On the glorious Wednesday morning of 12th September,2007 A.D. with Lama's hot tea to boot, we started for our next destination- Pang. Getting a "fresh lease of life" by the chilling riverside was another first in our otherwise mundane lives! We found out what the concept of "anywhere" toilet meant first-hand!
The next 37 k
ms to Sarchu presented us with a ripping road and none
was eager to ride lazily.After a while, we came across the first lake on our trip- a pristine fresh water lake by the name of Deepak Tal. The time was 08.40 hrs and the morning sun was just showering its glorious light on the mountain tops, only to be reflected in all its clarity in the still lake waters.No matter how much we fiddled with our cameras, none of the images were able to capture the raw splendour of the lake in the morning light. Inspite of us making the digicam settings to highest resolutions, choosing different modes, Sanjay and Amol trying every lens combination possible on thier very very expensive Canon EOS DSLR, we could at best hope to rake in just a bit of the essence of the panorama. A few breathless moments and some splendid shots later, we got onto our bikes and resumed the rip towards Sarchu. The roads were so splendid with such scenic views that one would not want the journey to end at all. I was thinking to myself "With roads like these, who needs a destination?".......and today, these same roads beckon me.......
We c
ame to Level 2 - Baralachla at around 10.20 hrs; Altitude :16500 ft above MSL. We HAD to stop for a while just to soak in the view that nature had presented us in such a panoramic grandeur. The ride after Baralachla was a steep downhill one and the descent thereafter presented us with another graphic wonder which we termed as the "Grand Canyon of India". There was this river snaking with the highway and leaving a deep and marvellous canyon in its wake.
n for sometime. Just about then, we could see some mist forming on what appeared to be our road ahead. The dhaba wallah told us that it was snow- just starting to fall. We felt just a little bit apprehensive about that but decided to press on anyway ."Jo hoga dekha jayega!" was the spirit of our dudes! 
oad ahead was just as scenic, if not more grand with breathtaking roads, hai
rpin bends, witty warning signs by the Border Roads Organisation and very pleasing names for bridges like "Whisky Bridge" and " Brandy Bridge"! We came across a stretch of 21 hairpin bends in what was called as "Gata loops" , which immediately swooshed us to an altitude of 15302 ft in just 21 bends!After the Gata Loops, we crossed another pass-level 3 Lachulunga at 16616 ft above MSL. 
Just after Lachulunga, we encountered slight snow fall. No matter what direction we turned our bikes to, snowflakes appeared to be coming headlong towards us. Our gloved hands worked double time in riding the bike and doubling up as our visor wipers. Some twenty minutes into the ride , the snow fall had become very hard and very risky to drive in. Visibility was exponentially reduced and we didnt want to take chances on the blind turns, not to mention there was the the very potent risk of traction loss and ending up in the ravines thousands of feet below! At a certain wide section of the road we found a hard top jeep parked and we immediately lined up our bikes behind that jeep. Out came the tarpaulins and the tent and we were about to pitch tent, when Amol struck up a conversation with the people in the jeep. The person in charge of the jeep happened to be one especially gem of a person - Mr. Grewal, who's a pilot for Indian Airlines. He was gracious enough to let us snuggle in to his jeep and provide us with some hot water for us to dip our hands into. He went out of his way to give us some galaxy bars to munch on in the meantime. From what we found out, he has been travelling on that route for 20 years in a row!!! He's made it an annual affair-sometimes on four wheels, sometimes on a motorcycle and sometimes on a bicycle. This time was on a bicycle and 2 other people were the logistics people in the jeep. 45 minutes in his jeep and the snow showed no signs of subsiding. Finally, when it began to clear up a bit, we decided to hit the road again. The mountain tops which had been naked just an hour ago were now covered with a sheet of fresh white snow-what a transformation! Our bikes were all under an inch of snow and we had to dust off the snow with bungee cords and the tarpaulins. Fortunately, the bikes started at a single self and thanking Mr. Grewal profusely, we bade goodbye to our mentor and hopped onto our steel horses once again.
Pang was just a 18 km drive from where we had halted due to the snow storm. But those 18 km proved to be never ending, the fresh snow having made a mess out of the otherwise unmetalled road. We were lucky to be doing 7-8 km/hr on our bikes, careful all the while not to let the extremely slippery,jutting rocks and the numerous deadly blind turns get the better of us. Half an hour into the drive and seeing only 2-3 km posts go by made the ride extremely frustating. After what seemed to be a never-ending ordeal, we finally made it to Pang-our destined halt for the day. The time was 18.15 hrs We had taken an hour to cross that 18 km stretch.
There were quite a few tented dhabas that provided acco too for 30 bucks/head. We checked one "Khangri-La" dhaba and dumped our stuff inside. My tripmeter read 914km, a faint smile appearing on my face knowing that the 1k km mark wasnt too far at all now!
2 comments:
the details are amazing - i will re return to take in some more :)
for now im scheming secret plans to the himalayas.
thanks :-)
himalayas? not bad...not bad at all!
WAY TO GO!
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