[mr.sinha]

<DAY 5 continued>

Reaching Killing Sarai. Once a notorious river crossing is now a cool bridge.




Some more tar on the road after Killing Sarai, and more broken patches. Road work is going on and the entire road will be fixed soon.




The shallow river canyons leading to Sarchu.






Sarchu tourist camps. This place is not Sarchu yet - still inside Himachal.




A shadow of my current self.




Finally entering J&K. Stopped briefly at the Sarchu checkpost to get my name entered for the records.




This was going to be my stay for the night. As I mentioned earlier, I had lost my appetite and was mainly surviving on liquid diet since last 2 days, so a bowl of soup was dinner.



Dusk was settling in the small settlement which is such a useful stop for slower travelers like me on this road.




Tomorrow was going to be what turned out the toughest day of my trip.


<END OF DAY 5>

[mr.sinha]

Originally Posted by Cool_leo_guy

Sinha sir,
You rock. I am also going through a midlife crisis at 42+ yrs of age. The body and mind both are out of shape and the will to change was slowly getting eroded with the passage of time. But, and this is a big but, I came across this awe inspiring account of your epic adventure and suddenly I find the spark rekindled and the flame burning bright. Thank you for such inspiration. Now I think I will finally get a bit control over the hitherto wayward mind and body. Thanks again.

Go for it my friend. Now is the time to do it. Extremely glad that I could inspire you.

Originally Posted by gypsygenes

Hi,

Loved reading your trip report. Writing in to say that I stayed in just the same room at Tashi with the same bedsheets and the lovely family who asked me similar questions about my ride etc. Perhaps, they were already conditioned by your responses, so could understand when I had no response to why was I on a cycle and why was I riding alone.

Thank you for writing this.

Did you also cycle the Manali-Leh Road? Would love to hear about your experience too.
Yes, there is no definite answer to this madness I think. We do it just because we want to do it.

Originally Posted by vjstanka

Wow. You are a man of your word Mr.Sinha. I didn't realize that you had such an amazing plan when you said "I have some serious plans in 2017" in my travelogue.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ml#post4102855

Can't wait to read rest of your story.

Thanks. Your trip was also fantastic.
Yes, I had started the planning in my mind quite a while ago and been preparing for it physically and mentally.

[hothatchaway]

Hello Mr Sinha,
I think I saw you cycling (to work possibly?) on the EM bypass road today around 9! Are you training for another trip?

[mr.sinha]

Originally Posted by hothatchaway

Hello Mr Sinha,
I think I saw you cycling (to work possibly?) on the EM bypass road today around 9! Are you training for another trip?

Yes, I was riding on the 2nd. Just practice runs, yes, to keep myself trained for another potential trip in 2018. Don't yet know where though.

[mr.sinha]

DAY 6: 5-AUG-2017. Sarchu [14,300 ft] - Gata loops [13,700-15,300 ft] - Nakee la [15,700 ft] - Whisky Nullah [15,000 ft]. 50 kms.

This day was easily the toughest of my 9 days out there, including the day I crossed Tanglang La later. Let me explain why.

Normally on the other days, when I had to cross a mountain pass, the pass was mostly within 15-20 kms of where I had rested for the night. However for today, there was a ride of about 30 kms from Sarchu to reach the beginning of Gata Loops, through high and low roads. By the time you reach the beginning of Gata Loops, you are already tired. Then you start climbing the Gata Loops to ascend around 1500-1600 feet through 21 hairpins. When you reach the top of the loops, you are totally exhausted. Then the fun begins, which is the real climb to the top of the mountain pass, Nakee La, which is another 12 odd kms with a vertical ascent of 600-700 ft, though somehow it feels much much more. Normally in such extreme rides, your brain is the driving factor while the body forcefully cooperates. But here, even your brain wants to quit.

This stretch is halfway on the MLH, so there is no option to quit and turn back. This is also easily the remotest stretch of the MLH, where you will find nothing, not even a single shack to take a break between Sarchu and Whisky Nullah. In my opinion, this is also the most inhospitable stretch of the whole journey, especially if you are traveling alone. And it gets pretty lonely here too, with much less number of vehicles and the few ones somehow hurrying to reach civilization on either end. The look and feel of the terrain and the mountains around you somehow adds up to a spooky feeling.

Anyway, after some usual tea & biscuits, set out from Sarchu.




The Tsarap river and the wind have created some beautiful shallow canyons and rock formations along the road.








A little bridge with a peculiar name comes along.






Pang 66 kms away. That would be for tomorrow. Couldn't help over-clicking the canyon formations, which was also providing frequent breath-catching stops.









Here comes the Brandy bridge.



Saw some BRO activity soon after.




Then comes the Whisky bridge. Green one is the current one. Red one is the new one being constructed. Might as well. See the condition of the current bridge made up of shifting steel plates on the top which sometimes have to be manually adjusted and put back in place after a heavy vehicle passes over.





And finally, reached the beginning of the famous Gata Loops.

Folks, if you remember, in my first post of this thread, while describing my swimming regimen, I had mentioned that I used to do 21 laps of the pool at one go. Why 21? It was mostly psychological. Now you know why. :-)

Call me crazy, but it helps me during the preparatory phase to think about an upcoming tough journey all the time and associate some element of it in my daily routine. So, this was the mental association, though climbing 21 hairpins was a far, far cry from doing 21 laps in the pool. But at least mentally, I had dreamed about this moment for the past several months, and now I was prepared to tackle it.

All systems go from the brain, body was laughing "are you mad" at the brain. Brain wins.







<To be continued as a have I reached 30 photo limit for single post>

[mr.sinha]

<DAY 6 continued>

I had mentally give myself 10 minutes per loop including breaks. The initial loops were easy and shorter and I could do them in lesser time. But it soon started getting steeper and longer.



This is one of the shortcuts I tried to take. The shortcuts are much more steeper, so after climbing up most of it, I was disappointed to find that there was a deep ditch separating the shortcut from the road above, so I had to turn back. I think they recently built these ditches to prevent SUVs from using the shortcuts, since some of these are quite dangerous and you need to engage 4WD and drive skillfully.




Some traffic on the upper part of the loops which disappeared soon after. Still some way to go to reach the top.



I think they call this place the shrine of water baba or bottle baba, and people religiously throw away half-filled water bottles adding increasingly to the environmental mess being created here. I didn't, but sought the baba's blessings anyway.




Finally reached the top of the loops and rested. I was really exhausted by that time. And there was still another 12 odd kms to go to reach Nakee La top.



Now started probably the remotest stretch of my journey. The rains were holding till then, but as my luck would have it, it started raining right over where I was riding. In the distance, it was clear weather. While I was riding, panting and cursing the rain god simultaneously, he sent an icing on the cake in the form of hail. For about 20 minutes, medium sized hails showered down. There was nowhere to stand out of the rain by the side of the mountain, and my helmet was the only thing protecting my head from the battering. Another good reason why people should wear a helmet while riding a bike: anti-hail protection.

Progress was miserably slow and I was hardly doing 3.5 kms an hour. I was beyond exhaustion now. The traffic had completely dried up, and for some moments, it did feel quite scary. Something on this stretch of road really gets to you - can't place a finger, but somehow it feels you are in really hostile territory. In the rain, I rode on, carefully keeping an eye on the cliff side for any sign of loose rock rolling down. Since my gloves had already become wet, I was riding bare-handed and my fingers were freezing off.

But eventually all bad things do come to an end, and the sky cleared up after a couple of hours. Saw some wild life on the mountain top. Tanglang La was only another 100 kms from here.









And finally, the top.



I think you can pretty much see my state of complete exhaustion on my face here.



Now compare this to the photo from 3 years ago in 2014 October when I was driving by and had stopped for a photo-op. Only the shoes and sunglasses are the same on this trip.



Finally after about 15 minutes of rest, as I rode down the mountain desperately wanting to reach Whisky Nullah, saw this abandoned truck in the distance. Same truck, same position as in adc's cycling travelogue from almost 5 years ago. I guess BRO just didn't bother to remove it.



And here comes Whisky Nullah, a teeny-weeny settlement of a clutch of tents, a sight for sore eyes, but what a life-saver for travelers. If this was not there, the next settlement would have been Pang about 30 kms away, and you'd need to climb Lachung La at 16.6k feet in the dark, and ride through the remote canyons of Pang, assuming you didn't collapse before that. Or pitch your own tent somewhere.

I rode and just stopped in front of the first tent I reached, the first one on the right.






The place nestled among the high mountains was really rugged and beautiful. And so peaceful and silent.

My appetite was still betraying me, so after a quick dinner of chicken soup, it was time to call it a really tiring day.


<END OF DAY 6>

[Hells Bells]

Super travelogue and clearly the one where I have ended up reading every single word (often the travelogues become very heavy reading with the details!). Such trips give you a great perspective once you are back at home with the humdrum of life.

[alfafan]

Sir - This is a brilliant write-up and unbelievable courage and skill from your end. Please do continue this thread as we are glued to hear and see the complete journey

[behaln]

Man, in awe of your grit and determination, eagerly awaiting your rest of the trip details.

[mr.sinha]

DAY 7: 6-AUG-2017. Whisky Nullah - Lachulung La - Pang - Morey Plains - Debring. 85 kms.

After an extremely tiring day yesterday, I had a refreshing sleep and was ready to start by 7 am in the morning. As per my initial itinerary, I was supposed to go till Pang only today, but since I reached Pang by 1 pm, after a small break, I decided to continue to try to reach the next day's target of Debring as well. Thus I saved one more day here. I knew that once I reached the Morey Plains, I could knock off the miles quickly enough to make Debring before it got dark.

Today's challenge was Lachulung La at 16,800 ft, which was an approximate vertical climb of 1,800 ft from Whisky Nullah about 15 odd kms away, then downhill with some minor ups and downs till Pang. After Pang, there is another 8 kms of vertical climb before the downhill to Morey Plains.

Leaving Whisky Nullah.



A convoy of trucks approaches W.N.



Climbing up. The tar road is gone now, and the climb is pretty steep. Reached the top in about 3 hrs. 4 down, 1 more La to go - the ultimate one.





A brief rest before entering the canyons of Pang. From this point, the landscape changes dramatically, and you go through one of the most beautiful stretches on the MLH. Wind and water erosion over millions of years have truly carved the rocks into incredible shapes. This stretch also feels very remote and totally cut-off from civilization except for the occasional oil-tankers which rumble by carrying precious cargo to Leh.














The famous natural arch of Pang can be seen now.






The beautiful landscape continues. Some of the rock formations look like cupolas on temples.








Approaching Pang.






(Reached 30 photo limit for this post. To be continued.)

[mr.sinha]

<DAY 7 contd.>

Reached Pang around 1 pm. Until this moment, I was still thinking of staying back at Pang and spend the rest of the day here. But after having a quick maggi lunch, I decided to push ahead. The next 8 kms was steep uphill from Pang until Morey Plains.

Climbing up from Pang. The army camp at Pang can be seen. This camp has facilities to provide medical, including AMS treatment for stricken travelers.











And finally descending down to the Morey Plains. This is an amazing table-land at 16,000 ft surrounded by higher peaks in the distance. 50 kms to go till Debring.








The Morey Plains is not exactly plain though. There are some slight uphill sections as well, which you don't realize when traveling in a motorized vehicle, but on a bicycle, you feel the terrain exactly. Nevertheless I was making good speed and could make Debring by evening.

Cycling one-handed on the Morey Plains while holding the phone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRCuVygjun8

A herd of sheep crossing the Manali-Leh Highway on the Morey Plains.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkERp3efYxA

The setting sun was creating a chiaroscuric effect on the adjacent hills.







Finally, reached Debring as dusk was settling in. Settled for a tent run by this young man and his mother. They were so hospitable and amazed at what I was doing, and encouraged me in every possible way.







Dinner was a light maggi soup.



Drifted off to sleep thinking about Tanglang La and my family. It had been over 4 days since I had last talked to them. I was hoping to be able to call them tomorrow evening after crossing Tanglang La and reaching Upshi where I would get BSNL signal again.


<END OF DAY 7>

[Bomi]

On the internet, I had come across a video of drivers carting provisions to remote villages in Siberia, driving across frozen rivers. I was in awe of their spirit, because if the ice were to crack, the truck would plunge in to water below, leading to certain death. Reading your log, I had a similar feeling. Hats off, Sir. Just one question - didn't you feel lonely during the hours you were on the road?

[Locomotive]

Stunning travelogue sir. This is surely one of the toughest cycling trip there is. 2017 was a landmark year for me as even I managed to cycle this route (in fact we also ran into Satyen Das just before Patseo. He even spent the night at our camp and treated us to his amazing experiences). But i was a part of a well managed group. We had support vehicles and crew. All we had to do was to cycle, the rest was all taken care off.

In fact we used to joke that on this road we were the highest in the pecking order, but second only to the solo cyclists, the likes of you..

Take a bow sir..

[mr.sinha]

Originally Posted by Locomotive

Stunning travelogue sir. This is surely one of the toughest cycling trip there is. 2017 was a landmark year for me as even I managed to cycle this route (in fact we also ran into Satyen Das just before Patseo. He even spent the night at our camp and treated us to his amazing experiences). But i was a part of a well managed group. We had support vehicles and crew. All we had to do was to cycle, the rest was all taken care off.

In fact we used to joke that on this road we were the highest in the pecking order, but second only to the solo cyclists, the likes of you..

Take a bow sir..

You should take a bow too, Locomotive. With support or not, you still had to cycle the whole stretch over 5 high Himalayan passes. No one can take that away from you. Awesome.


I have been very busy and lazy and I still haven't finished writing the last two days of my travelogue yet over the past year.

However, another cycle trip coming up shortly. Will come back from that trip hopefully in good health, and then complete this travelogue and the new one together.

[Jignesh]

Originally Posted by mr.sinha

I have been very busy and lazy and I still haven't finished writing the last two days of my travelogue yet over the past year.
However, another cycle trip coming up shortly. Will come back from that trip hopefully in good health, and then complete this travelogue and the new one together.

Mr. Sinha, While I was waiting for you complete this travelogue, I see you are scheduled on another cycling trip.

Wish you all the very best, ofcourse you will return successful and in best health. We will wait for you to complete both the travelogues and some motivation to get out of our chairs.

Thanks,