In 2008, I returned to Kathmandu with an overwhelming desire to drive a car, but not just any car: a Porsche. Serendipity this week turned this dream into reality.

In the parking lot of the Hyatt Regency in Kathmandu there suddenly appeared 30 vintage cars worth $10million in spectacular condition, including two 1925 Bentley competition cars, a 1955 Chevrolet, a half dozen Datsun 240Zs, a 1959 Mercedes 220S. And three Porsche 911s.

They had slipped in unannounced. The Nepal Tourism Board had no idea, neither did any of the newspapers in town. Not even the country’s pre-eminent motor enthusiast magazine had heard of the Endurance Rally Association’s Himalayan Adventure.