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2003-07-21 - Rangdum - Padum (Day 97)

The morning came and none of us were feeling well, I because of still not having my stomach back in shape, Steve and Adrian as they had gone drinking the night before and the combination of being at 4,300 meters and "Godfather Super Strong Beer" with its alcohol content "not lower then 5.5% but not exceeding 8.5%" left them feeling it in the morning. So no one wants to face the hardest part of the trip, which is double what we did on the previous day - 120km over horrible roads where we are lucky to average 20km / hr. and which there isn't anywhere to stop for food or even a chai on the way. However, the alternative was equally unappetizing stay in this hovel for another day with lousy food and worse accommodations. In the end, the lesser of the two evils was to set out on the road.

We had one more pass to climb, Panzilla Pass taking us back to 14,000 feet, which along with the cloudy skies and the physical stuff kept us all quiet and just trudging along. Lunch was crackers and water as there was nowhere to stop and we just kept riding through. Loose sand, rocks, the climb up and down and the constant bumps kept hammering against our arms. Late in the afternoon, we were all bushed and feeling the road in our shoulders as it was a fight against the handlebars for the entire way. We came upon the village of Phey and Adrian calls out to the first guy we see, "do you have Chai?" Adrian mistook him for a chai stall owner but we found that he was simply working outside his home. However, in a true sprit of good will, or pity, the man leads us into his home and asks his wife to take care of us. Both of them were wonderful and filled us with chai, which can do a wonderful job of changing one's attitude.

With still 20km to go to Padum, we came to a fork in the road with no one to ask. I turned to the GPS, which to my amazement actually had the road to Padum in its memory. We took a gamble and followed the GPS at the fork only to find 10 km down the road that this was not the way. So back we go and with that extra 20km from the detour added to the 120 we had to do, this was a very long day. Riding into Padum, we crossed three more streams and I gauged our fatigue looking back by the fact that we barely even slowed down on meeting these streams, but just plowed on through. We were simply too tired to be very careful but at the end of the day we reached Padum safe and sound and with a feeling that by making it to this most remote of towns, we'd really accomplished something.

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