Rest Day in Leh

Sunday 25 August

We have two days in Leh before six successive days of riding the Leh-Manali highway that will take us to the highest elevation of this journey.

First order of business today was repairing Rae's bike. I'd thought that we'd just buy a built-up wheel and put it on. Not so simple. The bikes we are using the same bikes we used in Africa - Specialized Stumpjumpers, twelve years old, front suspension, hardtail, v-brakes, 26-inch diameter rims. Nowadays the world is using disk brakes and 29-inch wheels, so you can't find a built-up wheel and put it on. Bless our bike mechanic Baba - he got the bare rim and built it up himself, removing the cassette and all the spokes from the old one and installing on the new, then truing the wheel, all while working in the courtyard of the hotel. So Rae will be on his own bike on Tuesday.

Another stroll in town this afternoon

we did a double take on "Hon'ble" Prime Minister
first glance it looked like 'horrible' before realising it was 'honourable' 

Monday 26 August

The instructions are up for the coming six days into Manali.

We have more serious climbing and high altitude ahead of us this week, with Wednesday going over a pass at near 5400 metres (17,500 feet) and sleeping for the next four nights at 4000-4500 metre (13,000-15,000 ft).

Tomorrow will be a quick descent for the first ten km followed by a steady climb to about the 75-km point on the profile above, the 4000-metre level towards the first peak - not even half-way up, so Wednesday will prove to be interesting, starting with 1300 metres of steady climb to that 17,500 foot pass. As well as hoping that the bodies perform well, we're hoping the weather holds - the scenery should by spectacular

Road conditions - it won't all be paved - we hear that there was a slide somewhere along the highway that closed it for a day last week. It's an important strategic link to Leh, the only other road being the one from Srinagar that goes through the troubled Kashmir valley, so it is maintained by the military. 

First week of cycling - part 3

Saturday 24 August - 75 km to Leh with three 400-metre climbs and a net altitude gain of about 400 metres, and of course the last part of the third climb, just before reaching the hotel, was the steepest.

The view at breakfast looking across the Indus River.

In my book, when you're at 11,000 feet, you should be flying, not driving

Ursula part way around the bend about three quarters of the way up the first climb

brick manufacturing near the top of the first climb

Magpie finding something to eat on the parched ground

Fifteen or twenty people working at the top of the pass - looked like they were placing
stones as markers, although there must have been more to it than that

A reminder to us manage our speed on the long descent

The Zanskar River (opposite) flows into the Indus (left-to-right)
and we start up the second climb of the day

Nearing the top... more road signs

 

And then the descent again to the Indus River. We get a bit of fairly level riding, then the final climb of the day. Leh is built up the hillside to the left in this photo, and it's another 400 metres of climbing to the hotel.

The ibex is on a statute part way up the hill, in the background is the Shanti Stupa. 

Finally at the Royal Ladakh Hotel for two rest days..

...with a view of the Tsemo Gompa monastery which is on a hilltop above the Old Leh Palace.

First week of cycling - part 2

Thursday 22 August - serious riding begins. Mulbekh to Lamayuru - 65 km comprising a 500 metre climb followed by 400 metre descent, then 700 metre climb to 4100 metres (13,500 feet), the highest point on the Srinagar-Leh highway, then a descent to 3500 metres, our sleeping altitude for the night. The first climb averaged about 4.5%; The second climb was longer but mostly not as steep at about 3.5%.

The scenery is as wonderful as the climbs are long and tough.

Ursula and Brigitte toughing out the first climb

Rae's borrowed bike

Finally we reach the high point of the day, the second pass at 13,500 feet... all that's left is nearly 15 km of descending at an average gradient of 4%

Destination tonight is Lamayuru

View from our hotel room window. The monastery is one of the oldest in the region.

Friday 23 August - 47 km, generally descending - but a couple of steep 150 metre climbs thrown in -  for the first 15 km for then generally climbing 200 metres to tonight's destination of Uletopko at a sleeping altitude of 3100 metres, around 10,000 feet.

both men and women work on the highways, here a female sweeping crew

This entire region is heavily militarized given the proximity of the border with Pakistan and of disputed territories controlled by China. 

Our destination tonight an 'eco lodge' at Uletopko. An apple tree and an apricot tree right outside our door. The apricots were ripe and delicious - all within easy reach. In fact we both ate too many resulting in a few desperate runs to the bathroom the next day.

And finally, for your amusement, some highway signs. The road between Srinagar and Leh is managed by the Border Roads Organisation, hence the term 'BRO' on the signs. 

  

First week of cycling - part 1

Tuesday 20 August - packed up and onto mini-buses and the lot of us are driven to the town of Mulbekh, almost 200 km in the direction of the Kashmir valley. Our accommodation was in permanent tents with electricity and en suite.

Wednesday 21 August - still a day to go before we start at day 5 of the originally planned itinerary, so this is a day for casual riding and seeing the local scene. We rode about 15 km down the valley in the  direction of Kargil. Kargil is only 2 km from the Pakistan border and although all is quiet there, the security situation was uncertain enough not to have started the ride from there.

Activity in the valley seems  pretty normal to us, grain being dried, packed into bags and weighed.

 

We left the highway for  3-4 km detour into a canyon along a rough dirt road... 

...part o the appeal being a hot spring at the end - not really hot and steaming - probably wonderfully hot when it's forty below here in the winter. We were all alone down there and Rae succeeded getting in a skinny dip and was all properly attired for biking again when two cars arrived (must be shaken to bits on that road) with some locals for their bath = pleasant young men whose first question was who told us about this place - looks like it is popular secret amongst the local population.

On the way back, Ursula found an edelweiss beside the stream, which, by the way, was not at all hot or warm - no way would we have sat long in that water.

Not long after getting back on the highway was when Rae's bike started having mechanical issues. First the bearings went on one of his pedals. Good that we are carrying spare pedals, albeit flat pedals, not with clips. Then while achieving at least 8 km/hr as we were climbing back up towards camp, suddenly a bang and Rae's rear seizes - the rim had failed and jammed in the brakes. Only 2 km to go, so disconnecting the brakes allowed us to ride back - it was all up hill so no worries about having to descend with only the front brakes. The bike is unrideable, but within half-an-hour, our wonderful bike mechanic rigged his bike for Rae, the aim being to get an new rim in Leh when we get there in three days time.

Tomorrow the serious biking starts.