Day 9: Into the Wild - It was a cold Summer morning The sun is shining. Which is very good.
Its almost 9am, we are ready for breakfast. The smell of omelets fills the air.
The Observatories Tata TL 4x4 has gone through the morning ritual of starting.
Normally, lots of circus is needed, esp when night temperatures go to -5, like now, but with the sun out, the temperature is a good 5 degrees atleast.
So she starts with lot of smoke and drama, but she starts.
No hot water or fire needed.
To be on the safe side, I also decide to start the white elephant.
Where she stands, there is shade. Only the front part is exposed to sun. Hence the thermometer shows a crisp 3 degree C. Within minutes it rises to 6 as sun warms the front.
I give 3 doses of glow plugs, and then crank her up.
She starts stutters around 500rpm, and dies.
Repeat. Same result.
Repeat same result.
I open the bonnet, and feel the hand plunger bulb. Its gone soft. I am not getting diesel from the tank.
Do some hand plunging, and again start her. She starts, and then the engine dies again.
Put some warm water on filter and pipes, again try. Same result, hand primer bulb is going soft.
The pump cannot get diesel in tank.
I touch my hands to the tank area, and its cold, freezing cold.
Why did the TL start? Well she is fully in the sun. However, the poor white elephant has got a cold.
So there is nothing for us to do here. Breakfast is waiting. We shift her to neutral, and push her into sunlight, so that fuel tank gets full doze from the blinding warm sun. I shudder to think what would have happened if it was cloudy!
Anyways, we have our breakfast, and 15 minutes later I say a prayer, and crank her up.
First go she starts!
The idle is erratic and engine is almost sputtering to shutdown, but slowly slowly the rpm needle begins it climb from the 500rpm idle.
Within minutes she is idling erratically around 1K rpm.
I leave her on to settle down as we get our luggage, and complete the formalities.
The exhaust belchs out black unburnt fuel as the engine struggles to heat up.
10 minutes later the idle has settled down to a smooth winter clatter note, and we know we are all set. By now enough hot fuel via the fuel return line has gone to the tank, and engine is smooth now.
I reckon, its time to start of.
So on the cold winter morning of June 11 2010, at 9:45am, with the odo reading 47452kms, we start our journey into the unknown!
The last leg of our "loop" had begun. By not going back via the normal Nyoma road, we have made our adventure a loop. But we still do not know, whether we will need to come back, or will be do the "changthang loop".
We were going Into the wild.
We were going where one truck goes probably once every 4-5 days carrying supplies to the remote border villages.
We were going, where are there no chang Pas, no villages, just wild asses and thin air.
We were leaving.. on a Prayer
Last edited by tsk1979 : 23rd June 2010 at 12:05.
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