Our day 2 destination is sarchu - a popular stop over for travellers enroute to Leh. sarchu is famous for the tourist tents situated amidst huge mountains. sarchu itself is at 13953 ft altitude. These tents have everything from bed , attached bath! etc except Hot water. I will come to that soon!
Sarchu is 200+ Kms from Manali , compared to 600 kms we covered on day 1 it may look nothing but let me tell you if I rate the toughest route in entire leh trip probably this will take the cup (second would be chang la enroute to pangong - K- Top is probably third!!). we were planning to start early and have our breakfast on the way. The view outside my room was really mesmerizing with rivers flowing through the valleys which is still partly covered in fog.Breaking from this little beauty was bit painfull but with half mind we started our bikes.
The route looks some thing like this Manali – marhi, cross Rohtang pass (13050 ft), Enter Lahaul Valley, Pass by Koksar, Tandi - Keylong, cross Baralacha Pass (16020 ft), reach Sarchu (13953 ft). Rohtang is a popular tourist spot in manali (53 kms) cabs charge 1000 - 1500 to cover this distance! we were struck in the traffic soon due to a landslide. A Vehicle got struck and people were pushing it from behind , it goes up 2 feet and comes back and it was going like this for more than a half an hour. Soon wearig out our patience we decided to overtake the vehicles by the thin road left on their sides, the other side is deep valley ;). Managed to cross the traffic sooner than expected we started our up hill task i.e reaching rohtang. The road initially appeared to be broken and in few minutes completely disappeared. Soon we reached Rohtang La stopped at a eatery for Noodles / Bread Omlette. I haven't had such yummy omlettes (probably made in Yak ghee! no idea but it is very tasty). We are on the highest peak in manali , green every where and a group of sheeps on the hills. It was a nice scenery to watch. I will let the photos talk!
The roads after Rohtang became increasingly challenging, All I can remember is steep inclines / slush / gravels .. complete off road stuff. Some times it is plain fun to ride them through , some times bit scary and you push through with new found adrenaline rush. Overall It was Amazing if I can put that way. we stopped near a small water fall with streams flowing on the road. we had few hot corns sold by a guy sitting near by (First it was bit strange, with no traffic in near vicinity I was wondering for whom he was preparing these corns!!).
After few hours ride we stopped at tandi , the last petrol pump till Ladakh that is sweet 360 Kms away! Confident with my bike fuel efficiency I did n't stocked any additional petrol , just filled my tank.
Sarchu Tents
We crossed Baralacha Pass (16020 ft) in the evening , we stopped for few photo shoots. soon it was covered with clouds and becomming cold. we started descending my fingers were turning numb with cold waves thanks to my mesh glove (Don't go with out leather glove) I was doing few finger stretches while riding my bike to keep my fingers active. We managed to reach sarchu around 7:30 and spent another half an hour choosing our tent. It was extremely cold , 3 C inside tents and sub zero outside. After noticing the tents with attached bath and buckets filled with water (Guessing Hot!) I went straight to wash my face to feel little warm once i splashed the water in my face oooh ! everything turned numb , the water was biting cold. After looking at my reaction every one got alerted and didn't dare to go near by water. Later I learnt from staff that Hot water is a luxury here ( You get a max of half bucket hot water for two and you can do anything you want , wash your face / clean your a** depending on your priority ;) ) Luxury has a new meaning here. Many of us were hit by AMS due to the high altitude, with night turning cold outside and winds blowing like a haunted horn, It was a sleep less night for all of us!!
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