Just because someone told her India was "really in your face", Michèle Harrison quit her office job at the age of 33, bought herself an Enfield motorbike and set off for nearly a year in 1997 to tour the Indian subcontinent. Until then, she had only ridden scooters around London. With more gear than sense, her 17,000 miles journey took her through the mayhem of Delhi traffic, the mountains of Kashmir, the deserts of Rajasthan, the beaches of Goa, the southern tip of India, the remote tracks of Nepal and the eerie Himalayan barrenness of Ladakh. She wanted an adventure to spice up a boring life and fulfil her wanderlust. She got that, and more.