Just over the top of Rotang

Paul fixing our first bike problem

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2003-06-21 - Road to Leh (Day 1) - Manali - Kelong (Day 67)

The excitement of being "off" on the big trip adds an extra crispness to the morning. The bikes are packed up and the bills paid by 7:30am and we head off down the road under blue skies and sunshine. The ascent up the first pass of Rotang starts right away along with the good luck of quickly passing a convoy of trucks behind a large slow moving bus, which keeps everything off our tails for the first half of the ascent. The ride is an easy one and with the sun out and few cars, its easy to soak in the sunshine, and watch the vegetation and scenery change as we climb above the treeline and towards the snow line at the top of the pass. The border roads organization has considerable humor in their road signs urging caution on the roads with slogans like "be gentle on my curves", and "baby I want you, but not so fast" which adds considerable levity to the trip. The top of Rohtang is a mess of tourists in jeeps and busses and with the snow run off the top is a sluice of mud and after a quick stop for tea we press on to the other side of the pass.

Just over the top, the visa opens out to range after range of snow covered peaks as far as the eye can see. The view is stunning and we are all by ourselves as the tourists stop just at the top of the pass. We pass the turn off down into Kinnaur valley and the road down into Nako from the other side of what I had used, and which we hear is completely washed out by a landslide. Continuing down through some deep dust and trucks Paul's bike starts coughing and giving fits just short of the Tandi. We pull over and Paul pulls the carburetor off the bike, takes it apart and washes it out by the side of the road. The repair is quick and successful leaving us all with smiles, in that we have already taken a hit from the trip, which was dispatched in a quick and easy manner. We can only hope that it will be as easy to handle whatever comes next.

On the road again we soon pass the truck stop of Tandi, which has the last petrol station before Leh. Outside the station is the ominous sign saying "Next Filling Station 365 km ahead" which exceeds the range of our bikes on one tank if everything goes smoothly, and is an interminable distance if there are problems. We pass the gas station and go on to the town of Keylong 8km further without filling as we can't afford to use any of the fuel driving around the Keylong area and will have to come back to top off before setting off on the next leg of the trip.

We are in Keylong in the early afternoon and after a slow lunch; I wander through the little village looking for photos. The village is on the side of a valley looking down across the river below and to the monasteries on the other side of the valley. The hotel is staffed by a couple of friendly Nepali waiters who are very funny quickly deciding Paul looks like James Bond and constantly calling him that. They also set the imagination running when they tell us they are on there way back to Nepal but have been stuck in Keylong due to some "difficulties" which leaves us wondering what angry father or brother is waiting with knife drawn somewhere. There is little to do with no TV or entertainment so it is off to bed at 9pm and up early before the sunrise. I take a quick ride around the town to get some shots of the village waking up and the sun rising over the snowcapped mountains, which surround us on all sides. On the way I pass a man taking a shit next to one of the streams running through town and 2 minutes later after riding past a switchback come across a couple of young boys getting buckets water from the same stream a little below which certainly turns my stomach as that could easily be the water that will be used to wash the vegetables for our breakfast.

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