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2003-07-14 - Leh - Khardung La - Khalsar - Khardung La - Leh (Day 90)

To describe today it sounds for all the world as if I was taking a flight - from 11,000 ft. I rode up to 18,380 ft., down to 10,000 ft and then turned went back up and down again. That in short was my day-trip over Khardung La (Khardung Pass) to the Nubra Valley - up, down, up, down across the highest moterable road in the world and to altitudes which are 2/3 of what a 747 cruises at! The ride up was cold to put it mildly as I had left quite early and the sun simply refused to break though the clouds. When I headed out from Leh the sky was a sea of blue but as I wound up the switchbacks ever taking me higher, the sky grew ever darker and colder. This being the south side of the pass, the snow next to the road wasn't that bad, though the run off had frozen overnight leaving iced over stream crossings to crunch under the tires as I went through. I reached the top and thus got to check off a goal I've had for some years to reach the peak of this the highest road. That kept me happy enough to get a couple of pictures but then the reality of the situation - it was damn cold! - set in.

There was a chai shop at the top, but unfortunately I was there too early and they hadn't opened, so my only hope of warming up was to duck into the temple also at the peak. This temple like the one at TangLangLa on the road to Leh catered to almost every religion with pictures of the appropriate gods, icons, gurus, and symbols of most of the religions I knew of with tens of pictures staked in piles and against the walls for ones I didn't. I held out in the temple until the chai stall opened and gave me a steaming cup to warm my hands. While there, a snowstorm blew in sending razor like wind through the cracks in the walls and between the sheets of aluminum on the roof giving me deep chills but considering the place in a way, it should be nasty ugly and cold. Once the sun came out the string upon string of prayer flags blowing in the wind seemed to explode into color, glinting as they flew in the breeze against the snow background of the peak. I headed back down the other side which facing north had much deeper snow walls and glaciers above the road looming above my head and with long icicles hanging down next to the road.

The road wound down into a desolate desert valley with not a tree in sight and only ribbons of green, which followed the gullies of snow runoff from the mountain peaks. From huge boulders to drifts of sand, it was brown, read and black rocks for the next 60km down to Khalsar where I stopped for lunch and turned to head back up the mountain again. Unfortunately, to catch the festival in Lamaruyu and meet up with Adrian, I only had time for an up, down, up, down one-day trip but even so, this was an incredible day.

The way back was also the most fun riding I have yet had in India with 40km of switchback "S" curves. Since I was not carrying luggage the bike was leaning from turn to turn excellently, for a mule that is. The road was also completely deserted with my only seeing 2 vehicles during the entire run up to the top. The Indian law of traffic (there are always trucks behind curves you cannot see around) though still prevailed with both of them coming out from behind blind curves. Fortunately, having learned my lessons, I was going slow and made the entire trip with nothing that raised the stress level too much. Wonderful day of riding which was made even more enjoyable by the road signs on the way (check out the feature) and the sun and blue sky, which warmed the way, back and made the ride simply lovely.

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