10/08/13 to 02/09/13
Ok yes I have been
very slack on the log and have not written anything for a long time.
So a quick overview of the rides.
Went out to Lamayuru
and spent the night. Not sure who named the moonscape area, it is not
how I picture the moon. Mine vision of it is more like the Arazona
desert lol... Nice easy roads with only a low pass, 4,103m on the way
to Mulbeck. Had a discussion with the hotel man for checking out at
12.30 as I had told him I would the night before when looking at the
room and that morning.
Stopped at Magnetic
hill on one of the times I went past it. It is a nice optical
illusion. Where your car appears to roll up hill to a line. It is
really just the piece of road before and after makes you think it is
a small down hill piece of road instead of just a very slight uphill
piece with 2 steeper uphill pieces at each end.
After meeting some
people who where riding to Pangong I decided to join them. Chang La
is a high pass and as with all of the big ones in the area has a
reasonable landslide area which suffers every year, so it is ruff. The
rest of the road is very good out to the lake until the lake itself.
We left a bit too late and so the snow melt had made a lot of water
flows over the road one crossing was half a meter deep on the way in.
and a trickle on the way out. My first view of the end of the lake was
“wow do you really need words with a view like that?”, this is
why I did the last blog post as just photos.
Then came Nubra
valley with some other people and my first passenger. Faith amazingly
made it up Khardung La, 5,602m (some say this is wrong and not the
highest motor able road....) Same as Chang La unsurprisingly the top
has lots of land slide so the road is a bit ruff for some kilometers.
We stayed in Disket the
first night but got there on dark so did not see much of town. Headed
out to Turtuk next day. Not a big ride but great Valley and warmer
the Leh at night (at the moment we where there lol) Spent 2 nights in
Turtuk so had time to walk around and go to the Pakistan border.
Then headed back
along the valley and up the branch Valley to Panamix. The ride back
was a bit of a worry for me as I had lost over a liter of my petrol
supply. Left the hotel earlier than the others intending to ride
slowly and conserve petrol. Blow the main fuse about 3km from the
hotel lol. Then after blowing the spare I found the battery was empty
again...So found some wire to make a fuse with and Pamela went back
to the hotel to get boiled water. She found the others where not
there, but got some water. So with power again headed out to the turn
off out to Disket.
Decided the others must have gone to the border
and so carried on up the mountain nice and slowly. Made it to under
20km from the top before flicking to reserve so was sure I would make
it to the top. Could see bad clouds coming in over the mountains so
headed for the top, had the chance to get some petrol off a group
going the other way but was sure I would make it so did not take
any....
About 200m from the top the bike died suddenly.... So I
assumed the petrol was ok I started checking the fuse and battery. As
there was petrol in the filter and I could not find anything wrong
with the fuse/battery I decided we might as well push. Now you must
remember this is at around 5,600m above sea level where there is less
than 40% air (according the marathon flyers around town, yes some
people do a marathon up here even an ultra one that goes over
Khardung La.) I started pushing the bike, with the help of my 35kg
passenger, up the last part. First push we made it about 6 steps, to
which Pamela said is that it and I said “puff puff yes puff puff at
the puff puff moment.” Then the snows started lol. We managed to
push the bike about 100m. When I noticed the others coming so waited
for some help. We tried pushing for a bit with me and Geoff but
still decided it would be easier to just drain some petrol from one
of the other bikes. Syphoning petrol is a prick at that level.
Well then the roll
down the other side was fun. Made it into the petrol station just as
it was getting dark, and of course with the power issues the
headlight had blown. So rode the last part into town with no light
and the bike not running so well...
Not a major problem
getting some things fixed. The power problem was just detach one of
the 2 power feed wires... grrr(that coursed my battery to dump it's
acid on the chain 3 times). Speedo could not be fixed, chain and
sprockets and new tyres was going to have to wait till Manali as I
would get the bigger front sprocket put on ready for the flatter
India, and also road tyres.
02/09/13
Headed out on my own
for Manali, having been on the road before I did not stop more than
necessary to cool the bike. The speedo died completely about 80km in
and the chain was making bad noises so I kept it well oiled. Lol
isn't it funny how when it is about to break you look after it better
than when it is new...
Had a hell of a head wind so was a bit worried
about petrol, I had also lost another liter or two from my container
(yes it was a new container they are just useless). I made it as far
as Zing Zing bar which is about 4,300m for the night.
Before Tanglang La
Somewhere before Zing Zing Bar
03/09/13
Woke to Ice on the
seat and as I only had INR700 left I rolled down the hill before
having petrol problems at the bottom. I played with a couple of
things but not much luck. Then a Enfield rider came past and said a
mechanic would be along with a group in a couple of hours. I kept
playing even checked the push rods. Decided to push it up a bit and
see if there was more down hill coming. A guy from a nearby bridge
construction help for the last bit and said there was only about 2km
more of uphill before a mechanic. So rolled down and decided to try
starting her again and she worked... But there was a tappet noise....
Made it down to the check point and the bike group with the mechanic
was there. I asked him to have a look and he revved the shit out of
her and said she will make it but it's stuffed buy a new one. Another
Enfield mechanic who knows nothing. She stopped about 4km later and I
found the tappet problem, mmm I had not tightened the lock nut
properly. So the push rod had come off completely, probably would
have bent and broken if it had not been revved the shit out of just
before.... Luckily I just had to take the petrol tank off and open the
top cover to get it back on.
So going alright again
I headed through Keylong to spend the last of my money on petrol.
Although as there was a lot of rolling down to here I still managed
to keep 300 for some late breakfast (15:00). After going the wrong
way on North side of Rohtang I got blocked by road construction.
Realising this was a new piece of road and the old piece was still
open I went back and up the right part. The poor truck that went
in front of me had to wait till they finished though as the bulldozer
had rolled rocks down onto the road out and he could not get through.
I put the wet
weathers on because of the clouds coming over I assumed it was
raining on the other side. But just low cloud lol well, well over
4000m cloud. A lovely run down the other side soon got warm enough to
get the wet weathers off and I even got to enjoy it a bit as I had
enough petrol to make it into Manali.
Ice on the seat
Sun on the Mountains
Where the problems began
04/09/13 to 07/09/13
Went down to Kullu to
get some money and then took the bike to the shop....INR11,000 later
and I now have new front and back tyres, new chain and sprockets, new
front fork springs, new seals, new clutch chain? And major service.
Today internet day and
off soon to Daramsala...
Enjoy your life
