Destination - Leh - Route : Sarchu – Leh (255 Kms). through Nakeela & Lachlangla Pass 16,617 ft, Pang, enroute More Plains (Biggest and Highest Plateau on Earth on Stretch of 42 Kms), Tanglang La Pass (2nd Highest Motorable Road in the World at A Height of 17,585ft) & reaching Upshi, from here the road follows the Indus River, passing villages with there terraced Fields and neat-Whitewashed houses. On a way one notice the ruins have an ancient Fort or palace or the distant glimpse of gompa on a hill.
After the sleepless night myslef and ravi decided to start little late, others started off. I saw a thin crust of ice surrounded in my bike. The one thing i forgot to mention in my earlier blog was my bike battery died even before I started for the trip! Due to tight schedule at office I couldn't replace it and kind of managing ever since with the bit energy left with bike after long rides. Meaning mostly I had to manage the dangerous curves with out any horn!. After seeing ice I was really worried wether it will start. Kicking the bike at high altitude is 100 times more tough due to limited oxygen. After bit of cranking it started , thanking almighty I left it run idle for few minutes to warm up. We finally started after good two hours , riding slowly enjoying the mystic beauty of the hills around us. An eternal silence with just our bikes sound! it was like almost medidating in the Bike!
After bit of photo stops and slow riding we stopped at a eatery before Nakeela for breakfast. We met a fellow biker - American who was worst hit by AMS.He was in a bad shape with chopped lips (cold waves) and AMS. We gave him couple of diamox.The eatery owner asked us if we can accompany him till tanglang la. We agreed and asked our new friend to join us. we rode together till lachlang la and had to bid him farewell at the army camp as he was finding it hard to ride with AMS. we asked him to descend and stay for another day to get acclamatize. Since we had to catch up with other riders we soon started riding bit fast (A good 70 - 80 Kms in hills) soon we are in More plains.
More Plains! If you like off road this is Heaven on earth! I do , so I thoroughly enjoyed riding here.It is like riding in desert , no roads ( the one existing is broken and work is going on ). You need to ride in sand with virtually no land mark for direction. This was the best part of my ride! After a fourty minutes or so mind blowing ride we hit the roads to Tang lang La. We learnt we are just 20 mins behind our other riders , myself and ravi decided to ride separately and agreed to meet at a eatery after tanglang la .
BRO Maintains the entire stretch of road from manali to Leh, I saw few patch work going on in the tanlang la route due to recent land slides. I got stuck at one of them , the jawans didn't allowed me to move ahead as large stones were rolling on the roads! if you got hit by one, thats it! I thought i lost Ravi , once the route cleared I sped up and started riding pretty fast! Soon I reached the eatery we decided to meet. No sign of ravi, I was bit confused. I was pretty sure he was ahead of me before the land slide and thought he might have left after waiting for few minutes. Cursing him I started the bike and with out having lunch I moved ahead.
Rushing to catch up with others I missed reporting to the last army check post enroute. (later I learned none of us except ravi reported there). Soon I met other riders in Karu and noticed Ravi was missing. All of them were thinking that we are riding to gether and none of them saw him from morning, all thoughts started sweeping in as it was a pretty narrow road and no diversion in between!
Though I was dead tired borrowed some petrol from others and started my Bike towards tanglang la again to find Ravi. I was n't sure how far I need to ride and what i am going to find!! fortunately with in few kms I saw ravi comming towards me. Relieved to see him alive and kicking we both gave gali each other and realized our mistakes. Apparently he stopped for a photo shoot while descending Tang lang la and I crossed him with out noticing when overtaking a army truck!!. He also got worried when he didn't saw our name in the army post! Well we are all relieved that this ended on a good note.
We had mutton momo's at a eatery in karu and reached Leh around 5 p.m. Nitin found us a Nice Hotel (Kaal). We all had a decent bath after 2 days and with a good dinner we finished our third day Ride.
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