longhaulers

Here we are in Leh, Ladakh. I was waiting to do a blog post when we got back to Delhi, but that’s still two weeks away and it’s better to do these things when the memories are still fresh (even if the satellite internet here is 4x expensive as Delhi)…but already the clarity of the last 3 weeks is fading as we’ve slugged around Leh-town the last 6 days. So, settle in this is a longish post….

To start, it’s pretty safe to say that the last 1,000km of mountain cycling has been some of the hardest and craziest we’ve ever done…but also the most amazing. We started in the cold-wetness of Shimla as the monsoon had already hit. The hills around Shimla were very pacific-northwest-ish with hemlock and other conifers, but our second day of cycling took us over a discreet pass at Narkanda and dropped us in an hour long descent to 950 meters into the drier Sutlej Valley. For the next 7 days we pushed and climbed further and further into the rainshadow of the Himalayas on the Hindustan-Tibet Highway, up the Kinnaur Valley and into the Trans-Himalayan Spiti Valley…which by precipitation, or lack of, is a high desert. no monsoon for us! The road gradually grew smaller as we progressed into the hills, it remained sealed maybe 75% of the time (which is pretty good compared to what we would get into later…).  But still there were a number of places that the road became too gnar to cycle and we had to walk sections. Most notably where rivers cross the road and one section where the road was taken out by a landslide. No vehicles were able to get through on the narrow ledge but that is the beauty of riding a bicycle!

Spiti is amazing. Culturally it is Tibet (we passed near enough to the Tibet border we needed an Inner Line Permit). There are ancient monasteries built into rock faces and little green oaseas where farming occurs as it has for ages. We visited the 1000 year old gompa at Tabo, every inch of its interior is covered in ancient murals. there are caves above the town that monks used to hang out and meditate in. Also in Tabo we met a local guy, Tashi Wangyal, with a bicycle that he bought off a tourist who was over the thought of cycling in the Himalayas. Tashi had ridden this bike all over the Himalayas..India, Nepal, Bhutan, etc. But he didn’t have any of the tools to keep his cycle tuned up. so we gave it a once over and traded him a pair of brake pads for a smokey colored wooden bowl. he was stoked!

The Upper Spiti Valley grows several kilometers wide around the braided riverbed. We spent several days here enjoying the valley and some some of the towns above it, including Kibber which is claimed to be the highest permanently inhabited village in the world at 13,800ft. When we set out the Spiti was the only destination we had in mind, but we cycled it faster than we had planned so we decided to push on into Ladakh. As we exited the Spiti valley over the 15,000ft Kunzum La pass the pavement ended as we dropped down 19 hairpin turns and into some of the roughest, gnarliest, terrain we’ve been on. The road was filled with fist sized rocks that were begging to punch you off your ride. In fact Sonja got thrown 3 times that day, once into a stream! but as the terrain only permitted us to go at a max of maybe 10km/hour or less, they were dainty falls and she suffered no injury. At times the fist-rocks became so bad it was faster to just walk our bikes. There were countless streams, rivers, and giant puddles that crossed the road. We’d try and power through most of them but we usually bogged down or hit a submerged rock and have to walk through it. At first were careful and slow, but as they day wore on and it started to grow dusk we just went for it…it was like downhill mountain biking with panniers.

 the 60 km day took us 12 hours to ride, but as tough as it was it was by far the best day of cycling I’ve had on this trip. The valley (Lahaul) was towered over by massively pointed grey granite peaks, sculpted by glaciers -some of which were still quite massive and hanging around in the rocky crags above us. The river was flooding from spring snowmelt and was roaring below us. And best of all traffic was near to none. In fact the whole trip had been characterised by open and quiet roads (one day in spiti we cycled 70km and counted only 12 cars and 3 tractors). We met more goats on this road than cars. Several times we met herders with goats and sheep probably 300 head, as they passed us their hooves would erase any evidence that combustion engines occasionaly roam these roads. There was several times during the day where I thought to myself “what the shit am I doing here on a bicycle, this is crazy!” ..But I think this feeling also contributes to why I loved that day so much.

For the amount of abuse our trusty velocipedes suffered, they took it like champs.. only suffering a mass of junk in the drivetrain, some loose bolts, a torn handlebar bag, and two broken water bottle cages (incidentaly we lost 4 waterbottles due to punctures from the vibrations and sonj lost one of her shoes). The next day the road was in only slightly better nik. We were dropping in elevation and it was getter hotter, our bikes were grinding, sqeaking, and making other painful noises so after cycling 50 km we decided to catch a ride in the back of a diesel soaked truck for the last 20km to Keylong.

A rest day in Keylong had us giving some love to our bikes and our aching bones and filthy bodies. This was more or less the start of the Manali-Leh Highway for us. This is a world famous mountain highway for cycle tourers. As we saw only one couple who looked like they weren’t going to make it in the Spiti, we saw a total of 7 cyclists on this highway… half of which looked like they weren’t going to make it. One American guy had so much gear and gadgets he said he’d already pushed his bike a good 60miles. The good news is that the road improved greatly as this is a stategic highway for the military. Bad news was more traffic, including convoys of 50 or so military trucks. It seems that they run less efficiently at high altitudes as well, spewing thick black exaust all over you…egh… Our first day of cycling we got soaked in a rain and only went 40 km to checkpost/truckstop town of Darcha, where we slept in a Dhaba (small cafe) with a bunch of truckers who wouldn’t stop staring at us. The next day it looked like rain again and were were admittedly a bit apprehensious of the road ahead…so when the driver of a tanker truck asked us if we wanted a ride to Leh for free..we decided to take him up on it and sus it out on the way. We had been warned in South India about crazy, fried chicken eating, whiskey drinking North Indian truck drivers, but he seemed reasonable enough. A largish, turbaned teddy-bear of a truck driver who laughed a lot and proclaimed “you enjoy, me happy, we are family!!! hahahah” giving me a big bear hug.

But about 10 km into it he came close to running another truck off the road…we said nothing, but a few minutes of silence passed before he said, “do you have problem?” we said ‘no, no problem’, but as we continued he started to ask us this every couple of minutes and stopping every 10km to get chai or food. It soon became apparent that our friend was crazy or drunk…I’m going with a bit of both. By the time he kissed my hand and invited both of us to sit on the drivers seat with him we were totally over it, so when he spontaneously pulled over and fell asleep we snuck out, pulled our bikes off the top and took off towards the 16,000meter Barolachola pass. We had only gone 30km with the crazy bastard, but it took 3 hours. We only had 15km of uphill to the pass and we wanted to bust it out before the drunken teddybear woke up. Unfortunately it started raining..then it started snowing. By the time we got to the top of the pass we were totally frozen, luckily there was a small Shiva shrine at the top which we huddled in, with the sleeping bag out, waiting for the nastiness to reside. after a half hour or so of huddling and running in place we made a break for it and dropped into the valley below, 10 k into it the rain stopped and we were again entering the rainshadow, and what a relief it was! we sailed down the beautiful valley with a nice tailwind slowly warming up as we went. we pulled into Sarchu at 3pm…it wasn’t until 6pm that we saw our truck driver friend drive past.

The next two days were massive days… From Sarchu we climbed up the 21 harpin bends of the Gata loops and crossed two passes over 16,400ft for a solid 80km day. The next day was a 135km day as we crossed the amazing Morey Plains and climbed up the supposed second highest motorable pass in the world, Taglangla at 17,500ft. The last few Km of this pass were a brutal slog, we were totally winded having to rest every 3km or so. But we made it! and our reward on the other side was a 60km descent which took us into the Indus Valley of Ladakh. The following day we cruised into Leh and have been recouperating since. So the Manali-Leh highway turned out to be pretty full on, much more than our bucolic cruise through Spiti. We were going ultralight with no tent or camping gear, so we had to pull big days over gnar terrain between the makeshift camps..which consisted of dorm tents with no toilets. There was little water and food along the way so we’d have to stock up for the days ride…but i also think our lightness allowed us to do much bigger days than otherwise possible.

 So, difficult..but also the best tour we’ve been on. all in all we’ve cycled 3,400 or so km in India (2,100miles). I wanted to write this down as our cycle computer just crapped out. Ladakh is amazing, we are enjoying it thoughouly..even though it is peak tourist season here and Leh’s filled with clean, nice smelling Europeans on 3 week holiday. As for us we only have 2weeks left and it’s back to AMERICA! We’re contemplating our return to Delhi..we could continue in a nice loop through Srinagar, but there seems to be a bit of muslim/hindu religious tension that’s caused some rioting, deaths, and curfews, etc. We’ll see how the situation goes and alternatively go back the way we came through Manali.

I’ll probably get one more post in before we leave Delhi and then maybe some pics of the ride. thanks for reading!!!

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