This was the toughest day of our entire trip. We slept on a clear night with brown surroundings, and woke up to a morning (at 0630) with everything buried under inches of snow; the road, the tents, the bikes and every other thing around us.
Everywhere we looked, every direction, as far as we could see, White was the colour to be seen. From Rohtang to Baralacha La everything was snowed out. Our initial plan was to get going at 0700 to cover up the time we’d lost on the Day 2, but with the snowy surrounding, it would be quite impossible even in our dreams. Again the thoughts of implementing secondary protocol started dancing in our heads. Encouraging words from the hotel staff (they kept trying to convince us that everything would clear out in a few hours) and subsequent movement of trucks and cabs kept our hopes alive. The roads were getting cleared up quite quickly with the sun out and the traffic movement. At 0830 we decided to give it a shot with considerably dried roads. Things went on fine for a few kms, but we were rising quickly and gaining altitude by the minute. The shades of the road were turning white soon after and we’d both lose our grip (almost simultaneously, at a speed of <10 kmph) while taking a turn 8 kms short of the pass. With both men down, oxygen in short supply, slippery snowed out road under our feet, heavily loaded bikes, we struggled for another 5 minutes before both the bikes could be picked up and parked on the shoulder safely away from the truckies who would keep going. 20 m ahead of us was a sharp incline and truckies (who went in slow) would have trouble getting sufficient grip. A couple of them ran out of power to keep them going so much so that one of them (heavily overloaded) started a downward slide, all wheels locked and 12 tonner sliding back…scary sight. As we ran for cover and returned to a safe distance, we decided to abort the attempt and backtrack to the tent. Dreaded secondary protocol was running again in our heads as we were greeted with surprise by the tent staff and the Mumbai fellows. The Sun out and shining brilliantly, the traffic started coming down from Baralacha La at 1030 hrs. Quick check on the road conditions “up there” from all the cabbies, we gave it another hour before we would set out again. It was a breeze now, as if the snow had never crept up on the road, we crossed Baralacha La with the minimum of effort.
Quite amazed at how the conditions change in a matter of hours, we got down.
Through more bad roads, we crossed Sarchu soon. Then came the roller coaster bouncy road to Gata Loops. Nakee La and Lachlung La were the second and third high altitude passes for the day. While hogging (Dal Chawal!) at Pang, we decided to stop for the night sometime before Tanglang La (we were still about 100 kms short) and cross it in the morning. We took the wrong trail on Moorey plains (instead of the dirt track, took the under construction road) and struggled through the gravel again. As we crept closer to Tanglang La, there were hardly any signs of civilization and it was getting dark. Unfortunately for us, we couldn’t find shelter and left with no other option, we had to carry on. Through a windy evening, fading light, horrendous road and frozen fingers, we crossed the Second Highest Motorable Road in the whole goddam World at 1845 hrs on October 3. Another hour before we’d check in to the first one of those tent-hotels that came into sight at Rumste. Luckily the roads were better now. As drained out as we were, we gave up on unloading our luggage. Fire was the first thing I asked for, the frozen hands and feet needed immediate attention. While Rohon buried himself under combination of multiple quilts and blankets, I sat around the stove for another 30 minutes. As drained out as we were today, neither of us had to energy, inspiration or the courage to fetch the OMR from the baggage tied up on the bikes 10m away, outside the tent. We knew it would be cold, we were told it was tough, roads wouldn’t favor us, but we still came till here, riding on our determination, trusting our luck, our will to get Leh’d and discover the forbidden land, but never in our wildest imagination did we ever think it was going to get as challenging as this. Thinking of reaching Leh (which was only about 60 kms away now) we slept through the night under the multiple layers. The tent-hotel staff sympathized with us and served us dinner (Maggi again!) in bed before we dozed off…not forgetting the Diamox and looking forward to reaching Leh the next morning.
PREVIOUS DAY
NEXT DAY
No comments:
Post a Comment