Woke up today after a fair night's sleep and got ready for the big riding day. 250km (155 mile) ride over 3 passes, two of those over 5000m.
We did the usual pack up and go process (though no shower this morning, just wore the same clothes I slept in), had a quick breakfast and then after the simple briefing we hit the road on this cold morning.
The road was in better condition, but still had plenty of construction areas where it would get rough. We soon reached the start of the climb up to the first pass (Nakeela at 4738m/15,547 feet) which starts with the 21 switchbacks of the Gata Loops. This climb was pretty intense.
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| View back down the Gata Loops |
Once done with the loops, the road continued up till we reached the pass. We all did the quick stop for a photo and then continued on.
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| View from Nakeela Pass |
At this point the road comes down a bit, but it was still cold. The next pass was soon after the first, this one is Lachulungla at 5064m/16,616 feet.
Road was the now expected twists and climbs to get up, but was at least a good surface for much of it. We reached the pass and again did the obligatory photos and also quick bathroom break.
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| View from Lachulungla Pass |
We then headed back down the other side and toward the Moray Plains which is a mostly level plateau that runs between the two high passes on this section of the route.
The route down was going well, but at one point I came around a curve and the oncoming truck I saw took up the entire roadway and I did not notice the road also narrowed till last second. I had to hit the brakes, but was unable to stop, so tried to run the rocky edge of the road beside the truck. Would have made it except for a large boulder in my path. I tried to avoid that, but ended up hitting it hard with the crash bar of the bike and also my left knee. That put the bike off balance and soon the wheel slipped and the bike went down hard. (I was probably still moving about 5-10 mph).
The sweep rider who was behind me helped me get bike up again. My knee was now a bit sore, but was able to move it and walk without issue, so got back on the bike to continue down to the bottom where we would stop for lunch in Pang. (He also kicked the crash bar back into place, so guess the metal is not that strong!)
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| Lunch stop in Pang |
Down off the pass we started on the Moray Plains, the long flat plateau. This location is well known for riders who leave the main highway and blast across the flat expanse of the open land. And that is what about half our group did, heading down a dirt track that veered off the road and went straight on for miles. I briefly thought about it, but since my leg was still sore, decided to stay on the paved road where it would be a bit more comfortable, and the road was in really nice shape for most of the distance here as well.
We were actually able to get up to some decent speeds for once, which then made things a bit colder. We eventually started going back up and toward the last pass for this days ride. This would be Taglangla. It really started to cool off as we went up and even had a few snow flakes blowing around. Once at the top of the pass (5358m/17,582 feet) we did the usual photos and then started back down as we did not want to spend too much time at this altitude.
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| View from Taglangla Pass |
Eventually we came down to the lower altitudes and it started to warm up a good amount. This was a nice ride along the river valleys as we headed toward Leh. We eventually all grouped back up again at a security checkpoint and then headed into the more developed areas with a huge increase in traffic and such until we rode into central Leh where things became insane!
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| The river valley route to Leh |
After about 30 minutes of that traffic insanity we arrived at our hotel, The Oasis Villa.
We then had to completely remove all gear from the bikes. Seems there is some kind of regulation (aka monopoly) that prohibits rented bikes from outside Ladakh from riding in this region, except into Leh.
So the bikes we have been using will be loaded on a truck and driven back to Manali and we will get new bikes from a local rental company for our explorations of Ladakh.
Once all gear was removed we were assigned our rooms. I again found myself with Dick as my room mate. After getting into room, just relaxed a bit from the long riding day. Went back out to get my camp bag when truck arrived and then took my first full shower in 10 days!
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| Hotel Oasis Villa |
Afterwards I headed down to the lobby to see if I could get a Wi-Fi signal. I then found out they had a laundry service, so put all my clothes except what I was wearing into a bag and dropped them off to get cleaned. Hopefully will do a better job than my quick sink cleanings have done.
I then joined the rest of the group for snacks in the dining area and had some fried vegetables and the usual cups of Masala tea (which I have grown quite fond of).
During the discussions one of the guys said that he had seen a pizza place not far away while he was exploring on foot after we arrived. Guess there is a large marketplace just down the road that has a large selection of shops and eateries.
Word spread and most of us decided that we were tired of Indian food and a change of cuisine would be a good idea. The tour leader cancelled the dinner preparations at the hotel and most of us went out to find the pizza place (accepting that we would be paying for this meal instead of getting the food at the hotel which would have been included in our costs, but most of us were perfectly fine with that).
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| Main Market of Leh |
Turns out there were a few pizza places, so we picked one that was up on the 3rd floor of the building and had a nice view (Leh View Restaurant). Was a really nice place and the food was amazingly good. I ordered a 10-12 inch pizza and a coke for less than $10 tip included. (Was not sure how much to tip, so not sure if I left a good or bad tip, I gave the guy 20 Indian Rupee as that was the cash I had left, was nearly out of local currency at this point).
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| Leh View Restaurant (Pizza) |
After dinner I came back to the hotel to get the journal written up for today and get caught up on internet stuff since the Wi-Fi was decent (when it worked, was offline often too). I also checked and switched out the batteries that I had put on chargers before leaving in the hopes of getting everything topped up before we started to ride again.
Sadly though we will be losing 2 of the riders from the group. They are both tired and ready to go home. Joe (from Canada) has been away for a long time as he was on a 2 week hiking trip in Nepal a week prior to starting this motorbike trip and Clay (from the US) who had done what he set out to do and I heard may have injured himself a bit, so was just going to stop while ahead?
In the morning we will have to drop off our passports so they can go take care of the bike rentals and then we will have the day free to do whatever, there will be no riding. I did manage to book my flight from Leh back to Delhi while at dinner, so will depart Leh on the 22nd around noon and get back into Delhi around 2:00 p.m. I will spend part of tomorrow looking for a hotel to stay in and book the 2 nights I will need for the 22nd and 23rd.
My flight home is very late on the 24th, or even early on the 25th (it keeps changing every few days), so will get to spend most of the 24th at the airport. I had scheduled to get my PCR test at the airport during this time, but just heard that in the last week the requirement to have a negative test to enter the USA was dropped. I may just go ahead and do the test anyway just to be safe, unless I can get confirmation on that requirement.
Other than that I will probably just hang around the hotel other then a walk over for lunch to the marketplace. Not sure if anyone else has any specific plans, so might change my mind, see how things go in the morning.
Thinking it is time to head to bed soon, so that will conclude todays musings. Good Night.
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| Ride Route (244km/152 miles) |
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