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
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.
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.
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| we did a double take on "Hon'ble" Prime Minister first glance it looked like 'horrible' before realising it was 'honourable' |
The instructions are up for the coming six days into Manali.
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.
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