We are alive!!! It's the internet that died :)

The internet in all of northwestern India has been down for the last 5 days or so due to a server failure in Punjab. There were some places that were running dialup, but sharing a dialup line with a room full of people is something too painful to contemplate (and people were saying it was so slow as not to be worth it).

So I spent some time on the computer without an internet connection and I have sorted a bunch of photos for you - they will be up soon. But first, some news of our riding in the Indian Himalaya :)

Someone, we are not sure who, did not want us riding up there. The Enfield, though a great handling bike, is a bit neurotic and needs to see a mechanic everyday that it gets ridden. When we got to Manali we had already pretty much decided that we didn't have the time to do Ladakh properly and that we were going to head to the Spiti and Kinnaur valleys but we also heard that the buses going up to Leh from Manali had been cancelled three days running. We asked around and the problem on the road to Leh was beyond the Rhotang La (the 3000m pass just above Manali) and the turnoff to Spiti was just on the other side of the pass so we should be fine...."should" being the active word :)

After stopping at the mechanic's shop for a new spark plug for the Enfield we headed north to the pass. It rained every morning we were in Manali, so it was a bit of a wet departure. As we headed north it dried up and we stopped for photos of the stunning scenery as we wound our way - over muddy roads, recently cleared landslide areas and stream crossings - up the 55kms to the top of the pass. There was quite a lot of traffic on the way up and when we had gotten to the top we understood why - there were a couple of thousand people up there playing on the snow! This is a small patch of snow (you will see in the photos) but they are skiing, sliding, being pushed in sledges, taking silly photographs and even riding on snow machines!!!! It's a small village of dhabas, places to rent boots and warm clothing and people offering rides on horses and yaks.

When we dropped off the backside of the pass we pretty much had the place to ourselves, there were a couple of other motorcyclists heading to Leh and some occasional truck traffic, it was great. The road was rough - some pavement, but mostly dirt and mud - but the views were stunning. We made our way down the 15 or so kms to the turnoff for Spiti and really had the road to ourselves. About 10kms down we came around the corner to a whole lot of water on the road and a jeep trying to drive up the water covered road to the stream crossing. We parked the bikes and walked up to have a look. It was a lot of water, but there looked to be a good line to take up to the top section and then it would be a bit of a tricky thing to get across the bigger rocks, but that was better than the deeper section. We would take one bike at a time. On the way back down we got roped into pushing the jeep - it was stuck in the middle of the roadway. We were not making much progress and it was getting late so when a shepherd arrived to help we started on our own crossing attempt.

We took the Enfield first and off I went - up the left side, back to the right on the sheet of pink rock and then up onto the dirt edge to the top, just before the big stream crossing (the first part had just been about 25 meters of runoff down the road). I stopped the bike, A caught up to me and we discussed the line and then had to give me a push to get started. I hit a big rock with the front wheel, stuck my right leg out and found no purchase!!! We tipped over into the water!!!!! I kept the engine revving so as not to fill the exhaust with water and just as it stalled A and I heaved the beast up and pushed it the last few feet onto dry land - woohoo, we got one bike across!!!! :) With trepidation I tried kicking the Enfield to life and we were both overjoyed that it started right up...it coughed a load of black nasty stuff out of the exhaust, but it ran :)

By this time the guys in the jeep had somehow maneuvered themselves so close to the edge they were going to fall off the road! They pleaded with us to help them unload and we did. Then we helped push. Nothing doing. Then another jeep came down the road and some of the men came to help, we headed for the Pulsar - it was 5pm and we still had 40kms to ride before the stop for the night. I took the Pulsar on the same route and there were no mishaps - the bike is so much lighter. So we got loaded up and started on our way again. Not even 2kms up the road, just as we were hoping there would be no other river crossings there was another one.

We again parked the bikes and walked up. This one had a big waterfall dropping the water onto the road...it was not looking good. The small runoff on the road looked a lot easier than the previous one, but the stream crossing at the top was much deeper - you couldn't see the bottom (so no way to know where the rocks were) and it was at least knee deep, if not over the knee - too deep for the Enfield for sure with it's exhaust pipe about 8-10 inches off the ground (the Pulsar is a bit sportier and has a slanting pipe). It wasn't a great distance to cover, but it would be hard to get the momentum needed to cross it with the uphill ride through the runoff. We decided that it was too late, too deep and there was too much potential for more river crossings if we kept on this road. So we headed back to the bikes and turned them around and headed back to the first stream crossing.

Again I took both bikes across (my outrigger legs are a bit longer than A's :) with A in reserve to push or lift (as required :). Again we took the Enfield first. I thought it would be a bit easier as it was down hill, but though we didn't have any mishap it felt a bit edgier! I parked the Enfield and walked back up through the water for the Pulsar. The Pulsar has a much lighter front end so it was even more skittish and by the time I got parked up next to the Enfield I was shaking with the adrenaline and I dug into the tankbag for the ParleGs (our favorite biscuits - the G is for glucose :) Ah, much better. At this point we needed to decide where we were going to go - it was 6pm and we could go back to Manali on the rode we had just ridden (75kms), or we could head up the Manali Leh road to Keylong (55kms), but we didn't know what was in store for us and it was going to be dark before long. We decided on the known road, even though it was longer. We left the guys in the jeep to their fate...there was nothing we could do to help them.

I was soaked to the skin up to my waist, having fallen in the water, A was soaked to the knee, and our boots were waterlogged. We put on warm clothes and headed back to the pass...and it started to rain. The ride up was good, and then we started to get socked in as we climbed higher, soon it was hard to see more than a few meters in front of us. We reached the top of the pass and it was deserted - all the holiday makers had gone home - and then we started the descent down. We were both cold - I couldn't feel my toes and my hands were frozen! - but we knew that we would get warmer the lower we got. We passed one muddy slide area and then the paragliding launch point and soon we were at the dhaba where we stopped for a paratha and a cup of tea on the way up - everything was shut. Only 35kms left to Manali :)

We continued down, seeing only the occasional jeep or truck, thankfully they all had some sort of lights on. As we got lower the mist cleared, but it was getting dark by then. I was starting to feel warmer. We rode over the stream crossing that we were so excited about on the way up (we had gone back for a photo on the way up :) and we knew that coming up was a bit of a rough patch - a very muddy slide area that we had navigated on the way up. It was going smoothly and I was glad that we chose to ride roads that we knew.

We both knew it when we reached the slide area - the recent rain had not done it any favors, but at least there was no additional slide onto the roadway. As we got to the hairpin things got very slippery with mud and you could see headlights of a car coming up to the corner - I knew from our ride up that this section was only wide enough for one!!! The other lane around the corner was mud that was way too deep for the bikes. I stopped in the corner leaving enough room for the car to pass us on the inside and, leave it to the Enfield - it stalled! The whole gear lever on the right/brake pedal on the left and totally crap front drum brake makes starting the Enfield frustrating enough when the weather is lovely, it's bright daylight and the road is flat and dry....this is not what I needed. Then the Pulsar stalled as well :) Miraculously the front brake held the heavy bike on the slippery surface and it started on first kick (the ritual of kick starting an Enfield will be covered later :) and A got the Pulsar kicked to life and off we went - the rest of that section was a piece of cake.

Now it was just dark and though the road was wet, for the most part the pavement was good. We caught up to another bike and then he caught up to a car - we could see the road ahead with their headlights and that helped a lot. Then we had a jeep come up from behind and pull it's usual move (honk the horn a ton, make people move over so that they could pass) so we hopped on it's tail and followed their light for awhile :). We were soon outdistanced by the jeep but we were reaching civilization and we were only about 10kms away.

The headlights of the oncoming cars were starting to be irritating and make it hard to see the road - it's only single lane width in a lot of places and these guys like to use their high beams all the time, if they use their lights at all :). A car was coming at us so I went for the switch to drop from my high beam to my low beam (which is a very poor design - a slider switch hi-low-hi that turns the headlight off between settings) and my headlight went out as the car passed and all the sudden I was in total darkness and I couldn't see anything! I hit the rear brake, which is very touchy (to make up for the crap front brake) and, since the road was wet, locked up and caused a little skid while at the same time I revved the engine a little, because I couldn't tell if the bike had stalled (which would make the light go out). The bike was running and I found the low beam setting on the switch (I must have pushed it too far) and I once again had light. A maintained total calm following me down and did not run me over or skid her bike or do anything wacky at all (she is a star :) but did ask later if I was ok :) It turns out that in switching the headlight from high to low it blew the high beam part of the bulb.

Well, we were on the home stretch now, we had been riding for nearly 3 hours without stopping in some very demanding conditions, so what do we need? More slippery, rocky, dodgy road, right? :) There is a small detour just before you get into town that I think is the route around a bridge that is out. You have a slope that is studded with big rocks and you have to navigate to the right or left around a huge tree, navigating over the wet roots and then take a left turn in the slippery mud on a downhill slope and ride a narrow edge on the right side to avoid the deep puddles on the left and then ride over a wet, metal-decked temporary bridge and back up onto the road which is perpendicular to the detour and which has a big edge that you have to bump over. All this in the dark, too! Not to worry, we were well up to the task after the night descent of the pass - piece of cake :) We made it back to the hotel we had just left that morning - much to the surprise of the proprietor - and then went to find some food and then back to the room to drop into bed and sleep the sleep of the totally knackered.

We took the next day off and rested in Manali before attempting to get into the Kinnaur Valley from the other direction - over the Jalori Pass. Read my next installment for that adventure...plus more news on the Enfield's visits to the mechanic :) Yes, and photos!

Later!