By the time I was doing 60km/h, I was hardly feeling the bumps at all and was clinging onto my handlebars for dear life.

60km/h on these roads felt like 200km/h on regular tar. However, before long I got used to this speed and with my inner speed demon unleashed, the rest of the journey was some of the most fun I have ever had on two wheels! I was grinning from ear to ear all the way.

The Faster You Go, The Smoother The Ride.

Life works in the same way…

The more action you take, the more momentum you gather and the easier success becomes. The faster you move towards your goals, the less significant you problems become. Life begins to feel like plain sailing. It’s only when we stop moving, procrastinate and slam on the brakes that the ride becomes bumpy.

So, the moral of this story is TAKE MASSIVE ACTION towards your goals. Keep moving. Even if you don’t know what the correct course of action is, ACT ANYWAY. You will only know of you are off course once you have moved forward.

Till next time,

Have a miraculous day and don’t bother about the bumps in the road.

Bruce

Another word from Adele: Ayurvedic massage. Hilarious. Possibly the weirdest experience of my massaging career.

Anyone who knows Bruce or me well knows that Adele Muzik is TOTALLY addicted to massage and pride myself on sampling this delicacy in almost every country I have encountered in the world. But none such experience has graced this palette as the Ayurvedic massage. I felt like I was being basted, stuffed and carefully seasoned to be consumed by a tribe of maneaters. By way of illustration, let me try to educate you on this culinary experience:

Ingredients:

1. 1 human to be ‘massaged/prepared/consumed’
2. Another human doing the ‘massage/cooking preparation’
3. 1 loin cloth 
4. 1 litre of thick dark oil (Caltex would be impressed)
5. 1 coconut
6. Various herbs and spices (essential masala curry, sandalwood and various other seeds/ cardamon etc. will do)
7. 1 baking tray (wooden table will do fine) 
8. 1 Steam cupboard to ‘cook’ the human
9. Tablar drumming tribe outside beating drums waiting for the meal
10. 1 hose to clean the human before consumption

Process:

1. Strip human and place loin cloth over pink bits
2. Put human on chair facing away from you
3. Chop coconut and add to 200ml of dark oil
4. Drizzle concoction all over human head
5. Rub furiously into human head until sure every part of head has infused coconut and dark oil (avoid eyes if possible) to ensure flavours are deeply ingrained upon cooking
6. Lay human head up on baking tray/ wooden table
7. Season the rest of the dark oil with masala curry and other spices and prepare the basting sauce 
8. Tell the tablar drummers outside to proceed with drumming and chanting letting the human know of hungry people outside waiting for their meal
9. Drizzle the basting sauce all over human
10. Work the oil furiously all over the human in an attempt to work up a lather (although this is not physically possible, this is the focus. NOTE: the human may attempt to slide off the baking tray claiming that the oil is the cause, don’t buy that, if need be tie the human to the baking tray to ensure it doesn’t slip off again)
11. Flip the human over and repeat the process from behind NOTE: the whole human must be basted in this seasoned curry powder oil, it’s important to leave no part uncovered in oil
12. Take slippery lathered up human and place in steam cupboard
13. Bake for 10 minutes until human is succulent and pink and can barely breath
14. Hose down human using sandalwood paste for final garnishing
15. Present to tablar playing maneaters

So you see, Ayurvedic massage is not for the faint-hearted. But if you want to experience being basted and cooked at least once in your life, try this culinary experience. I was quite hungry afterwards after smelling all that curry and being cooked myself. But heck, I will try anything. Once

From Adele: India, it is often said, is a continent and not a country. It is one of the world’s greatest civilisations, its social structure as it exists today, can be traced back thousands of years and empires of great size and complexity existed here before anything comparable in Europe. You can never fully KNOW India, that is its beauty. In that unfathomable mystery lies the attraction, the lure. India is vast and in many places crowded, its luxurious and squalid. The plains are as flat and featureless as the himalayas are high and spectacular, the food can be terrible and magnificent. There is nowhere else on earth with the variety of India, this place gets into your blood.

EnduroIndia has taken us on a roller coaster of emotion through some of the most staggering scenery on earth, the poverty at times got us down but we were always uplifted by the warmth, happiness and generosity of the people. How can people with so little seem to have so much? Basically India is what you make of it. Immerse yourself in the wonder of the place, surrender to its magic and madness and you will come out a different person than you went in. India is an assault on every single sense you have got, you can go from feeling physically assaulted by the hustle and bustle of the city street to experiencing a sense of inner peace never encountered on a deserted mountain, tiger reserve or beach. I have done my best to describe this place but it’s beyond words…

Well, it is finally coming to an end… Today is an emotional day as it involves the last of our riding together. We travel past one of India’s largest Arch dams and tackle the tricky roads of the Idukki wildlife reserve towards our night’s stop at the amazing city of Kottayam. Today was also pretty trecherous as we ride on the most dangerous highway in India…

Fortunately, my ‘delli belly’ has disappeared and I woke this morning feeling the best I have the entire trip. Unfortunately for some, last night’s partying got the better of them…

We left the Tiger reserve and embarked on a day of fun and silliness. Everyone’s spirits were high and the group has really bonded together. Ali, the photographer, jumped on the back of my bike again today and we set off to find some great picturesque photos.

We stopped on the side of the road to give some kids pens and balloons. Pretty much without exception the Indians we met on the side of the road throughout the entire trip only has two questions for us… 1) “What is your good name?” and 2) “From where you come?” Any conversation outside those two questions is unchartered territory for them.

Our next stop was a gorgeous mountaintop. On the way up to the top, we had to navigate an incredibly steep road and my bike broke began smoking and spewing oil out of the engine casing. At this point, Ali intelligently noted said “Is the bike supposed to smoke like that?” I collapsed in stitches of laughter and told her to hitch a ride to the top while I rolled down the hill to find a mechanic.

The mechanics tightened something and sent me back up the hill. Whatever it was that they did, worked. I arrived at the top to find the most fantastic view. The pictures speak for themselves.

Later along today’s 190km route, I found Adele on the side of the road with the Medics. It was her turn for ‘delli belly’ and she had been vomiting all morning. She had been pretty tough vomiting then getting back on and riding then vomiting and getting back on (where did all this grit come from?) But by the time I found her, she had lost the will to live and I put her on the back of my bike as she was in no state to ride and she refused to get in the ambulance, insisting that she was going to ride to the finish. You gotta love Adele. She has more courage than most men I know.

Determined to make it to the finish, she wobbled on the back of my bike for an hour before flagging down the mechanic who was riding her bike for her. She clambered back on her bike and rode to the meet-up point.

About 10km up the road, were 150 bikes waiting for us. We were pretty much the last riders to arrive for our procession into the Kerala Backwaters. The excitement in the air was electric. 150 bikes revving and hooting their horns. The locals were mesmerized and delighted, probably wondering where these aliens came from.

Once everyone had gathered together, 150 of us, whooping and yelling, departed for our beach hotel. I cannot do justice in words to the feeling one gets riding in a pack of bikes. The noise is deafening and the energy is tangible. We blocked up the roads and all other traffic was forced to give way to the sheer volume of our presence.

Adele and I arrived at our hotel, holding hands while riding and completely blown away by the entire experience. As we arrived, we were honored with floral wreaths and fresh fruit juice.

Our resort is stunning. We are staying in a chalet on stilts overlooking the sea with hammocks strung underneath it. Oh, what a good life I live… I am blessed.

We were all silenced though as we heard that Mike, the South African seasoned award winning photographer on the trip had been rushed to hospital with damaged lumbar vertebrae in his spine after hitting a local on the dangerous highway coming in. We all called him and he was ok but was to be flown back to the UK in a leer jet. The local man who ran into the road and was hit had a fractured pelvis. He was taken care of too but we were all reminded of being careful in India. It is trecherous and beautiful and humbling. Thank god for insurance companies.

After our pensive time over Mike’s accident, we remembered that Mike wanted us to party in his absence and drink a few for him. So we all dressed up in our Indian attire this evening and partied the night away. Adele looked like a princess in her sari and I looked like Imran Khan in my outfit. Toby dressed up as a Royal Enfield (he had been secretly getting parts off the mechanics over the last few weeks) and Fraser was some kind of road peasant. It was hilarious. 150 dressed up drunken bikers was a sight to see. We all ended the evening with 20 of us skinny dipping in the infinity pool to beat the heat and mozzies and it was an epic end to an epic trip. Rachel and Adele, the novices on the trip had loads of bikers beating their breasts over the girls and their courage and how much they inspired us all. They were very popular on the trip and it did them good to realise the impact they had on everyone there.

Tomorrow is the last day of this adventure called EnduroIndia. It is not a riding day, but a resting day where we will all reflect and come to terms with what we have learned and experienced over the last 2 weeks. It frustrates me that I cannot convey in words the magic we have experienced over the last 2 weeks, so I hope the pictures do it some justice.

More updates to come…

Tonight we head off to the Periyar tiger reserve.

The people that we have met in Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been unbelievable. Wherever our rally goes, we are greeted like aliens or celebrities. Kids run out of their houses waving frantically shouting ‘pen pen’ (the most prized commodity in India) and when you stop your bike everyone wants to know your name, where you are from and if you want a cup of Masala Chai. They accept no payment and just want to ensure you feel at home and welcome in their country. It was often that we were left with a lump in our throats. People who have so little who are so hospitable and loving. It put our lives into a pensive perspective and reminded us of what enchanted lives we do live. We are so happy that we raised these funds to help these people. Enduro donated 220 thousand pounds this year and many of these villages will now have medical care and kids with HIV will be helped – especially around Kodaikanal. 

India is just the most dynamic place. It’s all or nothing. This morning I woke up ready for the day and within 2 hours of being on the bike, all I wanted to do was sleep.

My friend Alex, the self proclaimed “most positive person in the world” tried to motivate me by getting me to do a few ra ra cheers and screams, but within a few minutes, I was feeling sick and within an hour, I was lying on the side of the road about to puke.

The 107km which was today’s trip was the longest 107km of my life. It took Adele and I 5 hours to complete today’s ride. (She had to slow down to ride with me, which was a first) The scenery was beautiful as it always is here, but I was hardly present to see it.

We arrived at the Tiger reserve in Thekkady at 2pm and I puked my guts out… We were told at the beginning of Day 1 that there are 2 ways to navigate India. One way is to go upstream and another is to flow downstream. I chose the latter and fell asleep for the rest of the day!

Adele had a full body Ayurvedic massage today which she lapped up like a kitten. She chilled with mates whilst I slept and slept and slept….

Tomorrow is our last day,,, I wish this trip would carry on forever.

Today is claimed to be the best riding on the entire trip and everyone said would knock the breath out of our lungs with its intense beauty. We spend 2 hours descending the beautiful and high mountain from Kodai, then hit stunning wildlife sanctuary of Indira Ghandi and Chinnur, with their awesome switchbacks and great tarmac. We are apparently never far away from big cats, bears and hyenas. After this stunning stage, we hit the tea country and highest tea plantation in the world onto Munnar national park… quite literally heaven on earth… 

After sleeping like the dead, we were happily awakened to breakfast – more curry! Our hotel was superb and I hit the road feeling energized and looking forward to the day’s riding. It was hyped to be the best riding ever!

We descended the mountain the same way we came up yesterday. I rode without Adele and Frazer and I screamed down that mountain like bats out of hell, scraping our footpegs around almost every corner, making our trusty Royal Enfield Bullets look like superbikes. It’s hard to believe that I could have so much fun on a 18 horsepower 350cc motorcycle designed in the 1930′s, but we did.

By the time we reached the bottom, adrenaline was pumping like blood in our veins and Frazer and I squeeled with pure joy.

Further down the road, we passed through a wildlife sanctuary before entering into the most scenic tea plantations. This vista must be one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Photos are coming. I promise.

On the side of the road, I saw the funniest shop i have ever seen. It is an egg shop. The lady who runs it has a cage filled with hens and she collects their eggs daily and sells them to the locals. Talk about a niche market!

I entered the tea plantations and my jaw hit the floor. It is so beautiful. Green everywhere splattered with violets and reds in a beautiful valley with a river bursting through it. The pictures will speak for themselves.

I was so moved by this scene, I drove for 90 minutes in 2nd gear, just soaking it up never wanting it to end. We climbed high up the mountain at the end of the valley and took in the view. We were all silent with awe. The closest I can come to comparing it with something is the Swiss Alps.

After another breathtaking descent down the other side of the mountain, we arrived at our destination, Munnar, 188km later. We are staying in the Tea County resort, a luxurious place with marble floors and a view to die for. I can’t explain how nice it feels arriving at a great resort after a hard day’s riding.

I jumped into the shower and Frazer and I headed into town to get some suits made for our Indian Fancy Dress party in a few nights time. I got an orange/gold Indian 3/4 length suit tailored for 400 rupees. That’s just 5 quid or $10! And the tailor is going to deliver it to the hotel. What a steal…

I’m cramped in a tiny cubicle in a local market as I type this. Adele’s side of the story will come when she arrives in Munaar. She is probably somewhere in the tea plantations as we speak.

Adele interjects in Bruce’s blog: Ahoy! today was MINDBLOWING. I can honestly say that I was shocked into silence today. Rachel, Joe, Vicky and I rode together (Charlie and the Angels) and there was nothing to say. Vicks fell off earlier today and Rachel had another near-death experience but I was just cruising ensuring I stayed hidrated and cool. I absolutely loved today and arrived in Munnar tired, sore but just tingling from being so alive. I have never spent so many consecutive days FULLY present to what I am doing whilst I am doing it. I have no concept of life back home and haven’t thought about work or anything else for what feels like weeks… The tea plantations near Munnar feel like what an artist would paint if he was tasked to paint heaven. Jacaranda trees contrasted with red flowers, lakes, waterfalls and rivers all woven together in green lace. AHH JUST MAGIC.

Till tomorrow… I wish this never ends…