It was cold. And that is an understatement. The clouds had moved in and the sun was not able to shine through. And some of the clouds were dark. The wind was blowing and all in all we knew that the weather was closing in for the winter. To top it all, the radiator had sprung a leak and anything we put in through the hole in the top was spewing out from the bottom. We got an Army mechanic to take a look at it and he was despondent. He did his best for the next couple of hours to seal the leak, but to no avail. We would have to chance our luck and see if we could reach Leh.
Nadeem was in very bad shape and altitude
illness had hit him big time. Ii gave him a Diamox and told him to lie down in
the vehicle. Soon enough we would be headed down and he would start feeling
better. And we were desperately short of time, running late on our schedule,
the vehicle had sprung a leak and we still did not know where exactly the five
passes were.
We bade goodbye to the Army unit and moved on
towards Tangtse. We had a soldier with us who was proceeding on leave and he
knew the way. When he asked us to take the turn towards Tanttse, we knew it had
not been our fault to have lost our way yesterday. There was no signpost, no
one to guide us, and the turn was over a broken road with nothing to indicate
that that was the way we were supposed to have headed. Not our fault at all.
The leak in the vehicle was playing havoc. We
had to stop every few kilometres to fill up the radiator with water. And
consequently there was no pulling power at all. We were snailing through,
stopping to fill her up with water and moving on again. As we started climbing
the hill, the hose pipe burst. We fixed that as best as we could and moved on
again.
Finally at Tangtse we got some fuel to put in
the tank. We were driving on fumes and it was good that a local taxi driver
helped us out with fuel on condition that we take a couple of his people and
drop them at Leh. Sure thing.
Fuel done, at least enough to last us till
Leh, we started the climb to Chang La. And now the radiator really acted up.
Earlier we were stopping every 20km or so. Now it was every five kilometres.
Thankfully there was a rivulet running next to the road and we had enough
access to water. We somehow climbed up to Chang La a little after sunset and
began the final stretch towards Leh. The roads had become much better than what
I had experienced earlier and the drive was smooth. Being downhill, the vehicle
too did not give us much bother and soon enough, a little after nine in the
evening we were at Leh gorging on the dinner put up by the Guest House.
Sleep came soon after. I went off to
slumberland trying to work out the new route for the Trilogy. Chushul was a
sector that did not merit being part of the Trilogy. There are too many
complications, the area is sensitive, and there is no point in spending too
much time for just a couple passes. I would still have almost a dozen passes as
part of the route. The way things look like now is that I will start at
Marsimik La. The passes will be:
Marsimik La
Chang La
Wari La
Khardung La
Tanglang La
Namshang La
Polokang La
Kangla Jal
Lachulung La
Nakeela
Baralacha La
That is eleven. I need one more pass to
complete the Dirtyy Dozen. Nevertheless, I think even with eleven passes, I
will have myself a record. And the first five passes to be crossed are the
world’s five highest. That will give me a record.
But first, to get the vehicle in ship shape
condition. That will take much of tomorrow. So it seems I am stuck in Leh
tomorrow.
Well, tomorrow is another day and at places
like this, at altitudes like these, doing the kind of crazy things I am doing,l
we need to take life as it comes.
So long. I’ll see you when I’ll see you.
Follow me on the Travel Trendz Trilogy at http://traveltrendztv.com/traveltrendztrilogy.php and https://www.facebook.com/traveltrendztv.
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