Day10: Leh - Sarchu:
Not a single confirmed report of vehicles coming from Manali via Baralach La was received barring the single Chinese whisper of the previous evening. But I was going by what Arindam had said a few days ago. Army convoys would move today from Manali. We decided to move today from Leh! Army convoy has chains on their tyres. We had still some rubber left. That was when Maël started talking about Casey Stoner using
tyres with studs on snow! I a not sure about the viability of finding such tyres in Leh. I did not even think about it!
Lost Keys!
Payments cleared at the Oriental Guest House, saddlebags loaded, I was about to warm up the engines when I realized that I could not locate the keys to my 220! It is pretty common with me. But each time I panic! We had uncertain journey in front of us and I did not want to lose time. 0815hours and we were ready but I was fumbling around looking for my keys. I even checked in the receptionist’s drawer of the hotel! No, I did not have any intimate moments with her. Then I sent the hotel’s personnel up to the room to check. Maël went up to. They turned the room upside down but could not locate the keys. Besides, my keys to the bike are attached to a long chain with other keys on it, disc lock, garage keys etc. I could not have accidentally flushed them down the toilet!
At 3200mts altitude in 16°C, I was
sweating profusely in my state of mental disarray. And then I found the whole bunch inside my helmet! After losing 45mts.
We set off finally. We nearly had 250kms to cover to
Sarchu before nightfall. And we had no idea about the condition of the roads. Though we knew that till Sarchu, quite a few bikers had attempted and reached.
I had promised a photo-stop to Brigitte near
Hemis, right next to the Indus. This stop was made a little short of Karu.
Hemis in the distance:
Loved the colour of the mountain rocks here:
And we kept moving. Turned right from Upshi. The road remained quite good till Rumtse, 100kms from Leh. Covered that in less than 3 hours. But then we came across disappeared tarmac, road laying working going and a lot of ice and snow and quite bad roads and a lot of melted water in huge puddles, all the way till Tanglang La. On one stretch I even had to help Brigitte cross over a patch of construction work where they were had laid broken stones on the road before continuing laying the road on top. It was a tough stretch of about 50 odd metres that I helped Brigitte cross.
You can see the path leading to Tanglang La behind my head!
Photo and Diamox time. Then I let Brigitte go ahead for the second time in our trip. She kept going. The next 15kms took an hour! Brigitte had already reached Tanglang La.
Tanglang La
33°N,
77°E
5216Mts. Registered by my GPS.
Brigitte First
Me following later:
Tanglang La Baba watched over us!
For the first time in two rides in Ladakh, I was shot riding on the motorcycle. That felt good!
We met a biker there from Chandigarh who recognized my bike from xBhp.com he said! True! He told us horror stories about crossing Baralach La. Which meant he was coming from Manali! Which meant it was possible to get to Manali on a two wheeler. He was the first biker and ONLY biker we saw this side of Baralach La having crossed that place! This gave a lot of hope to us. But the horror stories made us all the more apprehensive.
Up there it did not feel very cold. Barely 5°C. I do not feel cold easily. But I do feel hungry very easily. We climbed down from Tanglang La. Next stop was lunch, after
Debring. 25kms and one hour later we found some tents that said “
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner; Beds also available!” We got in one and had Maggi Instant noodles with chopped vegetables for the second time in our trip.
Tents near Debring
The Lovely Kitchen that prepared our Maggi Noodels!
More Plains Guess what those black spots are in the distance...
They are this:
Getting out of Debring and on to the
More Plains was a tough affair with deep stretches of sand. I spent a great amount of time of my ride looking in my rear view mirror to see if all was well with Brigitte in the tough Indian riding conditions. What I saw Brigitte do in the sand at More Plains was nothing short of
Chris Pfeiffer spectacle. She swerved to the left, she swerved to the right, trying to maintain a steady line, her front wheel came up; it was almost miraculous and I had my heart nearly out of my mouth. And she left a blazing cloud of dust big enough to show that she has been riding a tank at full throttle! But she did not drop the bike.
I have enjoyed riding on More Plains before. But not this time. BRO in its efforts to widen roads, most of it was unfinished and the rest of it was deep sand, difficult to ride in if you are not a seasoned off-road rider.
Reached Pang. Photos.
Road to Pang
Everybody knows where and what this is...
Closer look of what Brigitte calls Fairy's Chimneys!
Then came
Kangla Jal. It was past 4 in the afternoon. The
melting snowcaps had enormously increased the depth and force of this stream. The first part I couldn’t even make out the depth. I signaled Brigitte to stop. I couldn’t make out where to hit the stream. I went ahead with some calculations. I
hit boulders under the stream and nearly lost it. The current was strong and I tried countering the current. I hit another boulder and the bike swerved to the left and I climbed a rock piece. The rear axle was still in the water. The bike had not stalled. Thankfully the current here was manageable and I pushed a rock to reverse a bit and with gradual throttle I managed to cross the stream. I had broken into a heavy sweat.
I was not scared of dropping the bike or falling into the water. I was mostly scared of
dropping my expensive photographic equipment into the water.
I went back jumping on rocks and helped Brigitte with her bike. There was no way she was going to manage this all on her own. This time I chose another trajectory to cross the stream. It was deeper with current but there were lesser boulders. I managed it.
Then came the second part of Kangla Jal. This too was nearly
axle deep and a pretty strong current. This was when two Europeans came on their bullets. I showed them what to avoid on the first part. And I let them go first on the second part. Checked out the gradient, depth and current while they made their crossing. I got it too. This time Brigitte managed to do it on her own. She looked happy having done it. It was fun. Ten minutes ago I was not smiling when I was stuck in the middle of the crossing!
The depth was till the axle, but the current hit me till nearly my thighs!
Back on the road again. Or what was left of what was once a road. I calculated; two more major passes at 5000mts+,
Gatta Loops and then another hour to Sarchu. I feared that we would be riding in the night. I stopped thinking and started riding. I maintained a brisk pace and Brigitte kept up. We did a brisk stop at
Lachlung La, none at
Nakeela and then came the 21 sharp hairpin bends of Gata Loops as we descended a thousand metres in less than 8 kms. All of it was thankfully tarmac.
Lachlung La
So far we made it
The only person from xBhp who made it past this point before us this season was
Kurt! But I was not even thinking about it then. I was worried about other things...
The sun was setting. It was getting darker. We found some decent straights. Brigitte started pushing me. I started going harder. We were doing 70kmph+. There were numerous stream crossings, some deep, some less so.
Finally we reached Sarchu. It was nearly 2000hrs. I headed to the area where I had stayed in tents the last time around though I had my doubts about finding anything much. I did not. There was an army check post. We turned back. Near the bridge in Sarchu Brigitte’s Avenger light was dying as she reduced speed and she could not see the rocks on the road that she had to negotiate and she had a fall. I could not see as it was totally dark by now. Maël heard her calling out to me. I went back and helped her straighten the bike. This was becoming too tough and tiresome for her. I had to find a place to stay soon.
We found a place to park by the side of the road and asked Maël and Brigitte to wait and I went out to negotiate a tent. I went from tent to tent. They were all collective tents with some bikers, truck drivers and a tourist or two who occupied all the tents.
There was not a single bed available! Everything was sold out to such an extent that I saw people lying down in the seats of their cars with engine running and the heater on! Then I came to the last tent and there was a lady who was wo-manning it! I pleaded with her saying I got a small son, a lady and
I could not find a place to stay. After constant pleading, she was kind enough to understand my problem saying that, “My tents are full. But can I will show you a place. See if you can stay there.” She showed me a
tin shack abandoned by the army. She put in three mattresses and three quilts and a rechargeable lamp!
I went back to the bridge to get Maël and Brigitte. It was past 2030hours and Brigitte was cold.
Temperatures had fallen below 0°C! I told her that the conditions of the night were pretty rudimentary! Could not be much helped. We went to our makeshift arrangements for the night and unloaded our bikes. Then we went to the tent to catch a bite. There was a queue of fifteen people before us to eat! We had to wait a long time to get our hands on some food. I checked the temperature just outside the tent had fallen to – 5°C and was still dropping.
We met a group of bikers from the South who were staying in the tent and having dinner. The first group that came from Manali crossing Baralach La. Hence more horror stories about the climb to Baralach La continued; lots of snow, black ice, un-crossable deep streams with strong currents. At that moment I told Brigitte that we were going to get up and leave early. I did not want the snow to melt and make the currents of the streams difficult to manage. That way, I hoped to avoid situations like that of the dreaded Kangla Jal.
Our Army Tin Shed
Brigitte’s Impressions at EOD:
“I am too cold to say much tonight but… we crossed some really beautiful places and heights. But besides the first 100kms and the last 40kms, the roads were really horrible. The sights at Pang were really beautiful. But Kangla Jal really scared me. All the water crossings scare me! But till now I have done quite a bit and I am getting used to them.
Most important point of today however is one should not ride a bike with the headlights fed by the dynamo. It is too dangerous. Once my speed comes down, my light dies and I cannot see anything. Which is why I was chasing you to go faster to reach Sarchu before dark. Which is why I fell near Sarchu bridge because I could not see what was in front of me at lower speeds!
And about the arrangement of staying in Sarchu tonight; it is an incredible experience. I have never done anything like this in my life. It is cold. There is no place to go. There is no choice. And we throw all ideas of hygiene through the window and we have to make do with what we have just like soldiers during war!”
After dinner we went to sleep in our ramshackle tin shack. The window panes were missing and the chilly wind was hissing through. We tried stuffing them with cardboards and our raincoats! That helped a bit. The quilts were heavy. Though the temperatures were dropping rapidly outside, we managed to get a relatively good night’s sleep barring a few interruptions like when a guy came looking for his girlfriend who was the wife of another man inside our tin shack and since our door would not fully close, he opened inside to check if he could find his lover! We chased him out asking him to go look elsewhere I had to go out and close the door again. That was at 1 ’O clock in the morning!
The following day was the acid test! I already knew that we would make it till Manali. But the thought was, in what conditions and under what circumstances! Kurt had said, attempt it only if you are an accomplished rider on snow, black ice... One cannot do much on black ice! One falls.
To be continued…