We were up
at 6.30, the guys (Damien and the driver) had a Chai (tea), I thought it would
be wiser to skip it, due to my tendency to get road sickness. Before leaving I
took a few pictures, there is finally some blue sky today but on the mountains
surrounding us there is snow…. We hope that the pass will be open!
We left at
7.30am for a full day in the car… yeahhh (I am sure you can hear my
enthusiasm…). 30 minutes after leaving the guys had another Chai by the road,
and then we started climbing again, the view of the valley with the sun coming
up was magical!
The higher
we got, the greyer it became, with a lot of fog (or was it low clouds?) and the
mountains around us got whiter. The weather even was bad at some point, we
could barely see in front of us and it was snowing. We passed a big group of
truck (at least 15 of them). Soon after, the sky was suddenly blue and the
mountains were covered in snow.
9.30am: 1st
people of the day to reach Baralacha La!!!! The pass is at 4850m high. We
stopped to take pictures and play a tiny bit in the snow. But apparently it was
enough to get our wheels cold and get got stuck, not being able to drive up the
small slop. Luckily 2 other passenger cars helped us adding extra weight on the
jeep (by putting themselves on the jeep sides and jumping up and down). It was
a funny experience, a bit scary that we were really stuck, but exciting!
15 minutes
later, we were all back in our cars and on the road again to Leh! The scenery
changed drastically, within 1h the snow had completely disappeared and we were
facing a desert scenery. We stopped in a small village called Sarchu for lunch
around midday.
By that time I was dying and wished we were in Leh already, I
was just lying helplessly in the place where the guys ate. They still had a few
stalls open and horses for day treks in the area, but Bules told us that by the
25th everyone would be gone.
Back on the
road, the scenery change as fast as we burn the kms. Around 1pm we pass the
sign telling us we were half way (between Manali and Leh) which was a bit
depressing because we have been driving for a day and a half…
One of the
big highlight of our drive were the “BRO” signs by the side of the road. BRO is
the Border Road Organisation that takes care of the road, they have brilliant
sign to make sure people don’t drive too crazily/fast.
At one
point the road is just a massive flat stretch in the middle of a valley, this
is when I understand where the word “Highway” comes from, because so far it was
only small, curved roads made of stones sometimes. But for a little while, we
had the feeling we were in the US (Route 66 or something like that): brand new
tarmac, road going straight and you can’t see the end… this was fantastic
(unfortunately as you can imagine it did not last…).
It was time
to climb again (more slowly this time) to reach the 2nd highest
motorway pass in the world: Taglang La at 5328m high. We reached it at 6pm,
Damien went out to take pictures, I tried to follow him, but I manage to only
take 20 steps and my head was spinning, I could barely breath and my legs felt
like jelly, so I went back in the car. Bules explained that it was due to the
high altitude, which is poor in oxygen.
It is
around that time, that our packed of crips decided to explode, we had seen it
inflate more and more since the beginning of the ride. We were not expecting it
to pop, and all of us got scared, thinking that it was a wheel or a gunshot…
When we realised what it was, we had a good laugh!
We raced
through the remaining 2h30 of driving. We even stopped to clean the jeep with
water from the river (our driver had frozen hands after that…). After a few
more police check (and bribes) we reached the Indus Valley. At the same time as
the sun was disappearing behind the mountains. The scenery was stunning, we
went pass a few monasteries on top of rocks, they looked exciting!
We arrived
in Leh taxi stand by 6.30pm. Time to say goodbye to Bules and hop on a local
taxi to reach the guest house. Bules explained that only local taxi are allowed
to have passengers in Leh/Ladakh (one of the reason why he had to bribe a few
cops on the way). Just before leaving us Bules told us that this morning he thaught we might have had to go back, that we might not have been able to go through the pass... I am glad, he only told us that now!! Otherwise I would have freaked out!!
The local
taxi nearly got us lost, luckily we had the number of the guest house and he
called them to find out where it was. By the time we arrived it was pitch dark,
and we were in the middle of a blackout (but did not realised it until the
family welcomed us with candles). We thought for a while that the place was
closed, then Damien got in and it looked like a building site… We got scared
for a few minutes thinking that we got scammed…
But in the
end it was just a dark evening, during a blackout and yes some parts were in
construction but only because the family is extending the guest house! We had
tea and then we went straight to bed, too tired and too sick to go out and eat
dinner.
Slept in a
giant double bed in Nirila Guest House, in Leh.
355 km driven today
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