Riding the world: In leh, Enjoying Ladark

01/08/13

We managed to leave a bit after 6am and it started raining within 5km. We both thought about turning back but decided to carry on, luckily. About 5-10km further and it stopped. Was reasonably clear for the rest of the Rohtang pass. Lovely roads on the way up, there was a little mud and dirt towards the top. The main problem was we had just court up to a tour group some of whom where not doing so well on the mud and getting in the way.

Coming down the other side was interesting and dry lol. Lovely road along the valley floor to Keylong where we stopped as Sergie had not slept well last night. This should work in our favour though as it is about 3,000m here and tomorrow should be a 4,8?? pass and then spend the night at about 4,000.

Farming dirt in Kullu

Half way up Rohtang. People waiting for work in the back ground.

Rohtang

Coming down the other side

Glacier near Keylong

02/08/13

Left a bit later as we did not have too far to go. Got to the top of the pass and did not suffer too much from altitude sickness. Faith is not got much power up this high but is still making it and I am surprised at how good the roads are up here. The weather seems to get worse at about 3pm and we had not made it to Sarchu by that time, so had to ride into town in rain/hail. Well I use town in a lose way, it is all tents with a couple of tin shacks. But then it is also temporary.

I walked around for a little and was not suffering much from altitude sickness, Sergie was feeling it more and was taking aspirin for it. When I went to bed though I really started having trouble breathing. So after spending some time trying to adjust my breathing eough to make a difference but failing I decided to try the Viagra..... lol yes I got that from Top Gear when they did South America. Viagra has the same stuff in it as the altitude pills. There is a very annoying side effect to Viagra though, trying to sleep with a stiffy your have no intention of dealing with is hard lol, and so is peeing in a bottle.........

The only river crossing with a bridge, many stream crossings though

Lovely roads, and valleys, and mountains

More views

sweeping climbing roads

03/08/13

So after spending the night at 4,000m we headed out early, 6am, for Leh. What a lovely ride through the mountains. The road is in a pretty good state really so it is just a matter of coping with the altitude at the passes. Heading through the first two passes was easy enough. After Pang you come to a lovely valley with a mostly new road along it. If you think you could coupe with 4,800m for long enough dad it would be great to blokart down the valley. The valley floor has heaps of places that are use able, or you could go down the new road as there is not that much traffic on it.

When we came to the last pass, Taklang La, we stopped at the bottom for a break. Once we started up there was a cloud of dust near the top which had me a bit worried and sure enough when we got to about 1-2km from the top we came to a blocked road where they had just blown up some rocks. So we had to wait for about half an hour. This is at about 5,300m so waiting here was not so nice and meant we did not spend long at the top. The ride down the other side was easy enough with a lovely road most of the way to Leh. Nice to be back down to 3,500m.

Early morning

Over a smaller pass

Starting to get up there

And another one

Start of the plain

Lovely valley for blokarting, if only it wasn't at around 4,800m

Have to wait

At the top

Heading down

4/08/13 to 9/08/13

Have been for a ride most days, even got lucky and saw a destruction of a Mandala ceremony at one monastery. The weather here is mostly clear so have to be a bit careful of the sun and heat. The roads are in a very good state here as there are military bases everywhere.