It was another beautiful day in sunny
Keylong. We woke up to the warmth of the morning sun wafting through the
windows, the curtains of which was not drawn last night. Despite the effort to
catch a few extra winks, the weather was just too good to lie in bed. A quick
detour into the morning chore quarters and it was out on the streets of Keylong
soaking in the warmth and the goodness of the Sun.
A few pictures had to be taken. Frankly, I
have lost count of the things that we are shooting simultaneously. I know there
are four or five different events that I am undertaking, among them a few world
records and one which is Setting the Record Straight. The last one is fairly
easy. All I have to do is take readings on my GPS units ... three times ... at
each high mountain pass and averaging the readings will give me the actual
altitude. Sounds easy. But I had problems in Rohtang with the GPS Map 78 unit.
It refused to change the units to feet from metres. Finally I figured it out.
And for some reason, today the Nuvi 215 was acting up. The battery just would
not charge. But I am jumping the gun.
It was very cold at night and my Gypuzu was
not used to such extremes of temperature. I was apprehensive about how
difficult it would be to start the engine, given that diesel engines are
notorious in cold weather. But I was pleasantly surprised as it sputtered to
life after three or four tries. But there was diesel leaking from somewhere and
that was not a good sign. There is a workshop in Keylong and after breakfast of
aloo parathas I headed down there to get it fixed. The friendly mechanic said
that there was certainly a problem, but he could not fix it. Good news was that
it would not affect the mileage since it would only leak when idling. OK, I
would take it as it was dealt to me. We said goodbye to Nalwa Guest House with
the promise of being back again soon and sped off towards Baralacha La.
The drive was as spectacular as expected. But
as I started the climb to Baralacha La, a little short of Zingzing Bar, the
Gypuzu heated up. I immediately stopped the vehicle and opened the bonnet to
hear major sizzling happening. After the vehicle had cooled down sufficiently,
I opened the radiator to find it was bone dry! I was carrying coolant and it
promptly found its way down the hole. We drove on. A few kilometres later, just
a little short of Baralacha La, it heated up again. I drove gingerly to
Baralacha La top and parked there knowing that we would be stationed here for a
couple of hours at least when the engine could cool down, and that all the way
to Sarchu from there was downhill, reducing the pressure on the engine.
The next couple of hours was spent at
Baralacha La and it was extremely windy and cold. The temperature, despite the
bright sun was down in the low singles. The episode was shot sitting inside the
car. Came out quite well, I thought.
It was nearly five in the evening and I
decided to camp for the night at Bharatpur, which is at the end of the descent
down from Baralacha La. But all there was for Bharatpur was ruins. Being the
end of the season, all the people had packed their tents and gone away for the
winter. Now I did not have any choice but to head for Sarchu, 25km away.
Fortunately either downhill or flat.
The roads had improved tremendously. There
were bad patches, but nothing compared to what I had experienced before. It was
getting dark and I drove through the Sarchu Plains to reach the Army detachment
just short of Sarchu and invited myself in to stay the night in the mess, which
they graciously agreed to. The Indian Army is a great organisation and I hope
that it remains insulated from outside influences for ever more.
The temperature outside where I was sleeping
was sub zero but the room was nice and comfortable thanks to the bukharis that
were burning. After dumping all the footage shot through the day it was time to
catch some much needed shut eye after a gorgeous though tiring day’s driving.
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