Complete links for Getting High, And How?!
8
Day 5 – 20 June
2012 | Part 2
The gravel track we
were on seemed like it would never end – it just went on and on. It had gotten
so hot by now that the heat was reflecting off the ground beneath us. The
gradient was still only gradual, but the heat was taxing us a heavily – slowing
us down. And the views, well, we thought it was getting monotonous and we were
not particularly interested in it any more.
Occasionally, we
came across a lone tree that offered a little shade from the scorching sun
above. We made sure we took a little break each time. For the rest of the time,
wherever possible, we swayed across the width of the road, choosing a path that
offered any respite from the sun. At times, we had to ride along for quite some
distance before we found any shade. And at times, the patch of shade was so little
that not more than two could get cover.
I am not really
sure how long it had been, but after what seemed like eternity the gravel
beneath us gave way to freshly laid tarmac – which was a huge relief. The sun,
though, was not relenting at all. So, we continued the trend of taking a break
every time we had any kind of shade.
Mizan and
Chandramouly though were still maintaining a good pace, and soon rode into the
horizon and out of sight. The rest of us – HT, Gurudeep, Akshay, Ramya and I,
lazily moved along, making many stops, and clicking even more photographs. It
was then we realised that we had covered only about 7 kilometres in about two
hours! So we decided to ride a little longer before we made another stop, to
have any chance of making it to Jispa
by sundown. And that decision helped. As the sun kept moving further west, it
hid itself behind the mountains. All of a sudden, the views seemed to get
better! The temperature slid down a few notches too, which was all turning out
quite well for us.
After an endless
climb, we finally started descending towards Jispa. We made one last stop to give away few candies to kids, we
ran into at one of the villages. We had been told that it was somewhat a
tradition around here for kids to stop travellers and ask for some goodies. I
was carrying a pocketful of candies, and the idea was to give away one or two
to each kid. But having almost reached our destination, and without really
having a prospect of meeting any more kids en route – I gave away the entire stock
to the four kids I met! The kids now had their palms full of candies, though
they had a very confused look painted on their faces! I was relieved that I
would not have to stop for any more kids along! Ha!
Anyhow, at about
1800, we finally rode into Jispa. The
place is so small that within a couple of minutes, we found our hotel All in
all, it had taken us over four hours to complete the last 23 kilometres, post
our stop at Keylong! Chandramouly and
Mizan were sitting with the crew, waiting for us to arrive. From the look on
their faces, we knew they were wondering what took us such a long time to make
it to the place. I guess, we had a closer interaction with the environment than
them!
Anyway, this was
the only time during the ride that we would be staying at a hotel, with access
to a bathroom. So, we had to make the most of it – meaning, we had to get a
shower! We parked our bikes, picked up our luggage and carried them to our
hotel rooms. I was quite impressed with the room – it had a clean bathroom and
electricity! Well, it also had wooden flooring, a warm bed, cable television
and other stuff, but I was not really interested in it! I doubt if any of us
were! Immediately, I pulled out a set of clean clothes out from my luggage and
hit the shower! The next time I would have this luxury was only once we get to Leh – six days later!
We guys spent a bit
of the evening relaxing in the balcony, browsing photographs on our cameras,
watching the sunset and just chatting. It had been three extraordinary days. the
best thing was, each of us were completing the ride, albeit a little slowly.
Our confidence of completing the ride was most certainly quite high!
We headed down to
our dining tent after sundown and settled down. Though we stayed at the hotel,
we still decided to cook our own food. Having gotten used to the brilliant
meals our cook prepared for us, all of us were certain that this was indeed the
best choice we could have made! Post dinner, we all got back to a room and
chatted some more. With easy access to electricity, Gurudeep copied the videos
from his chest-mounted camera to the computer, and we relived some of the
memories of the previous three days.
Well, it had been a
long day of cycling, and most of us were quite tired. Just as I decided to call
it a day and wished the rest of them goodnight, I overheard their plans of
smoking hash (which one of us was carrying)! I got back to my room and pushed
the alarm I had set, out by a full hour!
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