another panaroma...

Nice pics of the Pangong Lake Aman ...!!

not until you reach Amritsar!... thats when I took out my cam for the first time.

Yeah but at least watermark the ones you are posting from here-on after so at least SOME of your work gets duly credited. I'm watermarking all your pics as and when I use them. For now I haven't used any because I've just reached Delhi in the blog. I guess from this point onward in my blog your images will start becoming relevant

^^ thanks Rachit for the kind words...

watermark... yeah i realized it much later, shud hav done in the initial stages.. now nothing much is left to post.

awesome logs man..! AMan.. the sliding thing was scary.. good you made it..!!
the achievement is not riding thru it, but its in the initial dare & then making it safely..!! well done aman... U are the man.. the pix are as usual drooling..
Just one suggestion.. Why dont u watermark your pix.. Not to protect them, but to carry your credits with them..!!
Please keep making us more stunned.. The start of my day was superb.. Thanks

thanks all...

A Panorama of the lake...

Wow! That snow sliding down in a mini-avalanche looks interesting. Yes, you are indeed lucky to get out unhurt. From your photographs however it does not look like the 4-wheelers could do it easily!

wowww, really interesting pics, and your photography also nice

> I left in a slow-mo jiffy!

ROFL! Lovely to see your side of the story. Like I said, I had assumed life would have been difficult for you doing these stretches solo, but only now do I realize how difficult! Kudos! Lovely clicks as usual! Keep logging!

Road till Pangong Tso was good. I was enjoying, but wondered why was I the only one riding this way? Have the tourists already reached the lake? Are they stuck at ChangLa? Will I be able to go back?

With these thoughts in mind, I kept riding and it was getting boring for me. I was feeling sleepy, restless, hungry, etc. The very first view of the lake (a small blue patch between mountains) got me back to life!

Reached the lake around 1pm, no tourists! As per my plan, I was late, because I wanted to cross ChangLa before 2-3pm so as to avoid any bad weather. Parked at the shore, got down, clicked for 10-15mins, and I was on my way back! Few route and lake pics before I head to ChangLa:









First view of the lake... (looked blue-er than this)
















Exiting the lake...



Now I was back on the same route towards Tangste, and after some 10kms or so, I see oncoming tourist cabs! By the time I reached the check point, there was a huge jam for the permit check. So now I knew that I would be crossing ChangLa without any oncoming or following traffic! Which later did not turn out to be good while descending from ChangLa!









Tangste below...









ChangLa was killing! As soon as I started the climb, my head started getting heavy, and body weak. By the time I reached the top, I was half-dead. Now that I had reached the top, didnt wanted to miss capturing the place. I remembered what Vishwas had said: "When on top, do everything in slow-motion, or you'll run out of breath". I'm not sure if I was following his advice, or I was not able to do anything in normal-motion, but things were happening slowly with what was left of me!

Everything was a task, getting off the bike, opening the zipper to take out the cam, walking around for pics. Saw army guys sitting inside a camp, gestured them for water, and they signalled me to come inside. Landed on their chair, was served warm water, and their share of dry-fruits. They advised me to leave asap, or else i'll run out of breath! Another 2kms down, and i'll be fine. So be it. I left in a slow-mo jiffy!

The climb to ChangLa starts....


Spotted! A Himalayan Marmot!









After some 2-2.5kms, I saw the road blocked in front of me as the snow had loosened its way down on the road. There were two blockages, within a gap of 5mts. The first one had snow till the edge of the road, 2nd one had some space left, bike could be managed. By the way, there was valley on the other side.

I knew no help was coming soon, as tourists were busy enjoying at the lake, and nobody could have informed BRO. Going back to ChangLa was an option, which I wanted to resist. So while I was thinking of how to clear this barrier, a 3rd snow-slide happened right in front of my eyes at the next curve! I was loving it! This was my chance to become 'the news', instead of 'reading the news'! I crossed the first two slides by foot to have a look at the newest addition to my misery. It didnt touch the edge, was doable.

Back to 1st, I frantically started shoving away the snow with my boots, so as to create a path, as wide as my tyre. Obviously, oxygen did its escape act, and now I was on my knees, shoving away with my gloves. Rest. Back to kicking. Initial idea was to drag the bike on 1st gear, me off it. But then after some pros and cons, I decided to ride the normal way. At 3km/hr I cleared the 1st barrier! 2nd was on 5km/hr, 3rd on 6km/hr!

This pic is from the other side, after crossing the 3rd slide....


My only fear now was the snow sliding over me while I was riding down. Wanted to rush down, out of snow-sight. Another 2-3kms, two tourists cabs overtook me. Another 1km, they were stalled because of a massive snow-slide, which in my dreams I couldn't have managed to cross alone. BRO was already there, making path. 5mins wait, I crossed it, informed the amry officer there about the slides I witnessed. Moral duty. Four-wheelers could easily cross them anyways.

And then I never stopped. The mountain passes were never ending, I could see the other mountain from far, paths visible. Then Karu came, I was in no mood to stop. Head was heavy, just wanted to crash in the bed. Skipped the Hemis Monastary. Roads were awesome. Entered Leh around 4-4:30pm, thinking Vishwas and Rudra would have reached by now from Diskit. Was heading to the new hotel they shifted to, when I heard somebody call out my name. It was Inder, having lunch with the Mumbai folks. He had the room keys, I wondered where would Vishwas be then?!?

Reached hotel, Rudra was waiting at the reception, Vishwas's bike had got towed. They couldnt reach Inder on call for the keys. We didnt like the room Inder had choosen. Couples of hotel's hunted in the same street, and I recommended my ex-hotel. Saw. Liked. Shifted. Freshened. Lunch alone. As they had already had it while waiting for Inder.

As I was munching, I thought of what I did today. I was happy to be alive and alone. I had completed the journey before anyone, Pune was still left with local sight-seeing, Mumbai had much to do.

Day 9: Rest day!

excellent narration aman..!! lovely pix..!!
am sick of this offices :P

Re the bike standing without the stand pic. OMG F***ing awesome!!! You are one crazy SOB!!! At first I admired your guts to do this solo and wondered how you did it. Now I have some vague notion of how difficult it must have been. Respect to you!!

(...continuing Day 8)

While I was having my food inside, one BRO guy took away my bike for a spin. I thought to myself: "be it! when you can make roads for us without asking us, you can sure take my bike without asking me!" They even had a dog family living with them, puppies playing around, satellite tv was installed, 3-4 beds in one bunker.

He said there is still 7-8kms of under-contruction road left ahead, after that its all tar. Happy to hear that, I started, some 100mts ahead, little uphill, slight curve, path was all sand. The rear tyre got stuck, I revved hard, the bike could now balance perfectly without a stand! Got down, clicked, went back for help. They were getting ready for their daily shift, with a truck, labourers with their tools in the back. The supervisor asked me to wait inside the truck. I sat with all gears on, thinking we would be leaving for the rescue in 3-5mins. It took them some 15-20mins to get fully loaded with all the supplies, I was getting worried as I had left the keys in the bike, but thinking "who? would take it where?" relieved me.





inside the truck view.... its speedo ended at 30km/hr! My bike was stuck just after that curve you see at the end.


I was out with a push, the truck following me at almost the same speed. Now there were paths of small stones, medium stones, big stones, and boulders! There was a incline over the boulders, where again I couldn't push my bike up as the rear wheel was getting stuck somewhere. The truck saw me struggling, honked, translating to "wait, we are coming to help you". Two men jumped from the truck, pushed me over, and I was good to go again! I had no fear as I knew they were following me for sure till the tar road comes.

And tar came!

Heaven vs. Hell


Rode rode rode. Even a signborad gave me hope, thinking humans atleast had visited this world to plant it.



Durbuk, the town where the two routes meet. Some civilization. Rode further ahead till Tangste (11am), stop for permit check. The security saw me coming form the "unusual" side, asked me:
Sec: Coming from Agam?
Me: Yes.
Sec: Road bana hai?
Me: Thoda hai.
Sec: Aur kitne hain?
Me: Bas mein.

Now these pune guys had already visited Pangong Tso couple of days back. I was on Inder's permit, and Inder's name already there in the entry register. I was showing hurry so that he doesn't recall this name or that page. Another 30kms to go till Pangong, and off I went.



(...will be continuing soon, office work time!)

Aman, I knew that you were crazy but looking at the photographs and roads (or lack there of) now I am reassured.