Yesterday’s bumpy ride for 70 odd Kms had really scared me about the time management & hence I bid byes to Tso-Moriri by 5:15 AM. Boy! Pretty early I thought for a while but I had to cover a lot tooL. As I was aware of the stone roads, I wasn’t even feeling so tired todayJ. Reached Sumdo & took my breakfast.
“Behenji, Naasthe main kya hain???”
“Sab kuch hain ji!!!”
“Onion Dosa milega???” I wanted to ask but ended up ordering Roti & Dal.
Post breakfast, again on the same track towards Tso Kar. I had learnt from yesterday that carrying my heavy SLR bag on shoulder will surely add more stress on me & hence today I had nicely stuffed in my metal box. Riding at my own pace, made it to Tso Kar after around 4 Hrs. Man o man! What a pleasure to see those black tarmac road. Took my first break at Manali-Leh-Tso Kar junction & tanked up the fuel which I had carried in my can.
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| Nearing Manali-Leh road!!! |
As I knew that I am in Moreh Plains now, rode very carefully dealing with sinking sands. There were couple of situations where my bike had almost tippedL. Boy! How long should I be dealing with this?? After some time, sandy roads vanished but replaced with very loose gravels road. What kind of road is this??? All verities except the nice tarmacL. Moreh Plains is offering me more pains I thought & rode ahead with no more expectations. Moreover, the BRO guys were busy digging the existing old tarmac at places. Man! This is ridiculous. At least that would have been better I pitied on my bike. But after sustaining the bad roads till my threshold, I was welcomed with newly laid tarmac. Wow man! At last I can ride on some good roadsJ.
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| Sinking sand to ride on!!! |
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| View from Moreh Plains... |
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| Glad to see them... |
While I was enjoying my ride at my own pace, 2 KA-04 bikes crossed over & soon I realised that I have got to ride in group for some days nowJ.
Those 2 bikes stopped at some place which offered beautiful view of the valley & I too was forced to photo break.
“Bengaloora??? (Bangalore???)” I asked in spite of knowing the answer.
“Yes! You??”
“Bangalore!! Appata kannadiga sir… (Bangalore! True kannadiga sir…)”
“Oh! Olledu. Naavu kannada ne… (Oh! Nice. We also kannada guys…)” One of them said with smile.
After chatting for a while,
I introduced myself & they said,
“Vishrudh & Vijay…” Man! I am sure I will forget the first name for quite some time now…
Vishrudh said he did ride from Bangalore to Leh last year taking the same MP route. After a while, we rode in group till Pang & stopped at dabha for lunch. Vijay was feeling damn sleepy & he wanted a nap at any cost. While he took a nap, Vishrudh was telling me his experiences of last year. He was telling me how their bed was floating in night on the day of flash floods & how they managed to reach back safely. It was around 1:15 PM when we were done with lunch & even Vijay was ready to move on even though their plan was to settle in Pang for today.
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| Scenic valley! |
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| Strange formation |
Soon we left Pang, the vista changed along with good roads to bad one. But I didn’t feel the bad roads much might be due to beautiful scenic vista around. We crossed Lachulung La & Nakee La taking frequent photo breaks.
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| Who did this??? |
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| Beautiful mountains... |
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| Another shot |
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| Lachlung La conquered!!! |
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| Sarchu still a long way |
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| Next was Nakee La |
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| Huge hills |
Soon after Nakee La, got to see a board which read ‘Gata Loops Start’ & boy o boy! So deadly curves they are. But the good part was that as we moved down, the road quality got better & betterJ. At some loops, Vijay & Vishrudh were confidently doing off roading. Man! I just can’t even imagine that. While moving down, lot of bikers were climbing up & again Thumps Up to them all. After Gata Loops, road straight away to Sarchu & settled in a tent for 50 bux/day/person. Time had just crossed 5:00 PM & we had done it pretty early.
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| That's Gata Loops |
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| And the BRO says it... |
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| Formed by corrossion??? |
Unloading our thick jackets, we rested in our beds chit chatting & that’s when 2 ITBP jawans took over the adjacent beds for night. In no time, they started a chit chat with us & again I ended up telling about my trip to them.
“Kaun sa route se aaye aap?? Kitna karcha hua?? Thel kitna gaya hoga??” & hell lot of questions. After a lot of conversation, he concluded saying,
“Yaar! Aap bahut gool liya bhai…”
“Arre! Abhi kaha bhayya?? Kitna jagah dekna baaki hain abhi…”
We 3 got back to our chit chats again discussing various things ranging from college days to past ride experiences. After stuffing in Tomato Soup & Maggie, slept tight with our alarm set to wake us up very early tomorrow.
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