Day 9, 05-07-2010 (Tso Moriri-Pang-Sarchu)
It was going to be a tough couple of days from now on. We had huge distances to cover. All the three knew that.
We started from Tso Moriri after a quick breakfast. Drove past Tso Kar (another lake; ‘Tso’ infact means a lake). It was all frozen up.
This was a new route for all of us. All we knew was that this would join the Manali-Leh highway somewhere where we needed to take a left. A right would have taken us back to Leh. We somehow missed that turn and started moving back towards Leh. It was only when we begun climbing a slope that it occurred to us that something was not right. We turned back and cursed a lot at the turn that we missed.
We could barely recognize Moore plains which looked destroyed due to loads of construction activity. When we reached Pang, the light drizzle turned into rain. We drove up and down through the 2 passes – Lachulungla and Nakeela. And by the time we got to Sarchu, the rain had turned into a downpour. We camped inside a tent and spent the night there.
Day 10, 06-07-2010 (Sarchu-Sarchu-Sarchu-Pagal Nallah-Barlachala-Keylong-Gramphu)
No. It’s not a typo. I’ll explain.
We got up early so as to cross Pagal Nallah and get to Barlachala on time. It had been raining in Sarchu but it was snowing up there in Barlachala. We had originally planned to get to Manali by day end. And we had more than a good chance of getting into trouble if we were not punctual.
But like Murphy’s Law puts it: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". A slice of bread will always fall with the buttered side facing down.
The day didn’t start right at the very outset. In the rush of things, Paggi left the car keys inside the car and I slammed the door shut. Somehow, we got hold of a huge plastic board and slid it down along the side window pane. Pop. The door lock opened and we were in. We had travelled about 7 kms when Paggi realized he had left one of his bags in the tent itself. We turned around, went back, got the bag and were on our way again.
We reached Pagal Nallah. It brought back all the horrifying memories from Day 2. The stream was flowing fast but it probably didn’t have much water. Just then Abhay noticed that one of our tyres was punctured. We decided to cross the stream with the flat itself. Once crossed, we got down to changing the flat. It was raining. We were short on time. We were feeling breathless at that high altitude. Jacking up never felt that tough. After we put the new one, we realized that the new one was punctured too and was in a worse state than the tyre we had just put back in the trunk.
Jacked up the car again, replaced the new with the older one, and turned around to go back to Sarchu. It seemed Sarchu wasn’t quite done with us yet and didn’t want us to leave. We had driven just a few kms with the punctured one when we heard metal on road. The car’s axle was screeching along the road. We stopped immediately, jacked up again, removed the tyre and waited for someone to carry us back to Sarchu where there was a mechanic.
Paggi and I waited in the rain while Abhay went and came back from Sarchu with both the tyres fixed. We put one of them and got back on track towards Barlachala.
A huge traffic snarl greeted us at Zing Zing Bar. Barlachala was blocked due to incessant snowing and cleaning up was in progress.
Soon, the road opened and we limped through Barlachala. We reached Keylong around 4 P.M. and learned that another Nallah had gone Pagal up ahead and we would need to take a diversion to reach Rohtang.
We started moving again. Just before the diversion our car got stuck in slush. The tyres were rotating vehemently but the car wasn’t moving ahead. Abhay and I got down to push the car but neither did us nor did the tyres find any grip in that slush. Then a messiah appeared out of nowhere. A Pajero, which needed us out of its way, pushed our car ahead and out of the slush. It was the most dramatic thing I had ever seen. Our Santro still has some red paint as souvenir against its rear bumper.
Later we took the diversion through a couple of villages to reach the other side of the latest pagal nallah and started the climb up to Rohtang around 7 in the evening. At the very outset, it seemed like an outlandish, if not suicidal, idea. As it is, it is tough to cross Rohtang but with rain and without light it will be impossible. Add to the fact that ‘Rohtang’ means ‘the valley of the dead’.
Logic, reason or our senses, none were working at that time. We had never wanted to get to Manali so desperately. Ever. We just wanted the day to end. But, like a higher power was playing with us, not wanting us to get to Manali. When we were just a few kms from Rohtang top, we learned that there had been a landslide up ahead and there was no chance of it getting cleaned up before next day’s morning. We felt hapless and helpless at nature’s tricks and tyranny.
But on the up side, it was only then that a better sense prevailed and we figured resistance was futile. We turned around to look for the first available shelter where we could spend the night. In Gramphu, we found a stone hut with a wood-cum-plastic sheet roof aka ‘Jhopdi’ colloquially. We spent the night there inside our sleeping bags with the sound of rain on the roof and a chilly breeze blowing right in.
Day 11, 06-07-2010 (Gramphu-Rohtang-Manali)
Paggi woke us up early the next morning. It had been 3 days and it was still raining. We were told that the landslide still hasn’t been cleared. We waited, we ate, we played cards. But the time just wouldn’t pass. Around 11, we decided to head to the point where the landslide had happened and wait there instead.
There was a long queue of cars waiting to cross to the other side. The only good thing was the authorities were not allowing traffic from Manali to come up. A crane was busy doing the work at the site. The incessant rain had loosened the soil and had caused huge boulders to fall off from mountains.
After waiting there for 2 hours, at around 3 in the afternoon, the area was partially cleared and cars were being let through while still small pieces of rubble kept tumbling down from the cliff. A guy in an Alto crossed the landslide area when even SUVs were having trouble. This pepped us up. It was our turn. Abhay and I had again stepped out of the car. And it was left to Paggi to take it across.
We watched from one end when our car after much bouncing and bumping on the slushy-rocky road made it to the other side. Just when Abhay and I ran across to our car, a huge boulder fell down the cliff. And the road got blocked again. We were happy that we got through but felt sad for the people who were still stuck on the other side.
We reached Manali at around 5 in the evening and checked into a hotel to get ourselves cleaned up. Soon, we found out that rain had caused floods in Punjab and the Chd-Delhi highway was blocked. I somehow convinced these guys that it would be wise if we left for Delhi the next morning instead so that we could locate and take a detour from Chandigarh and avoid Ambala.
We had dinner and spent the night in Manali.
Day 12, 07-07-2010 (Manali-Chandigarh-fields-Delhi)
We started at around 6 in the morning wondering what would we be greeted with on reaching Chandigarh. Never in our lives had we imagined not being able to go to Delhi from Chandigarh.
We reached Chandigarh and found the detour that we needed to take. It took us through numerous fields and finally brought us back to GT-K road. We were elated and celebrated by having a sumptuous meal at Haweli, Karnal.
We hit the road again. 12 days and 3000 kms later we were back in ‘Saadi dilli’.
It was a memorable trip. A dream lived. A wish fulfilled.
awesome!
ReplyDeletemast yaar. Love it.
we had the best of times together on this trip.