16 July 2010

Bikers usually have an active image. Not us though. We were the last to leave the encampment. The road through Sarchu is fantastic. "Feel like God". Doley was not having that feeling despite being on an Avenger. He was having trouble with pickup. The root cause was one of his boots stuck between the wheel and mudguard. The boot was in tatters. They had to be disposed of. Doley was wearing mudboots for the rest of the journey.
We zoomed all the way to Gata Loops. Gyan was carrying the camera this time and even took a video. His mudguard had been cracking and dangling. He removed the front half completely. Looked like a proper dirt bike.
A big obstacle came before LachulungLa. Deep nullah and the flow was faster than we had faced before. During water crossings all of us were united. The lighter bikes used to cross first and then point out the correct path to the others. We made sure that all the motorcycles were safely across. Feet were sloshingly wet now. The cold water was also causing cramps. Thats another advantage of taking the Ladakh trip in September. Water crossings are easier. Of course, the weather is always unpredictable.
There were many more such crossings, all resulting in wet feet. NakeeLa was crossed with ease. This pass is always the ignored one. Even I had missed getting myself clicked during the last trip. This time, I didn't. When we reached LachulungLa, we only found Ajit to be the sole person waiting there. Everyone else was ahead. I lost my temper. What sort of group was I riding with? During my first trip, we had a sense of pride on reaching every pass. We used to have bike lineup pics and the riders pics. This one seemed to be going all wrong. I lost it. I started riding faster. Much faster than my usual pace. Bad thing to do when in that sort of terrain. I quickly overtook the others.
Nature is a patient teacher. It waits for you to straighten yourself out. If not, then it teaches you a lesson. I was taught one when following a trio of trucks. I started to overtake, saw the path ahead as non-passable and applied brakes. The newly installed disc brakes locked the front tyre over the gravel and I hit dirt(Fall #8). The KTM knee guards took the brunt of the fall. The headlamp was pushed inside. My hand was sprained. I looked around to see if anybody else saw the incident. No one. Funnily, this enraged me. I had been around to push others' bikes and pick them up. Now, when I hit bottom, no one was around to pick me up. Somehow, I managed to pick the Bullet up and get on the seat.
My mood remained foul when we reached Pang. Enroute we noticed a broken front mudguard, later claimed to be Dutta's. I did not even stop when the others were taking scenic photographs. I planned to give an earful to everyone once we reached Leh. At Pang, we had the staple Tibetan food, Thupka. Gyan and Dutta were still reeling under AMS' influence. They wanted to reach low altitudes as quickly as possible. Saying, they would wait at Rumtse, they parted early. We left half hour later.
Of all the places you see while traveling to Leh, I find More Plaines the best. A flat area at an altitude of 5000m, you cant see it anywhere else. Its the place where even the biggest of groups can ride side by side. The huge expanse makes you feel so small as to be insignificant. One turnoff was that the offroading section of the Plaines had become quite rough. It used to be smoother than most of the National Expressways. The huge tourist flow is destroying the beauty of the region.
We had to cross huge mudpits when we finally touched the circumventing road. The trick is to touch the road as late as possible. Now, all of us looked the same, dusty selves. Then Doley did the unimaginable. Till date, I've not seen or met anyone who would take nature's bigger call while traveling on this flat expanse. You might argue that Man has no control over these things, but you'll certainly not want to take it in a place with very high visibility. It was breezy. So after Doley was done, he was seen running around wrapping the loose tissue paper. That single incident made me cool my nerves.
We had barely moved on when Doley had another problem. This time, his bike. The rear tyre was flat(Puncture #2). Trouble was the spare tube was being carried by Dutta. None of us was experienced in changing the Avenger's fat tyre. It was a big challenge. Believe me when I say that it was harder to get out of the rim than those of Royal Enfields. Our inexperienced hands had also damaged some of the threads of the axle. We had a tough time putting the bike together again. Ajit had meanwhile succumbed to AMS at this point. We were still at an altitude greater than 15000 ft. Now, there was a slim chance that the mighty TanglangLa would be crossed in daylight. To me, its the toughest pass on the way to Leh. Also, the grandest.
The ascent began. The path ahead could be seen across 3 mountains winding its way at an angle of nearly 30 degrees. The milestone says only 22 kms, but it takes nearly two hours to cover that distance. Whenever you cross take a turn, you expect the top to come up next. Then you find there's another series of turns left, and so on. The path starts to get worse. Then finally, we see the Buddhist flags indicating the top of the pass. We had made it and there was still sunlight. The second highest pass of the world. The words on the signboard echoes your sentiment, "Unbelievable, isnt it?".
The way down is even more treacherous. All the melting snow had roughened the road to a new level. Dreadful shocker clunks were frequent. The promise of a better road near Rumtse kept us going. But there was a lot of hardwork involved to earn that reward. By now it had got dark. We caught up with another Delhi based group. One of their Ladakh Carriers had broken. They were tying it back together. Hard task, if you count the load on the carrier. They had shared some of the load with another motorcycle.
As soon as we switched on the headlights, I had a problem. My beam had been damaged by the fall. It was pointing straight up. I could not see the path ahead. There was still some distance between me and the second last rider, Rohit. I had difficulty bringing up enough courage to race my Bullet enough to catch up with him blindly. Now, I stuck with him following his taillight. Also noticed that my odometer had stopped rolling. No further readings could be recorded now.
Our troubles were still not over. The patch we had applied on Doley's rear tyre, was leaking air. It had to be pumped up frequently. Thankfully, the road ahead was now a clear and well laid one now that TanglangLa had been crossed. Our big mistake was that we did not stop at the puncture shop at Rumtse. Doley was very anxious on breaking records on one pumpful of air that he passed the shop without noticing. We got as far as 15 kms from Rumtse when the tyre just gave up. Rohit grew quite mad as we had planned to stop at Rumtse for tea. Its not advisable to deny tea to Rohit.
It was late at night and no mechanic could be found now. All the villages we passed were deserted. The nearest village was Meeru 5 kms ahead. It was debated how to get there. Some suggested riding on the flat tyre, some suggested pushing. Concerned about the rim, Doley chose the latter. At that time, any decision was wrong. We had been riding since morning. It was getting chilly. Doley simply was not in a position to push the bike for 5 kms. He did manage to complete 2 kms, then sat on it. Handling a punctured motorcycle is very good exercise for the forearms. Doley's strength increased thrice by the time he reached Meeru. And then he was tired exponentially. Meanwhile, we had sent Ajit ahead to look for a mechanic. Finding none, he was waiting at Upshi. We believed that Dutta and Gyan would be soundly sleeping in Leh.
We requested a resident to keep the bike safe for the night promising that we would fetch it in the morning. Now Doley got in pillion with Vihans for the next 10 kms to Upshi, a difficult task. Leh was 85kms away. The time was 11 pm. All of us were dead tired. My anger had faded away seeing that all of us were together in times of trouble. Thats what matters. There was only one open dhaba. The owner was a lady dragon. She even kept the numerous truck drivers behaved. We were just a group of bikers. The reason was the co-owner, a beautiful young woman whom Vihans fell in love with immediately. He devised a clever plan to get married in the hills. This would ensure a lifelong annual trip.
As we ate a harsh but tasty dinner, the lady gave us a scare. She said that she did not have any room for the night complaining that we had wasted the time by eating. We were stumped. It would take another hour to reach Leh. Although the roads were good, but we had had it by now. Moreover, we could reach Doley's bike easier if we stayed here rather than at Leh. The Dragonlady, however did manage to get us a room on the other side of the road. It was a cosy place. We left our luggage on the bikes itself. We were so tired that we could not even smell our stinking feet. We were asleep even before our heads hit the pillows.