It's hot and it's cold out there. Dang!

It has been 50C in India this year (2010) before the monsoon hit which is quite hot so you would think that going in winter would be a good idea. However, some of the route (eastern Turkey, Karakorum and Pamir mountains) are quite high (2700m, 4700m, 4600m, respectively) so in Winter and large parts of Spring and Autumn they get blocked by snow. Motorbikes and snow aren't the bloody good laugh you might expect them to be and besides which my fingers get cold terribly easily.

I need to go sometime in between, after the worst of the heat and before the snow arrives.

I'm thinking that heading out in very early September would be just before the snows start in Eastern Turkey (it was falling in late October for sure) and yet be just after the worst of the heat in October as I rumble through southern Iran and Pakistan.

Furthermore, if I have the time free, I can continue round India in November and December when the weather should be perfectly pleasant for the most part. A bit of rain, maybe.

However, that means I have to leave my bike in India for the rest of the winter and fly home to the UK.

I'd fly back out in July 2011

1. as the Manali-Leh road will be open (it is closed mid-September through to May) and I can charge around the Himalayas in Jammu and Kashmir and
2. there's a decent chance of the weather being pleasant enough in late July for going through the Khunjerab Pass (4700m).

The downside of this is I'd be looking at traversing the Taklamakan desert in early August. Maybe that needs a rethink though I imagine the desert won't get daytime "cool" until the night times are freezing. Besides, any escort might ban me on basic principles.

Traveling through the 'stans (I'm thinking the plains of Uzbekistan and Khazakhstan, rather than the mountain tops of Tajikistan) might be quite hot in late August.

Still, I can handle heat better than I can the cold.