Day 4, 13th October: We were assigned to block the Rama Gate exit, approx 20 kilometers from Kaza, (pictures above). The rally was to make two passes on this route so we were pretty much stationed at this location throughout the day.
Our Nutan kerosene stove came real handy and we cooked Noodles and made tea and coffee on the road. Also got some great pictures of the rally vehicles as they passed us. Both the adventure and X-Treme version ran on this route and we got to see all the participants this time around.
This was an easy day since we had traveled only about 20 kilometers today. We got some much needed rest although we were on the road for the full day. We returned to Kaza towards evening and checked into our Hotel.
An interesting thing that happened at Kaza, when we started out early morning, I turned on the windshield washer to clean the windshield and the moment the water touched the glass it froze. So i was stuck with a frozen windshield till the Sun came up.
Also at Kaza I changed the Air Filter for the Safari, I had taken one with me and it proved to be real life saver. The old air filter was clogged with dust. No amount of cleaning could get it rid of the dust and I decided to dump it and install the new one.
This was the first spare part that was replaced in the Safari after 3 days of driving. Cost was approximately Rs. 750/-
Overall I was pretty much happy with the vehicle. In the freezing cold the Safari never ever missed a beat. It started in the first self at 6 AM at Kaza. Lot of other vehicles did not start and mechanics had to called in to get them running. Even some imported vehicles had a tough time starting up and I was silently feeling proud.
Day 5, 14th October: We started from Kaza at 4 A.M. en-route to Jispa. We had the radio car duty at Takcha again and after driving for around 3 hours we reached our appointed place. It was absolutely freezing with temperatures plummeting to -5. I had my heater on and the Safari was standing at the lonely spot for around 2 hours and idling and keeping us warm. For the first time in my life I saw the temperature needle going down in a running vehicle. The temperature needle went all the way down to a Quarter since it was so cold. We had almost 5 inches icicles form under the front bumper since the water the splashed on got frozen. It was unbelievable.
Our Nutan stove came to our rescue again and we had hot tea and boiled eggs and some bread cheese for breakfast. We had two more official cars with us at this time. One was the official Doctor and another was a emergency response team.
After the rally crossed us safely we started our journey again towards Jispa, it was as usual a long way off, but after reaching Gramphoo the going was pretty easy since we were back on the main Manali - Leh highway.
We reached Jispa around 7 in the evening and as usual we had driven for more than 12 hours that day too. En-route we also crossed the last petrol station before Leh. Leh is more than 350 kilometers from here and this is the last opportunity to get fuel.
At Jispa, we checked into Hotel Ibex, and Wow what a place. It was the most well appointed hotel after the Hotel at Manali. We had unlimited Solar Heated Hot Water and I had my first bath after 4 or 5 days. It was out of the world.
Next morning we again started at 4 A.M. to reach Patseo, this was the flagoff point for the last competitive stage. We were stationed just at the bottom of the road that leads up to Baralacha Pass. Enroute is the famous Suraj Tal lake.
It was again sub zero temperatures and we were all huddled up in our respective vehicles. At around 7 A.M. the first of the competitors started coming in and our work started. We were busy coordinating the flag off's for the competitors when suddenly a frantic radio call alerted all of us.
The biker who was coming second in the Motoquad category had gone missing somewhere between Patseo and Baralacha Pass. Hari Singh(The famous Rallyist) who was our team leader instructed me to immediately rush up and rescue the biker.
I cranked my Safari to life, pulled in my co-driver and we jumped right in-between the rally cars. With the headlights on, the hazard lights blinking and horn blowing we started climbing the road to Baralacha pass as fast as we could. Parallelly the doctor stationed with us at Patseo also started with us in his Innova.
After about 12 odd kilometers there was a small iron railed bridge and I saw the unfortunate biker lying down on the ground. My heart sank and we rushed upto him as fast as we could. He had not noticed the bridge and jumped over a crest just before the bridge, when he landed he saw the bridge and braked hard and and his bike skidded. He fell down and his bike got entangled in the gaps in the bridge. He was okay but had broken his right leg.
We immediately went into rescue mode and I removed his riding boots, then the doctor gave his some painkiller shot. A full stilt was put around his leg and bandaged with crepe bandage and then we moved him onto a stretcher and into the Innova. The doctors rushed him down to Patseo and onto Keylong hospital. We had rescued him within a very short period of time thanks to the extremely tight coordination of all time control points.
I was about to turn back and head down, when another radio call alerted us to one more unfortunate event. Another bike rider has gone missing further ahead. Since I was already there, I was told to rush up ahead again. Another 5 kilometers ahead we located the rider. He was one of the people who had come from Austria. He had skidded and dashed against the mountain and broken his collar bone. He was otherwise fine. The second ambulance that was stationed up ahead had rushed down and the very capable Doctor Rana quickly bandaged him.
I then got him to ride with me in the Safari and we took him to the M.I. Room at Patseo. He was relieved that we had rescued him so quickly and that there was nothing serious to his injuries. Meanwhile another braveheart official drove his still running bike down to Patseo in the freezing cold.
Finally after all these upsets and rescue missions we were free to go back to Manali. This was the last stage and we had done our job. We now needed to reach Manali safely.
After a long journey back to Manali, we finally checked into the Log Huts and rejoiced in the fact the we had DONE IT.
We had successfully completed the Raid-De-Himalaya. We had had no vehicle breakdowns while we actually pulled out a Stuck Innova, towed a fully loaded Balero uphill, rescued two competitors, driven non stop for over 28 hours, covered a total of over 2000 Kilometers in 6 or 7 days, gone to place I would not have dared to go alone and most importantly not given up.
I am proud to have participated in the Raid-De-Himalaya as an official and would love to do it again. It is an out of the world experience. Simply can't be put into words. You need to be there.