Woke up to the alarm at 7:00 a.m. Had been up twice during the night to visit the toilet and was not sleeping well. The cold and some very noisy farm animals next door did not help much (barking dogs and very vocal donkey).
So I felt like crap this morning. Body ached from the hard bed (was not bad if I stayed on my back, but if I rolled onto side then my arms were numbed and sore), had a mild headache (mostly from neck pain, but the altitude may have been poking me a bit now) and of course a small war going on in my gut.
Took a few moments to wash face to wake up, and had to skip the shower as there were no towels, probably no hot water (I never checked) and did not want to bother trying to get towels since we were going to leave soon enough anyway.
Packed up my stuff and got everything ready to ride again. Took the camp bag down to the support truck and then went up to restaurant to have breakfast. Thankfully there is always toast available and today even had eggs with vegetables. Maybe my stomach will accept this food.
Once finished eating, grabbed remaining bags from the room and went down to load up the bike. I then visited the toilet one last time, put on the rest of the riding gear and went down to warm up the engine on the bike since it was still quite cold out.
We were soon off on another 150km (93 mile) day. Got out of Nako village and then picked up the same highway which started taking us up higher right away. We then started a slow decent back towards the river far below. This was a rough, narrow and dusty route with a lot of road construction and heavy truck traffic.
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| Along the highway. |
Finally reached some nicer roads with pavement which took us up to the next checkpoint where we reached our closest point to the Chinese border which was only about 3 miles over the nearby ridges. At this point we actually were inside the contested border region that India controls now, but China claims is theirs.
Once past this checkpoint the road improved until we reached a turn off to go up another valley to visit the Gue Mummy Lama Temple.
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| Gue Temple |
The temple was cool looking, but a mostly modern construction I think. It also had a small shrine next door to it that holds the Sanga Tanzin mummy. This mummy of a Buddhist monk was discovered in 1981 in the ruins of several stupa nearby that had been destroyed in a 1975 earthquake as they were digging for a new police bunker in the area. A scientific team dated the mummy in 2002 via carbon-14 method and determined a date of 1430 for the burial. The mummy appears to be a natural mummification as well with no chemical processes used.
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| Sanga Tanzin |
Arrival at Gue Temple (0:58)
I climbed a set of steps built in behind the temple to reach the 2nd level balcony. Then went up a very sketchy looking metal spiral stair to reach the upper level balcony. The views were a bit nicer up there. The temple itself was not open to the public.
Once we finished our visit to the temple we rode back down the same valley and back to the main highway. The highway was still in good condition along here so we could cruise along at a nice pace. We also moved back into regions that were firmly in India and no longer in contested lands. We reached our next stop, the Tabo monastery which sits just off the highway in a small village.
The grounds of the monastery contained a few stupa and several newer constructed buildings, but the original 1000+ year old building was still there and in use. The monastery was founded in 996 and is the oldest continuously functioning Buddhist building in India. The exterior is not that fancy, simple construction similar to the adobe style of the American southwest.
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| Tabo Monastery courtyard. |
The interior contains some amazing examples of early Buddhist art in amazing story telling panels. Unfortunately no photography was allowed inside to preserve the very fragile paintings. There are not even lights inside, only a few small sky lights letting in some light and you use small flashlights to view the wall paintings along the outer wall of the main temple space.
Once done seeing the monastery I walked back to where we parked the bikes to check on the gear and then went over to the restaurant across the road where we would be having lunch. I just had rice and naan as my stomach was still not happy and the rest of the food just looked like a recipe for discomfort (though some of it sure smelled good).
Once done with lunch I retrieved my roll of toilet paper I had liberated from the hotel and used the restaurant facilities. Then as I stood up to flush, I knocked the roll (roughly half a roll) into a water filled bucket next to the toilet (used to catch water from spigot used for those non-paper using guests). Well that was a huge damn waste.
Still have the partial roll in my camp bag on the truck, but will need to try finding more at some point, though might be difficult as there are few places to go shopping in these remote parts.
We got back on the bikes for the 2.5 hour ride to our camp site for the night. We stayed on the highway again for about half that ride, then turned off onto a backroad that quickly became a rough and dusty track heading back into another remote valley. This was the entrance to Pin Valley National Park and we would be camping just outside the park in the small village of Mud.
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| Road into Pin Valley. |
Did not make as many photo stops along here, but still had to stop a few times to fix the straps on the camera gear bag on back of the bike due to the really rough ride. I had them attached in such a way to not risk losing the bag, but it could still fall over and hang off the side of the bike which could quickly unbalance things and not end well for me or the bike.
Had quite a few traction issues on this road with the wheels getting loose on me and the bike getting wobbly. Some were a bit scary. Also had some close calls with oncoming cars due to the loose dirt along side of road. One time I pulled off to the side on what appeared to be solid ground, but was a very soft spot of dirt and the front wheel jerked to the side and the bike started to tip. I managed to stop it from going over, but nearly laid it on its side before I did that.
I will say that overall, I am happy with my riding abilities so far on this trip. I had been a bit concerned as I had never ridden off pavement before this trip. I have been riding for only 4 years now and only had a bit over 6,400km (4,000 miles) under my belt, all of that on city streets and a few really good highways (though with much higher speeds). I also had not ridden more than 3-4 hours at a time prior to this and now I was doing 5-8 hour days on the bike with only short rest stops now and then during the day. But I adjusted quickly to the road conditions (narrow road ways, rough pavement, rough dirt roads, crazy traffic, completely unsigned and sudden lane closures and construction usually on the far side of a blind curve, and do not forget having to drive on the left side of the road instead of the right as we do back home!) I also picked up the off pavement skills pretty well, but can tell I still lack ability here and do not trust the bike or myself and ride slower on the dirt (which to be honest is probably a smart thing to do anyway). Hopefully will continue to improve and learn as I go (many of the other riders are very experienced, so watching some of what they do has helped me quite a bit.)
We reached the camp site in a large valley and were camped right next to a fast flowing river. We were camped at 3730m (12,237 feet) tonight. As I was again the last person to arrive at camp it was completely setup when I got in. I ended up with the last empty tent on the far side of the camp, but again was on my own at least.
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| My room tonight. |
I got bags into tent and changed out of riding gear. It was still pretty warm out, but the wind was blowing quite hard, hopefully it will calm down when the sun goes down. I figured it would probably get a bit cold tonight, so I went ahead and put on the long underwear tonight as well.
I hung my still damp shirts and other items on a line from the tent to get the wind drying effect for them (they were close to being dry, but figured the wind should finish the job). I put the wet socks out on a rock to get wind, sun and the heat of the rock to dry them as they were probably the most damp items. I then took the few items I had been wearing that day down to the river and washed them and hung them, hoping the wind would help dry them faster as well (will leave them out overnight to be sure).
Everything was dry about an hour later, even the stuff I just washed was only damp now. Went over to the dining tent to have some hot Masala tea and ate a samosa as a snack before dinner. Heard while in the dining tent that one of the riders had a bit of a crash today when he had to take to the ditch to avoid a small boulder rolling off the hill in front of him. Guess he went down a good embankment and then laid the bike over. But no damage to him or the bike. Some others stopped and they got bike up and it rode up the embankment and on towards camp. Not sure on what road this occurred, but crazy stuff.
I next walked around taking photos of this incredible valley and the river. Made a few videos and even walked through the camp with the GoPro 360.
I then went back to tent to do the daily bag organization and get batteries on the charger packs. I then pulled out the water proof case for the GoPro Hero 9 and installed the camera into it. It was absolutely caked in dust by time we got to camp, and figured that was not a good thing, so hopefully this will help keep it cleaner as the trip progresses and since we will see increased chances of rain as we get higher, probably a good idea as well for that.
They are refueling the bikes tonight from fuel brought with us on the truck as we do not see any fuel stops for awhile yet. I took some time to catch up the journal while waiting for dinner.
After finishing the journal I went over to the pit toilet to use it and then walked around to keep blood flowing as it was starting to cool off. Getting to the toilet involved crossing some uneven terrain and climbing over a small stone wall about a foot high, so that will be fun if it is needed in the middle of the night!
I took some more photos, including some shots of the moon rising over the mountain peaks around us, then I laid down to rest a bit. They came around all the tents to let us know dinner was ready, so wandered over to the dining tent.
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| Moonrise over the peaks. |
Today was a pleasant surprise as we were not having Indian food for once. They had cooked what I would call Italian food (pasta and such with western style sauces), also had a really good tomato soup and some mashed potatoes. For first time in days I had a good full meal. They then went further and brought us a pizza to pass around, so we all got a slice (they actually were making a 2nd one too, as the oven was not very large). For desert we had some kind of donut ball in a thick sugary syrup.
We then sat around talking for a bit till we all started to wander back to our tents. Took a pain pill as I was hurting a bit from the rough ride today, caught up the journal and then decided to head to bed about 9:00 p.m. and thankfully the wind had calmed down and it was actually a bit warmer now too.
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| Ride Route (142km/88 miles) |
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