Hello All,
it’s been a while since my last post and I’ve a lot to write about….
we left our mountain retreat of Kalpa, fully recovered and ready for what lay ahead of us. Before we left decided to offload some of our “unnecessary” kit to lighten the load on our weighty steeds, so their is now a very lucky Kinnauri dude parading round in a pair of diesel jeans coupled with a flashy cycling top and a full size travel towel which he will be using for his morning yoga sessions!
Our next destinaton was the aptly named “Pooh” which we reached after a 45 mile ride. The day started great riding through a beautiful gorge passing waterfalls and stunning moutain scenery, however after a while we ran out of food and water, but were relieved when we rounded a bend and saw a sign saying “welcome to pooh”, that relief quickly turning to horror when we saw Pooh nestled on a hillside 1000 feet above us. We had no choice but to climb up to the village with our stomachs empty, our legs shot and our thoats as dry as the desert air. We finally made it just before sunset, filled oursleves with water and staggered into a total flea pit of a room the only bonus being the wonderful Nepali food we were served for dinner.
The next day we cycled to the moutain oasis of “Nako”. The day started with a downhill dash leaving Pooh and following the Sutlej river canyon once more. We finally reached the confluence of the Sutlej and Spiti rivers, turned north and entered the Spiti valley. we immediately began to climb, a climb which would last all day. The scenery began to change quite dramatically going from the relatively green, tree spotted moutains of Kinaur to the treeless barren slopes of the Spiti valley. After a few hours of climbing we stopped in the shade at the side of the road and cooked up some soup and noodles, we were at about 3300m and it was the first time we started to notice the altitude, not, as expected in our breathing, but in a light-headed almost drunk kind of way, slurring our words and becoming rather clumsy. After lunch we laid down on the tarmac and had a short sleep, it was miraculous, we felt so much better. We continued the climb up to Nako and arrived just as the sun was going down, we had climbed up to 3800m (12500ft).
We had a day off in Nako and spent the day reading and eating tibetan food.
We left Nako on July 28th and went straight into a climb up to 4000m, this was the first time we experienced some oxygen deprivation, we both suddenly pulled up gasping for air. We got our breath back and continued to climb very slowly, feeling fine and not noticing the lack of oxygen again. We reached the top of climb, marked by a small buddhist shrine perched on top a rocky ledge with a verical 1000ft drop below it (see pic below) and went straight into a fantastic, smooth tarmaced downhill, eventually stopping after a few miles to admire the stunning view of 360 degree moutains around us and the spiti river meandering below, we took some pics but both agreed the camera would never do justice to the majesty of what was before us. We continued on the 8 mile downhill back to the spiti river (3100m) and after having our papers and “inner line permit” inspected at the police checkpost we officially arrived in the Spiti valley denoted by a “welcome in Spiti valley” arch across the road. We were now in pure, high altitude, desert coutry, with wind shaped, bone dry peaks all around us, their lower slops covered in loose shail. The air was dry, out throats raw and our lips cracking in the afternoon sun and we pushed on steadilly climbing up river to our destination of “Tabo”. After a lunch of rice and dhal and a sleep in the shade in the little outpost of “Hurling” we stocked up on tasty, mineral filled, local moutain water and evetually arrived in “tabo”, a peaceful little town at 3500m, surrounding one of the oldest buddhist monasteries in asia, we bagged a room in the monastery itself, found a resturant and gorged oursleves on 3 courses on western food – and the odd beer – our peace restored!
Had a terrible nights sleep in the monastery, not only did the bed seem to be made of rocks (designed for monks – not cyclists) but the constant howling of dogs and cows in full-moon frenzy made for a few hours of restless sleep (probably not helped by the couple of shots of local moonshine “arach” before bed). We left Tabo, feeling tired and after 5 miles stopped for a 90 minute sleep in the shade of a dissued local building. The sleep, a coke and a chelsea bun (would you belive!) revived us and we continued to our next destination “Kaza”, I was at last starting to feel good on the bike, my fitness being the best it’s been so far. We climbed gently all day and arrived in Kaza aroud 5pm. We plan to stay here in kaza for 3 days, due to a couple of side trips we want to make in the area.
31st July – hired a jeep to take us and our bikes and drop us in the remote moutain village of “Mudh” – we’d seen photographs of this otherworldy place on the net and we had to see it for ourselves, then we were going to cycle the 35 miles back to Kaza. Mudh is situated in the stunningly beautiful “Pin valley”, with moutains similar to the now familiar moutains of Spiti, but distinctly greener, not only on the moutain slopes, but in the abundance of agriculture that surrouned the Pin river, field upon field of corn and peas. We arrived in Mudh, had some lunch and cycled up the track to the back of the village, the best place to observe this stunningly situated village, tucked in at the base of a huge rock formation and looking tiny with the towering peaks behind it (see pic). After taking pics we headed back to the village and began the rough, rock strewn descent of the pin valley, back to the spiti valley and kaza. Our bikes were given a severe hammering, but held up admirably and without the burden of panniers we flew back to kaza and popped in the local pub for a pint. Tomorrow we’re off for a ride up to the “ki monastery” situated on a pinnacle of rock at 4200m (14000ft), then we’re leaving the comforts of kaza and heading up to our first major pass, the “kunzum la” 4500m (14800ft) and the barrier between the spiti valley and our next destination, the “lahaul valley” and the start of the biggest challenge yet, the “manali-leh highway” a rough, high-altitude, 400Km stretch of road taking us to the ladakh region and reputidely one of the most amazing stretches of road on the planet!
I may be able to write a post in “keylong” but if not, the next post will be in “Leh” and by then the Manali-leh highway would have been conquered – let’s wait and see
It’s been an amazing adventure so far, but the best is certainly yet to come
“Namaste” to all you readers, see you soon…..
links to a few pics….
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