Paul and Jo on the Morey plain

The top of the road

Paul and Jo dwarfed by snow drifts

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2003-06-25 - Road to Leh (Day 5) - Pang - Rumtse (Day 71)

We are up early and head out of Pang climbing a thousand meters up to the Morey plain, which is a flat plain devoid of any signs of human existence except the road itself stretching 40km in the distance. The ride is beautiful in its starkness in the morning sun and we have a good run riding to the base of the last and highest pass at Tanglang La (5360m). The ride up is straightforward but has become bitterly cold and we pull on all the gear we can in an effort to try to keep warm. On reaching the top however, the sun breaks through the clouds and we share a bit of elation at having crossed the 2nd highest pass in the world with some obviously happy pictures.

Heading down the other side we are again dwarfed by snow banks on both sides and the wind starts picking up which does not bode well. Down a few more kilometers, the really dark clouds close in, and it is not long before we start to be pelted with hail. We keep descending down off the peak and the intensity of the storm increases and the hail turns to freezing rain, which burns on my exposed cheeks. The intensity continues to increase with the roads becoming soaked keeping our speed down and lowering visibility. I am also very unhappy to find that in their first real test, my supposedly waterproof Gore-Tex XRC shell from Atunus is soaking through which is freezing at these temperatures. There is no choice but to go on and we drive on through a full rain storm which finally lets up and disappears in the space of time it takes us to go 2 kilometers but only after we have reached the base of the valley a couple of kilometers from Rumtse which is tonight's stop.

Paul and Jo know a hotel, which is nice in that it has actually walls not the leaking canvas of the tents we have been in, but we find that we are the very first travelers of the season and walk into rooms that have not been aired out in 8 or 9 months. There isn't any food, power and just sitting on the bed raises a cloud of accumulated dust, but I'm so tired from the cold that I just brush the sheets off a couple of times and climb into the bed and sleep the entire afternoon. I wake up and join Paul and Jo and we go into the little village to get dinner. There is not much of a selection ?V instant noodles or rice and couple of vegetables but we make the best of it. I almost cause a riot as I take a couple of village kids which causes what seems to be the entire village to appear out of seeming thin air and all wanted their pictures to be taken. I take 50 photos or so, and then the crowd comes into the tent wanting to see them as I had unknowingly shown the first kids that they could see the photos immediately on the back of the camera. As the mob, mostly kids, comes into the tent, I hand the camera off to Jo who shows the kids becoming literally surrounded by a two-tier circle of kids standing above each other to look at the photos. The kids all have runny noses and when Jo is finally able to extricate herself from the mass she returns the camera back to me saying she tired her best to keep their fingers off it, but she could not do much about the dripping snot.

After dinner, we go back to the hotel and spend an hour before bed just watching the stars, which are of course brighter, and more numerous then I have ever seen due to the thin atmosphere and lack of lights. With not much else to do, we turn in and I read a while by candlelight and fall asleep.

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