Yaks, tracks and the worlds best descent.

4 days in the wilderness at 3700 metre plus amongst Yaks, monks, Nepali porters and fog as thick as a Tibetan blanket all on my mountain bike pioneering trails that surely many will follow.
Started from Darjeeling 40 k on road to the police border check post at Manibhanganj, the trail switches between Nepal and India so there are loads of military checks up here. 12 km steep climb up takes me from 2000 metres to 3000 metres on a broken cobbled path which makes cycling very tricky manage about 70% of it. Make it to the trekking hut in the tiny Nepali settlement of Tumling and retire to the kitchen and dining area. Place over run by frenzied young Bengali student on a 3 day trek dressed only in flip flop and track suits; expect some casualties soon; strangely the teachers are rigged out in high end trekking gear, poles, gloves and the works and seem very pleased with themselves as the kids run around the dining hall to avoid hypothermia.
I am requested to sit in the kitchen to keep warm and avoid the kids and manage to sit for about 5 hours on a stool where as I am fed uncomplainingly by members of the Nepali family who run the place. Only the antediluvian Grandma fails to get in on the feeding frenzy; she appears settled perched almost on top of the hearth next to a large fat cat occasionally yelling out what appear to be obscenities which every one ignores accept the cat which spikes up its ears at every outburst.