The High Stuff
It was six days ago that I finally met up with P again, in the
small village of Solang, a little way above Manali in the Kullu
Valley. There we spent a couple of days, acclimatising to
some altitude while checking over the bikes, fitting new tyres
and buying extra petrol cans for the trip over the mountains
to Leh, in Ladakh.
The 485km Manali-Leh road is rightly famed for being one of
the most spectacular routes in the world, carving its way
through lofty valleys, most of it at over 4000m. The route is
a very popular challenge among more adventurous Enfield
Bullet riders, both Indian and foreign tourists. These Enfield
boys must leave at seven to reach the halfway mark at
Sarchu by sunset, but we farted around, drinking chai and
recovering from the party at our guesthouse the previous
night before setting off to cross the Rohtang La (La means
pass) at 11am.
Our Yamahas with their blend of road-biased comfort, long-
travel suspension and knobbly Metzeler tyres could have
been designed specifically for the job of tackling this route.
The surface varies between reasonably smooth, if lumpy,
tarmac and raw dirt, with a few river crossings thrown in.
On the ascents, all other vehicles were struggling just to
hold their speeds, but we could blitz past and up. In around
three hours we were at Keylong, where there is the last fuel
stop before Leh, 365km on.
The night was spent camping at Sarchu, in a flat river valley
at around 4000m. A small truckers' canteen provided food
and there was an 'English wine shop' from which I purchased
a bottle of Old Monk rum. Whether it was the booze or the
altitude that gave me a thumping headache the following
morning cannot be proven. It certainly goes against all
advice to drink when acclimatising, but at least I got a good
night's sleep.
The headache stayed with me the next day as we topped
5000m for the first time at Lachlung La and then went on to
the highest point of the route at Taglang La (marked on my
map as 5328m), where we drank tea with some army chaps.
One of them asked P why anybody in their right mind would
chose to come here. On cue it started to sleet.
The serious side of travelling so high was brought home
when an ambulance arrived on top of the pass to pick up a
doctor. In the back was an ashen-faced soldier suffering
from pulmonary oedema - bleeding on the lung. He was
being brought up the pass at a snail's pace from Pang,
1000m below, and it would be many hours down to Leh and
a hospital.
The high passes were very spectacular, with incredible wind-
carved spires and gullies, but it was the last part of the
route that was the most stunning. As the road turns along
the Indus Valley, variously-coloured mountains - green with
cooper ore, red with iron, beige with sand - tower over the
sparkling river, crops and flower fields that line the road.
And so here we are in Leh, altitude 3505m, set in the high
desert of the Ladakh Valley. This place owes more to Tibet
than India and has a rainfall average similar to the SaharaÉ
and it's now raining. Of course itÕs raining, because IÕm here.
A major worry is that there will be large amounts of snow
falling on the highest passes, though the cloud is low (here),
so the highest of places may still be above the precipitationÉ
We now need to get the various permissions ('inner line
permits') to travel north and east from here into the heavily
militarised border areas with Pakistan and China. At one
travel agent we have been told we can only enter for two
days on an overnighter with a local guide, at another that we
can get a seven-day pass - we'll see. And we need to
replace the chains and sprockets on the bikes - P's have
worn out, but both will benefit from the reduction in ratios
offered by the replacement gears we're carrying.
Our kit will also needs to be re-evaluated and we'll have to
leave some stuff behind to get our weight down. We expect
to be camping, so will need provisions. If the paperwork,
authorities, weather and health all hold up, then within ten
days we might well be able to do this bloody thing. Tonight
Kingfisher and Bombay mix methinks.
For the record, here are some altitude measurements we
took along the way in order to check the accuracy of our
instruments, comparing figures on our map, roadside
markers, a pressure-type altimeter and GPS:
Rohtang La - map: 3975m - marker: 3915m (13,050ft) -
altimeter: 3875m - GPS: 3990m.
Baralacha La - map: 4890m - marker: 4950m (16,500ft) -
altimeter: 4775m - GPS: 4933m.
Taglang La - map: 5328m - marker: 5275m (17,582ft) -
altimeter: 5205m - GPS: 5349m.
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