Complete links for Getting High, And How?!
6
Day 4 – 19 June
2012
I was still
undecided if I must crawl out of the cosy sleeping bag on waking up. I wished I
could lie there for some more time, but alas.
Been there, done
that tip: When you do not know where the toilet is, it makes a lot of sense to
get up early and start looking for it!
As I lazily got out
of my tent I saw that Gurudeep was already up. He was busy with his camera,
getting many pictures of the scenery around. As I went about looking for a
quiet spot, a horse who was grazing there thought it might be interesting to
follow me around for a bit.
The rest of the
guys were up as the sun made its way out from behind the tall mountains.
Breakfast was served at the dining tent. Once done with breakfast, we headed
back to our tents and changed into our riding gear. Akshay though, did not feel
very good in the morning, and he decided not to bike. Instead he would get a
ride in the backup jeep. Today’s destination was Sissu, some 52 kilometres away. We knew well that it would be all
downhill once we get to Rohtang, but Rohtang was still about 17 kilometres
away, and 620 metres higher than here.
We hopped on our
bikes and started our ride at about 0800. The wind was still playing havoc. I
had started the ride with the rain gear on, just to get some relief from the
wind. But as I got pedalling, I realised it was not practical. In just a bit, I
got out of the rain gear and dumped it in the backup jeep.
Like yesterday,
Chandramouly lead the pack, with Mizan closely behind him. I kept company with
Ramya, while Gurudeep rode alongside HT. The views were getting breathtaking as
we got higher. Soon, we were riding across glaciers. Some of these were dirtied
by mud and Ramya thought they resembled chocolate! Although I am not very fond
of chocolates, I felt like having some at that time!
Somewhere along the
way, I recognised the spot where UK, Shoib and I had stopped and celebrated
last year, thinking that the ordeal was over. Oh, how wrong we were! That
brought back many memories and I was smiling to myself. Thus far, the road
still had tarmac and it was hard for me to imagine one could ever fix it from
the mess that was last year. There was, however, one little patch where the
road looked all familiar to me! There was a land slide and vehicles were lined
up one behind another at either side. The Border Roads Organisation guys were
working overtime to clear it. With the road all soft and slushy, and marked by
dozer tracks, we had to get off our bikes and tug it along for about a hundred
odd metres.
Another thing that
was drastically different from my previous time here was the amount of snow
cover. Everything around was covered in snow. Looking at this, somehow, I
thought that the fear of global warming was all a farce!
Anyway, I felt the
ride to be a little more tiring than the day before. Maybe it was because of
the depleting oxygen level up here. To add to that my left knee was beginning
to hurt. I sprayed some pain-relief spray on to it and carried on.
About three hours
after we started from Marhi, without
really having a track of the distance we had covered, we wondered how much more
we had to go. That is when we realised we made it to our first pass – Rohtang La, at 3980 metres! This was the
highest I had ever gotten on a bike, and things were only going to get better!
After celebrating our conquest, we got back on our bikes.
Oddly, though a
board announced that we were at Rohtang
La, we found ourselves climbing again! Ah, that was a little disappointing,
because I was all set for riding downhill! But in just a bit, after riding
through walls of snow, we finally arrived at a spot from where we could see the
road sloped down. We regrouped and had a little safety briefing. After all,
this was still a highway, and not a track and we had to stay disciplined.
With that, we
rolled downhill. As always, Chandramouly started opening the distance as he
took the lead. I was still not too confident about the brakes on my bike and
had to keep the speed a lot lesser than what I would have preferred. Even then,
it was good to have the wind in my hair and plummet downhill. The road was
still all tarmac on this side too, which was starkly different from last year.
But the rain clouds that were beginning to form above ensured some familiarity remained. And sure enough, ten minutes into our descent, it started to rain.
At a road junction
ahead, Chandramouly had stopped, beside an odd shaped rock, taking cover from
the rain. The rain was pouring by now, and I joined him beside that rock. Soon
enough, the rest of the gang was here. There really was not enough space for
everyone to take cover, so we decided to ride along anyway. The road was
gradually beginning to deteriorate. There was quite a bit of slush and the mud
was too soft to be able to continue riding. We had to get off the bike and tug
it alongside for a little while. As bad as it looked, it still was way better
than what I had seen last year.
As we got lower,
the rain receded and the road got better. Apart from a brief stop at a
landslide being cleared, and another one to let a herd of sheep cross the road,
we did not really get delayed at any other place. That is until we came across
a fairly large stream flowing across the road. Being the first of many we were
to encounter, I wanted to take it safe and walked across it, with the bike, of
course. I could have been a little more sensible, and taken off my shoes and
socks before crossing, and put it back on after getting across. But, I did not
do that because I did not want to waste time. With the shoes now soaking wet, I
decided I would not repeat it next time!
While I tried to
get some water out of my socks by wringing it, Chandramouly and Mizan rode
ahead. The rest of the gang were yet to reach the spot. I wondered what was
taking them so much time getting downhill! Riding along, I saw Chandramouly and
Mizan had stopped beside a shanty. Well,
we had made it to Khoksar. It had
taken us about one and half hours from the top to get here – a ride distance of
about 21 kilometres, while losing 840 metres. Some half hour later, the rest of
the gang were here too.
All of us were
quite hungry by now and we decided to have lunch at the place. The sun was
shining bright by now, and it felt great basking in it. I knew we would be here
for some more time, so I took my shoes and socks off, and let my feet dry.
After about a good hour or so, it was time to get back on the road again. Sissu was still about 15 kilometres from
here.
A rattling old
bridge got us across the river, which would stay with us until we would get to Sissu. The road, more or less, remained
at the same elevation, which was a good thing because I was feeling very lazy
after lunch, and finding it hard to keep pace with the rest of the group. There
were a couple of stream crossings, but they were neither too deep, nor too
furious. Apart from this, it was smooth sailing all along – until I felt my
bike wobble as I picked up a little speed at a long sweeping down slope. On
inspection, I found the rear tyre was punctured.
Damn! I flagged
down Gurudeep as he arrived and we waited for the backup jeep. As we pulled out
the tools, we figured it would be easier to switch bikes (as Akshay was not
riding) than fix the puncture. And that is what we did. On changing the bike, I
instantly felt better. Perhaps it was
the deflated tyre that was slowing me down, and not the heavy lunch!
We made it to Sissu at about 1630. Our camp site for today
was located amidst the woods, and not too far from the river! Ah, it could not
have gotten any better than this! Our tents were already set up when we
arrived. We parked our bikes and moved our luggage to the tents. This time, we
also had a bath tent set up, which meant we guys could clean up a bit. The
girls were certainly more excited about this than the rest of us!
We walked about the
place a bit and settled beside the river for awhile. But as the cook was making
a nice snack for us, we soon got back in the dining tent. The whole ride today
was a lot more relaxed than it was yesterday. This meant that most of us had
quite a bit of energy left to celebrate! We whiled away our time cracking
jokes, and playing a round of Uno, until dinner arrived. A long day of cycling
meant each of us had a heavy dinner. I guessed if I kept eating as much every
day, I would come back home with a few extra kilos!
Once done with
dinner, we guys settled back to our tents fairly quickly. It was only about
2130 when I tucked myself into the sleeping bag. I wished I could keep the tent
open and look up at the starry sky for awhile. But with quite a few insects
crawling outside, it would not have been very wise. So, I zipped the tent close
and settled in. In no time, I fell asleep.
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