The Spectacle that is Laddakh ! - Gettin Leh'd ! (Day 3)

1. Day 3 - 13 June 2011 - ( Darcha - Karu 280 Kms)  It was  a chilly morning in Darcha. There was a strange and divine peace in the air, there were no birds chirping, no distant vehicles running and no other sound of any kind that could be heard. Only sounds were the flowing wind and water running at a distance. It was the first morning of its kind in both of our lives. Probably those were  the reasons why the monks and their religion chose to inhabitate these valleys. Nothing can make one feel closer to almighty than these conditions. As for me, the adrenaline was still pumping fresh from the previous day's ride and just as it was first light, I woke up, picked up a water bottle and went out to the fields for the morning business. I had never felt so cold before in my life so one can imagine my plight out there in the fields. And as my luck would have it, I slipped into a water stream while returning back and hurt my left shoulder. It was so cold that I hardly felt the pain at that moment but that pain was to appear soon. I woke up Abhinav who as usual was much more relaxed and so had a better sleep. By around 0700 hrs we were ready to head out on our way.  We had breakfast with the dhaba owners, thanked them for their wonderfull hospitality and started for the day.

 Few Things Never Change With the Landscape - Man's Best Friend, Wherever the Man Is

Farewell Pic With the Dabha Owners
 

Darcha Village

2. Few Kilometers ahead we found better roads, which was a welcome surprise for us. But suddenly I felt like I was loosing pressure on my rear tyre. We stopped at a lonely turn and examined it. It was punctured! The stock tyres on a R15 were soft track spec MRFs. So this was expected given the kind of roads we had to ride on. Luckily they were tubeless so I could travel as long as 60-70 kms before they flat out. That would definetly worsen the puncture but we did'nt have any other option. We were carrying a foot pump for emergencies like these.  We filled up the tyre once again and started riding. We were hoping to find some puncture repair shops in Sarchu, otherwise I could always do it myself in a less effective way. After travelling around 30 Kms we again started to ascend towards another pass. This one was Baralacha La. We had heard that its the most beautifull of the  four passes that come in ths route and we started to witness that right from base of the reverse slope. The levels of snow satarted to  increase around the road and for the first time in our lives we saw the huge ice walls on both sides making a wonderfull ice corridor  for us to ride through just like the one we saw in the song 'ye ishq haye' in movie 'Jab We Met'. It was a special experience to ride within them. We also encountered a frozen lake enroute and stopped to record it. Just then Abhinav noticed that the extra petrol we carried in the jericans on his bike was leaking and most of it had already drained out. With that our contingency plan for fuel shortage had gone for a six! Hoping that the contingency does'nt arrive, we poured the rest of what was left into his bike and moved ahead.  Few kms ahead, i saw a group of biker waving at me froma distance. I waived them bac k  and as i did that, they started to wave even harder ! Confused, I thought i should get closer. Just then My bike went into a skid  and started to slide ahead on the road. I followed my bike in the same way. When the sliding stopped, I realised that the group was not waving at me  but were signalling me to stop. There was a layer of ice of around 7-8 m formed on the road that caused every vehicle to slide across. Those biker had also suffered the same fate apparently. There was no damage done to the bike or me however. I picked up my bike smiling at the bikers standing there and looked for Abhinav behind. He was about to enter the Ice layer. Me and others tried shouting and waving at him but it was too late. Before he could undertsand anything his bike too went into the skid and  both the bike and Abhinav reached us sliding. We all had a laugh out loud moment and greeted each other. The group left soon and we adjusted the luggage on our bikes. As I tried starting my bike, it did'nt respond! I switched it off and on again and tried starting it but to no avail. I got shit scared! We looked around and there was no living soul seen anywhere. We gathered our senses first in some moments and started to diagnose the problem. Finally we came to a conclusion that probably the engine oil had run out of it usage value. I was carrying a spare engine oil bottle which we poured into the bike. And Voilah!! the bike started! Proud of our bike repairing talent we moved ahead. It was only after the trip that we realised how foolish we were. It was a common R15 issue that whenevr the bike fell on to a side, it would take some time after picking it up for its electronics or the fuel injection system to be ready agian. Ignorant of that  and wasting a full bottle of costly engine oil we continued. We started to come up against the cold streams crossing the roads. There were a number of these in that region and it proved a bit more difficult for my bike with its small 17 inch wheels to cross them that it was for the Bullet with bigger 19 inch wheels.

    

                                                        

                                                         

3. We left the stunning Baralacha la behind and descended to the Sarchu region which marked our entry into the Laddakh region of Jammu and Kashmir state. Sarchu has traditionally been the mid point and a resting place for the tourists and biker going through this route. It has a number of camps set up by tourism companies, some private and some govt funded, to provide for a nice rest and recoup centre with repair facilities and eating joints also setup. We stopped at one such small camp, had tea  and got my bike's puncture fixed. We also had a race against time and could not stop longer at any one place. Also, we were compelled to halt every now and then to admire the marvel of mother nature and quickly take pics and videos. By around 1500 hrs we crossed the amazing Gata loops which is a series of  21 hairpin bends to reach the third pass in the route, the Lachulung La which stood at a height of 5059mts ( 16,600 ft) . Descending from Lachulung La we reached Pang which was another rest and recoup center. We took a small lunch break and continued ahead. Up next, was the much anticipated More plains!! As we ascended from Pang, we could see the landscape changing once again. Suddenly, there was sand instead of usual soil around the road and the road started to disappear. When we reached the top, there was a vast mountain desert greeting us! No words could describe our amazement at that point. We were shocked at the creativity of mother nature! Road had vanished completly and we had to make our way through the sandy desert. It was around 40 Kms long flat desert with barren mountains on both sides. We did halt at a point and clicked few pictures. All of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain in my head and I started to feel giddy. It was the Acute Mountain Sickness catching up on me. It was surprising that among the two of us, I was the one who was supposed to be immune of this because of  my pahadi genes ! Anyways, may be it was because i let myself more exposed to cold than Abhinav. We had to take some rest there at More plains so that I could take some medicine. After resting for about half an hour, I felt a bit better and we continued ahead.

The Majectic More Plains

4. As we were about to exit More plains, we got to witness another spectacle. We saw a huge herd of mountain Yaks grazing on rare grass fields on that desert. It was another wnderfull experience to see these peacefull beasts surviving in these harsh conditions. Moving ahead we ascended towards our last pass of the day, the Tanglang La. Standing at a height of 5328 m (17438 ft), it is the second highest motarable pass in the world. We could not wait much at the pass as dusk was upon us. We descended Tanglang La and entered Upshi town. Upshi was the first sign of normal civilization that we found on this route and it indicated that we had succesfully negotiated the most dangerous part of our trip. Also, we were welcomed by the usual black tarmac road in Upshi. By the time we crossed upshi, it had got dark and Leh was still around 40 kms away. The route was not to be ridden at night as evrything shuts down in this region by 1900 hrs. We reached Karu after riding some distance after dark  and decided to halt there for the night. However, to our surprise, there were no hotels available in the town! We first managed to call our homes borrowing mobiles from a shopkeeper who was about to close down.  Then we tried finding some place to spend the night but we could'nt. The only option left now was to play the Army card. Karu had a huge Army establishment with a number of units. We went to the gates of one of the army units and explained the situation. Soon enough, we were resting in the coziest beds we could find in that whole region. Leh was still around 30 Kms away but we were satisfied with the amount of distance we covered that day despite of the hardships. It was a special feeling of victory that made both of us content and proud as well.

                                      

TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT BLOG                                                             PREVIOUS BLOG


ALSO READ:
1. TRAVELLER DEEPAK- THE OPENING.
2. A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO TRAVEL.