It was a cold cold night. Despite the down quilts the Army kindly provided us, it was cold. And Sarchu is infamous for bringing on altitude illness. The wind was high, the temperature was down and in spite of the bukhari that kept the room far warmer than what was just outside the door, it was a very restless night. And when I woke up I was worried about the Gypuzu coming to life.
Gingerly I got out of bed and ventured out.
It was just after seven but the sun was out in all its warmth and glory. Got
inside the cockpit of the vehicle and turned the ignition. Nothing. Tried it
again. Nothing again. The third time even the self starter gave up, it was so
cold. I opened up the bonnet and took out the radiator cap to find the coolant
had frozen up! If the coolant had frozen, so had the diesel in the tank. There
was no point in rushing things and I decided to give the sun its due time to
try and thaw the liquids in the vehicle. After about an hour or so, breakfast
completed, the situation was the same. The support vehicle thankfully came to
life and decided too give the Gypuzu and good shove, coaxing it to get up and
about. And sure enough it worked. It sputtered and it stammered, belched out a
whole lot of smoke, but it came alive. Thank God for small mercies.
We had a long long way to go to reach Leh,
almost 300km and there were four pases en route where we had to stop to shoot.
And each pass took at least an hour. Goodbyes and thanks bestowed, we were on
our way.
The road out of Sarchu, all the way to the
Gata Loops is through a valley and it was great driving down this road. We
stopped to shoot every once in a while. Though I hope we got some good videos,
we were losing time and that was worrying me. Anyway we charged on and soon it
was the start of the Gata Loops ... 21 hairpin bends and a rise in altitude of
almost 2,000 feet in a few kilometres. The climb was steep and the scenery
breathtaking. Again, lots of videos happened and soon we were at the top. The
landscape continued to be gorgeous and then we came to our first pass of the
day – Nakeela.
It was very cold, more so because of the 40
kmph or so wind that was blowing. It was becoming very difficult to withstand
the wind and the cold, so I decided to sit in the vehicle to do the Setting the
Record Straight episode. In fact, apart from Rohtang, all the episodes were
from inside the vehicle.
At Nakeela met with an Irish gentleman who
was bicycling down to Leh. How and why beats me, but I guess there are some
more people in the world crazier than me.
The drive from Nakeela to Lachulungla is
another gorgeous one. One can almost see the entire road from Nakeela all the
way to Lachulungla. A steep descent down into the valley and then a climb up to
the pass where we spent another hour or so.
The home stretch was nearing. Just two more
passes to go and we would be in Leh. We were running short of time and I guess
that Tanglang La would be near or after sunset making it difficult to shoot.
Anyway, we stopped at Kangla Jal, another high mountain pass, though
comparatively lesser known. Saw some Tibetan wild ass grazing, shot some
icicles as they clung on to the last vestiges of life in the sun, clinging on
to a sheer cliff side. Kangla Jal is very unlike other passes, being as it is
in a “valley” surrounded by mountains, as opposed to the other passes that are
almost on top of a mountain.
None of us had had anything to eat since
breakfast early morning and Pang was where we stopped for a bite. We were also
running out of fuel and tanked up from a local dhaba owner. Paid about 10 bucks
more, but it is worth it. A short climb later we were at the spectacular Morey
Plains. The road had been freshly laid and the driving was great, though I
decided to go off roading! The sun had started to set and by the time we
reached Tanglang La about an hour later it was pitch dark.
There was no point in shooting anything in
the dark and we would have to come back here to do the Tanglang La episode of
Setting the Record Straight. Leh it was and by the time we enetered town it was
past ten at night. It was the end of the season and Leh looked like a ghost
town. I was not booked in any hotel and every one was sleeping. There was no
joy knocking at sundry hotel and guest house doors for almost an hour, till
finally one of them deigned to open its doors and let us in.
Phone connectivity was finally back and I
called home and Anil Reddy of via.com who was in Leh for the past couple of
days. He was so glad to hear from me and told me to promptly call the folks at
office. Even before I could start dialling the office numbers, the phone
started ringing off the hook. First it was Tajamul who called from Delhi. Then
it was Mr Azeem who called. Then Som. Then Sudiksha. Then Mustafa. The confusion
was that Anil was under the impression I would arrive in Leh yesterday morning.
And almost 48 hours later there was no sign of me and he was panicking. In turn
the rest of the folks in office were panicking. They had already called the
cops in Leh and were planning to initiate search operation in the morning. They
were planning on calling my wife in Delhi to find out if she had heard anything
from me. How Anil figured that I would be in Leh from Keylong in FOUR hours
beats me. Probably some misunderstanding but this created a lot of anxiety all
over the place. Anyway, all’s well that ends well.
Phone calls completed, I tucked myself in and
do not even know when I dozed off. That was end of an eventful day on the
Trilogy.
Join me on the trail at http://traveltrendztv.com/traveltrendztrilogy.php and https://www.facebook.com/traveltrendztv.
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