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shailay · 07-02-2009, 05:23 PM

…continued from

Day 1
Day 2
Day 03 Part I
Day 03 Part II

Day 4: June 05: Sarchu to Upshi

The morning at Sarchu was quite cold as expected. The frozen stream of water was telling us the temperatures of the previous night. We crossed the nallah from the upstream bridge and then with a free mind had our breakfast. We had not seen any tree since Zingzing Bar. And still the absence of trees continued as we headed towards the Ghata Loops. It is beautiful desert, a different experience. Road is quite decent without and breaks on the surface. On the name of wildlife we saw a couple of foxes and some wild deers. The wind owned the place it seemed. It had cut the big rocks very beautifully, as if that was done under a certain plan. All was well till we encountered another traffic standstill. However this time it was due to a deep steam of water and the road was quite broad. We were able to take our bikes directly ahead. Well in an attempt to cross the nallah a missed a spot and got my right foot submerged in the water. The water entered my boot for the very time on the ride and obviously forced me to remove it. Now of the one pair of sandles we were carrying, the left one was with Amit and now I was forced to wear the right one.
Just before Pang we made our entry at the police check post. Reaching Pang coincided with the scheduled time of lunch. A guy at a restaurant served us with daal, sabji and chapattis. It turned out to be simplest of the food we have had on the ride. We met Simon and Lea there. They were riding Avvy too. 200 oil cooled.
“Arey Krishna! Arey Raama!!” was Simon’s reply when I said hi.
He seemed to be nice guy. He told me about some problems with his bike and asked me if I could give the bike a try. I tried the bike and didn’t find any such thing except the power missing issue. I told me that it happens at such heights. They were short of fuel also and asked for help. However we also didn’t have extra fuel. We were filled up to easily reach Karu (16 kms from Upshi towards Leh). So we couldn’t give the fuel to them. However Amit talked to a local and managed somehow to get some fuel for them (though not without a healthy premium over the normal price from the seller).
The road begins to climb up again from Pang. It soon got us onto a vast span of flat land, enough to build a small city. These flats preceded the climb to TaglangLa. A road project was going on there. So the way was in bad condition. The same condition continued till TaglangLa. The rapid fall in the levels of oxygen and temperatures aggravated the adventure of the ride J . The water from the melting snow and mud were making it difficult, at some points, even to keep the bike in ride able position. Suddenly I began to feel some white fluffy in air. I though it was rain and snow. But that soon turned out to be the advent of a not-quite-ordinary snowstorm. Somehow we reached TaglangLa. Felt the real chill when I had to remove gloves to change a memory card. The only thing we feared was a puncture at that time. Where changing the memory card of the camera can be a pain, God!! think what the havoc can repairing a flat tire create at such place, I thought.

“Yuu huuu....!!!!!First persons in the world to reach the second highest motorable road in the world in sandles” Amit screamed.
My right foot, which was still in that sandle, was feeling the real chill as I could feel something weird right at the spot in my ankle where I got a couple of screws fixed last year due to a fracture. However TaglangLa was reached and it was a memorable experience. After the pass the condition of road still didn’t improve. However after 8-10 kms of descent the road improved. It was a newly laid down road and was the one of the broadest roads of the area. The speeds of around ninety to hundred kmph were manageable for kilometers and kilometers. Also, we saw the first of the trees since the day before. The valley became beautiful as we progressed. We reached Upshi ant around 5:30 p.m. The milestone there showed Leh to be just 49 kms ahead. We had almost a couple of hours of daytime but decided to stay there only. Met Simon and Lea again in Upshi only. They had tea with us and left for Leh. We got a decent accommodation to stay just at the entrance of the town. Nice place, nice weather and even nicer people!!

Total distance covered in the day: 204 kms
Riding hours: 0845-1730
Cumulative distance: 990 kms

Next day-
Day 05
...

07-02-2009, 05:23 PM	#58 (permalink)
shailay ride_core Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Noida Posts: 108	…continued from Day 1 Day 2 Day 03 Part I Day 03 Part II Day 4: June 05: Sarchu to Upshi The morning at Sarchu was quite cold as expected. The frozen stream of water was telling us the temperatures of the previous night. We crossed the nallah from the upstream bridge and then with a free mind had our breakfast. We had not seen any tree since Zingzing Bar. And still the absence of trees continued as we headed towards the Ghata Loops. It is beautiful desert, a different experience. Road is quite decent without and breaks on the surface. On the name of wildlife we saw a couple of foxes and some wild deers. The wind owned the place it seemed. It had cut the big rocks very beautifully, as if that was done under a certain plan. All was well till we encountered another traffic standstill. However this time it was due to a deep steam of water and the road was quite broad. We were able to take our bikes directly ahead. Well in an attempt to cross the nallah a missed a spot and got my right foot submerged in the water. The water entered my boot for the very time on the ride and obviously forced me to remove it. Now of the one pair of sandles we were carrying, the left one was with Amit and now I was forced to wear the right one. Just before Pang we made our entry at the police check post. Reaching Pang coincided with the scheduled time of lunch. A guy at a restaurant served us with daal, sabji and chapattis. It turned out to be simplest of the food we have had on the ride. We met Simon and Lea there. They were riding Avvy too. 200 oil cooled. “Arey Krishna! Arey Raama!!” was Simon’s reply when I said hi. He seemed to be nice guy. He told me about some problems with his bike and asked me if I could give the bike a try. I tried the bike and didn’t find any such thing except the power missing issue. I told me that it happens at such heights. They were short of fuel also and asked for help. However we also didn’t have extra fuel. We were filled up to easily reach Karu (16 kms from Upshi towards Leh). So we couldn’t give the fuel to them. However Amit talked to a local and managed somehow to get some fuel for them (though not without a healthy premium over the normal price from the seller). The road begins to climb up again from Pang. It soon got us onto a vast span of flat land, enough to build a small city. These flats preceded the climb to TaglangLa. A road project was going on there. So the way was in bad condition. The same condition continued till TaglangLa. The rapid fall in the levels of oxygen and temperatures aggravated the adventure of the ride J . The water from the melting snow and mud were making it difficult, at some points, even to keep the bike in ride able position. Suddenly I began to feel some white fluffy in air. I though it was rain and snow. But that soon turned out to be the advent of a not-quite-ordinary snowstorm. Somehow we reached TaglangLa. Felt the real chill when I had to remove gloves to change a memory card. The only thing we feared was a puncture at that time. Where changing the memory card of the camera can be a pain, God!! think what the havoc can repairing a flat tire create at such place, I thought. “Yuu huuu....!!!!!First persons in the world to reach the second highest motorable road in the world in sandles” Amit screamed. My right foot, which was still in that sandle, was feeling the real chill as I could feel something weird right at the spot in my ankle where I got a couple of screws fixed last year due to a fracture. However TaglangLa was reached and it was a memorable experience. After the pass the condition of road still didn’t improve. However after 8-10 kms of descent the road improved. It was a newly laid down road and was the one of the broadest roads of the area. The speeds of around ninety to hundred kmph were manageable for kilometers and kilometers. Also, we saw the first of the trees since the day before. The valley became beautiful as we progressed. We reached Upshi ant around 5:30 p.m. The milestone there showed Leh to be just 49 kms ahead. We had almost a couple of hours of daytime but decided to stay there only. Met Simon and Lea again in Upshi only. They had tea with us and left for Leh. We got a decent accommodation to stay just at the entrance of the town. Nice place, nice weather and even nicer people!! Total distance covered in the day: 204 kms Riding hours: 0845-1730 Cumulative distance: 990 kms Next day- Day 05 ... Last edited by shailay; 08-05-2009 at 09:06 PM.