I could have killed Sushil in the morning. I had barely
shut my eyes when he was in my room waking me up. I could bet that I had not
been asleep for more than 15 minutes or so, but he promised me that it was five
in the morning and today was ATTEMPT DAY! Hmmm, that perked me up and woke me
up pronto. A few minutes trying to touch the freezing water that was flowing
through the tap and we loaded up, ready to hit the road. Which we did and I am
very proud to say, did before the sun was up.
The drive up to Khardung La was fantastic. No vehicles to
worry about at this time of the day. The sun started casting its golden glow on
the distant peaks while the valley was still in darkness. The windows in the
vehicle were rolled up and a couple of times I rolled it down to make for
better photography, froze to the bones. It was cold outside. About an hour
later, after having checked in at South Pullu Police Check Post, we were
standing at Khardung La, the world’s highest motorable road. Soon the Trilogy
would be on its way. A little after eight in the morning we flagged off. There
was not a sould to flag us off and we did the honours ourselves after having
entered the Log Book and reset the GPS to ZERO.
The ride down was as good as the ride up. Beautiful vistas
of the rising sun casting its hue on the mountains, the valley waking up from
its slumber, the rays of the sun painting a lovely canvas on the rising dust of
the road. Leh came and went and I was on my way to Karu to take the detour to
Wari La and Chang La. Soon enough we were at Sakti or Serthi as it is called
now, and we took the detour to Wari La. It was early morning and the sun was
out and with the rolled windows, it was very toasty and comfortable. We pressed
on, doing what I thought was fairly good time.
After about ten odd kilometres I found the power of the
engine die down almost entirely. A look at the gauge showed that the
temperature was way too high. I decided to give it a break after the next bend.
Bad idea. A few hundred yards or less later, everything under the bonnet blew
up, high into the sky. Well, not as dramatic as that, but the hose pipe burst
and six to seven litres of engine coolant lay across a few dozen yards of the
road. Oooops, that kind of put a spanner in the works as far as the Trilogy was
concerned.
Engine heating had been a perennial problem with the
Gypuzu and no one could quite figure out why. The head gasket was fine, the
water body had just been replaced, the radiator had been cleaned to a sparkle
... yet. Whenever the vehicle crossed 12,000 odd feet, it seemed to realise
that it was being called upon to do what it was not prepared for. It would just
die on me, the engine would heat up, and often coolant would spill on to the
road, boiling beyond measure.
I could not stop every few kilometres to top up the
radiator with either coolant or water, not on attempt day at least. I would
have to abort the effort today. We allowed the engine to cool down, munched a
couple of packed sandwiches, filled the radiator with water and started the
long and painful journey back to Leh.
But it was not the end of the day just yet. We headed
straight to the workshop to see if the Gypuzu could be salvaged and repaired
for a second attempt tomorrow. No go. The mechanic could not fathom what was
wrong and why the engine was heating up so much, so quickly and so radically.
The water body had been replaced, the head gasket was fine, there was no other
leakage anywhere, there was no reason why it should heat up so. Overheating of
the engine had been a problem from the start. Sundry hose pipes bursting, etc,
had happened in Delhi and in Hyderabad. I had thought it was niggles which
needed to be ... and were ... sorted out. But the problem pursued. Every time a
little bit extra was asked of the engine, it would give up. Sad, because
everything else was working just fine. The power was awesome, I did not have to
use the 4WD at all, climbing steep inclines, particularly at hairpin bends, was
a breeze. Yet still ...
Anyway, I took a decision to abandon the attempt on the
Gypuzu and do it on the support vehicle instead. It was a powerful vehicle and
would do what it was called upon to do. The sponsor stickers were promptly put
on the vehicle ... and the plan had to be changed. We would start from Marsimik
La tomorrow instead of from Khardung La as we had done today. Which also meant
that we would have to make a four to five hour journey into Tangtse to stay the
night there. Which also meant that we would have to cross Chang La again, most
probably at night. Chang La is a beautiful pass, though a a tricky one. The
roads are bad and stretches are avalanche prone. It had started to snow and the
going would be tricky. Anyway what had to be done, had to be done.
Stickering done and the gear and equipment shifted on to
what was now the attempt vehicle, we started from Leh just as the sun started
setting over the snow clad mountains. Not that we could see any snow clad
mountains because they were all enveloped in clouds. It was snowing up at the
top and the weather was closing in mighty fast. I knew I had just a few hours
window left to make the attempt and get out of Ladakh or risk being stranded
here for the winter!
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