Padung-Pangong-Khardung
It's been a while since I updated here - sorry, have been
finishing the second instalment of the story for Bike
magazine.
Anyway, back to the plot... Come the morning after our
record ride, we duly showed up at 6.30 to head up the
mountain with the border police patrol and after an hour and
a half of very rough truck ride, we were with the bike. It was
only a couple of hundred yards from the road and upon
assessing the scene, P and I realised that we could have
extricated it ourselves if it weren't for our exhausted state.
The patrol helped us shift the Yamaha perhaps 20 yards and
from there I was able to ride the bike down to the road.
After photos with the ITBP guys, we headed back to
Pobrang, packed, and set off for the vast salt-water lake at
Pangong. Crystal clear at over 4000m, with huge snow-
flecked mountains reflecting in it, the Pangong Lake presents
an incredible vista. Only 17km of the lake (of about 45 in
total) are in Indian Ladakh, the rest in Chinese-nicked Tibet.
We loitered in the area for a while, enjoying riding the rough
tracks and fording the rivers that flowed into the lake, before
heading back for Leh at around 5pm. The 100 miles of mixed
tarmac/dirt road seemed very tame after the previous few
days and we blitzed the 100 miles back in around three
hours.
A couple of days later we rode up to Khardung La, the road
which has for so long been regarded as the world's highest.
On measuring it with the GPS, we actually found it to be a
metre lower than Chang La - the road on the way to
Pangong - and 217m lower than Marsimik La. Thus, we were
satisfied that our record stood.
Since then (11 days ago now) I've been hanging out in Leh,
recharging my batteries by drinking and smoking too much -
the only 'cultural' thing I've done here thus far is visit a
festival at a nearby Buddhist temple, which was very
colourful. Pankaj left for Bombay five days ago, so I'm
expecting that any time now I'll get notice that he is home
and safe. He returned via Srinagar in Kashmir, a route which
occasionally sees trouble from Kashmiri separatists.
Before P left we had made friends with a foursome of Indian
Bullet riders, up from Bombay to ride Khardung La. Roy,
Vinay, Rahul and Anil are all very different characters, funny
and hospitable. Thanks for the laughs, chaps.
The plan now is to head for the Zanskar Valley on Tuesday -
with such an evocative name, it has to be seen. Although
just the next major valley across from Ladakh, it is only
accessible from one end (the one furthest away), so I'll have
to ride to Kargil (half way to Srinagar) and drop down from
there. It will probably take a couple of days to get there and
I'll decide how long I spend in Zanskar as I find it. I expect
to be off the radar for a around a week, before backtracking
to Leh.
Damon
finishing the second instalment of the story for Bike
magazine.
Anyway, back to the plot... Come the morning after our
record ride, we duly showed up at 6.30 to head up the
mountain with the border police patrol and after an hour and
a half of very rough truck ride, we were with the bike. It was
only a couple of hundred yards from the road and upon
assessing the scene, P and I realised that we could have
extricated it ourselves if it weren't for our exhausted state.
The patrol helped us shift the Yamaha perhaps 20 yards and
from there I was able to ride the bike down to the road.
After photos with the ITBP guys, we headed back to
Pobrang, packed, and set off for the vast salt-water lake at
Pangong. Crystal clear at over 4000m, with huge snow-
flecked mountains reflecting in it, the Pangong Lake presents
an incredible vista. Only 17km of the lake (of about 45 in
total) are in Indian Ladakh, the rest in Chinese-nicked Tibet.
We loitered in the area for a while, enjoying riding the rough
tracks and fording the rivers that flowed into the lake, before
heading back for Leh at around 5pm. The 100 miles of mixed
tarmac/dirt road seemed very tame after the previous few
days and we blitzed the 100 miles back in around three
hours.
A couple of days later we rode up to Khardung La, the road
which has for so long been regarded as the world's highest.
On measuring it with the GPS, we actually found it to be a
metre lower than Chang La - the road on the way to
Pangong - and 217m lower than Marsimik La. Thus, we were
satisfied that our record stood.
Since then (11 days ago now) I've been hanging out in Leh,
recharging my batteries by drinking and smoking too much -
the only 'cultural' thing I've done here thus far is visit a
festival at a nearby Buddhist temple, which was very
colourful. Pankaj left for Bombay five days ago, so I'm
expecting that any time now I'll get notice that he is home
and safe. He returned via Srinagar in Kashmir, a route which
occasionally sees trouble from Kashmiri separatists.
Before P left we had made friends with a foursome of Indian
Bullet riders, up from Bombay to ride Khardung La. Roy,
Vinay, Rahul and Anil are all very different characters, funny
and hospitable. Thanks for the laughs, chaps.
The plan now is to head for the Zanskar Valley on Tuesday -
with such an evocative name, it has to be seen. Although
just the next major valley across from Ladakh, it is only
accessible from one end (the one furthest away), so I'll have
to ride to Kargil (half way to Srinagar) and drop down from
there. It will probably take a couple of days to get there and
I'll decide how long I spend in Zanskar as I find it. I expect
to be off the radar for a around a week, before backtracking
to Leh.
Damon
