A hard day on the wheels

My earlier posts of Leh trip are here

Day 7: Nubra Valley – An odyssey

Day 8: Turtuk – The penultimate village!

The clouds on the mountains towards Khardung La Pass were quiet discouraging but we could not stay back & wait for the weather to clear up. Our host inspected the mountains and evinced possibility of snowfall on the peak. The group had finished a quick round of bread butter and jam for breakfast accompanied with Ravichandran hit songs on our phones. The bread went in smoothly but the news on weather outside was not so welcoming.

Without further delay we packed our bags. Manu, Manja & Pavan rode back to Hunder to enjoy a ride on the double-humped camels while the rest of us were set on our way to Leh. We hoped weather to improve as the day sets in while we knew it is difficult to predict weather in such altitudes. We hurried without too many stops and as expected with growing altitude the weather got colder and it started raining, by the time we reached North Pullu we were wet and shivering with cold. We threw our bikes as soon as the canteen appeared at our sight. Hot Maggie and some hot tea was a real life saver. The roads from here got bad making the ride slow and more difficult. Close to the peak it started snowing and on reaching Khardung La peak we were drenched again. We did not stop on the peak and continued in the snow.

The gloves we wore dint suffice to withstand the snow and cold. Our fingers were totally numb. It was the most difficult part of the roads after crossing the peak and we rode at almost 5kmph to avoid potholes which would otherwise kill my back. We covered ourselves completely which made it difficult to talk to each other. I had to show thumbs up to the rider every 15mins to indicate all is well and I haven’t fallen off :P

 

Ahead of us was a biker whom we followed as the visibility was really bad. We slowed as he did at the curves and for the first time I felt having someone ridding along is so much of a strength. It’s a force that keeps you going ahead just the way you need someone’s being in your life to keep you not just alive but also to make you feel you are living. There was a sudden rush of mixed emotions running through my body. It was an unknown fear running across my hands and limbs as it felt weak while at the same time there was a sense of amiable gaiety that just made me to carry on.

The ride was tiring and seemed endless. The weather gods though spared us after sometime, it was the reckless roads which made it all the more difficult. I preferred getting down from the bike and walked across few patches of really bad roads. The onward journey which seemed fun and exciting was now almost killing my back due to continuous journey on the bike.

It was early evening when we saw the city of Leh at a far distance. It was such a relief that I fail to word my feeling. I breathed some happy air into my lungs when the roads got better again. The traffic on the opposite side was stopped due to bad weather which left for us the entire road. After turning all the curves down to the hill we saw Kanthanna & Suma waiting for us. We stopped with them for a while and then rode towards the city. Back in our rooms, we all seemed as if we had made it back in one piece after going through a pleasurable trauma.