Finally in Leh!

Hi all,

 

I've finally made it to Leh!

 

Rewinding a bit to my last blog posting ... after making that posting and saying that I was going to store my bike and just travel around northern India, I went back to the hotel and stared at my bike - it stared back at me (we've been spedning too much time together), and we jointly decided -what the heck, let's go to Manali and see how far we can cycle to Leh!

 

So, the next day, a 10 hour bus ride that puts the word "semi" into "semi-delux", I got up to Manali, and started cycling the next morning.  Of course, the penalty for starting anew from Manali was an immediate pass - so started a 1400m climb up to Marrhi, a small town 600m below the pass.  The next day, in a strong wind, headed up the pass and crested it at 3998m.  From there, an easy downhill (mostly, on bad roads) to the village of Sissu.

 

From Sissu, it was a relatively easy cycle to Keylong, where I called Killaine (at about 3300m), and then from there climbed up to Jispa.  By the time I got to Jispa, I was pretty whipped (having done a 3rd consective day of over 1000m of climbing per day).  Nonetheless, I carried on the next day with American & Spanish cyclists towards "Zing Zing Bar" (named after the river feature, not after the nonexistant alchol serving place).  Reaching Zing Zing Bar at 4000m, I was beyond tired.  I turned back, and cycled back 10k down the road to Patseo at 3750m, and found a great campsite.

 

I took the next day off - reading and chatting with the (very few) locals.  By the next day I was feeling great, and continued up the road, past Zing Zing Bar, and camped a short distance higher at 4301m.  Had a great night (meaning - no altitude effects) and blasted up the road (in figurative terms, of course), covering 16km and 650m up to the Baralacha La pass at 4918m.  Spectacular views, and a great ride down through spectacular scenery to Sarchu at 4408m.

 

But, by this time, it was Wednesday, and I knew it was time to high tail it to Leh.  As soon as I pulled into Sarchu, a couple of jeeps pulled up - I asked if they had room for a cyclist - they did, and off we went on the spectacular, yet frequently terrifying, 8 hour jeep journey to Leh.  We crossed the "second highest motorable road in the world" at 5399m in the dark - that was one of the many terrifying parts - but the specacular parts were finally seeing the Morei plains - part of the Tibetan Changtang plateau that extends down into this corner of India.

 

Finally reached Leh late last night - fortunately, one hotel tout was still around, and I got a cheap yet comfortable room in a guest house (although I upgraded this morning!).  Spent this afternoon getting bike packing materials (carpet underlay and a potato sack in lieu of a bike box), and I'm about ready to head out for a big pizza! 

 

Guy

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