August 24, 2019, Riding Day #3:  Uletopko to Leh  1530M climbing, 1060M down, 75km, 3585M elev at end

Today was one of the best riding days every, and one of the hardest.  We had two long climbs, they were at a reasonable pitch but very long.  The downhills after both climbs were an absolute delight - although one had to be very observant, they don’t invest heavily in “slow to” or “sharp curve ahead” signs.  Heading into a hairpin curve at 65km with a 1,000M drop if you missed the turn was good to get the heart pumping - and they don’t invest in many guardrails.

We are in the western Himalayas, it is very dry around here, in fact it hardly ever rains.  A lot of the house construction involves mud roofs.  Recently due to climate change rain occasionally now happens which is not good with mud roofs, so heavy plastic and/or metal is now being added to roofs.

Again a very heavy military presence, lots of military trucks on the road, several large military camps.

Mike Hennessey, a good friend of many of us, was supposed to be riding with us, but unfortunately passed away very unexpectedly late last year.   So, we will be doing two tributes to Mike on this ride.  The first we did yesterday.  Mike had been very excited to see the confluence of the Indus and Zanskar rivers.  So we did a bit of a ceremony above the high lookout, building a small rock cairn and adding some of his ashes.  Very emotional to all of us.

Some pics from the tribute:

Confluence of Indus and Zanskar Rivers

Hike up to viewpoint

Caroline

Fred

Don

Dunnery

Henry

Frieder

Per

Ron

Ron adding some ashes

The cairn in the foreground, people leaving in the background

We are in Leh for two days to be back on the original schedule (for hotel bookings and such), a good thing as we are about to go into the hardest section of the ride.  We will be sleeping at over 4,000M (13,000ft) to a sleeping high of 4520M (14,800ft).  I’m nervous but excited!

Telus continues to be a serious problem, I can receive mail but cannot send,  This is now over a week - I think it is time to get an alternate email service, maybe Gmail.  I will be very remote over the next week, so probably not able to post.

August 23, 2019, Riding day 2:  Lamayuru to Uletopko  880M climbing, 1320M down, 46km, 3111M elev at end

A short easy day, riding along the Indus river.  The first 20km we rode down a spectacular gorge, the rock formations and colouring were amazing.

Some pics:

Yes, a highway maintenance crew of women

Most of the road repairs are done by hand

Lots of military in the area (this is antique)

One of the very nice descents

Dunnery on a climb

The accommodations along the ride have all been really good, sometimes reasonable hotels, in Uletopko we were in individual quite luxurious small cabins sited on a high bank over the Indus River.

August 21, 2019 Mulbek

We have been bussed back towards Srinagar to Mulbek, where we would have been after three days riding from Srinagar.  Essentially the closest we can get to the Jammu/Kashmir area.  We are about 20km from the Pakistan border.  Very heavy military presence in the area.  

The countryside is absolutely spectacular - think the Fraser canyon on steroids.  Pics after tomorrow and once I get WiFi access again.  My Cell phone is happily working but if I try access anything on the web I get the message “We are sorry WiFi is temporarily unavailable where you are”.

Our bus ride meant that we got to see what our three day ride back to Leh would be like - I would have preferred not to have known - It will require a new term at the level after “brutally hard”.

Tomorrow will be our first real day riding, only about 75km, but some 1,700+M climbing and at typically 3,300M (13,000ft)

Our accommodation this evening - very nice including private bathrooms with flush toilets.

August 22, 2019, Lamayuru, 65km, 1,680M (5,500ft) climbing

Today was our first real riding day, we are starting on the 4th day of the original plan (starting from Srinagar).  Spectacular countryside, but the ride was rather hard, like doing the Vancouver to Whistler GranFondo but at 13,000 ft.  A bit of a tough first day!  We did two of the more significant passes of the trip, Namika La 3,655M (12,198ft) and Fotu La 4,105M (13,479ft), yes La means pass.

I’ve started to understand the truck horns:  The short beep is just to let you know they are there, a longer beep is to warn someone coming the other way around a blind corner, the musical tones are simply happily saying hi.  As in most places a friendly wave

is almost always returned.

At one point today across the valley I could hear monks chanting/reciting - i.e. their “happyness sounds”.

Some pics from the day:

Ron and Dunnery about to start the first full day of riding

Our hotel tonight is bottom right in the pic

August 18,2019 - Leh

We had a full briefing this morning.  Normally TDA has a Medic on their rides, but for this ride we have a full Dr. that has spent considerable time at the Mt. Everest rescue station, their high altitude specialist.  That we need our own doctor is concerning…   Helen is very very knowledgable, but she bore two bits of terrible news:

1. The body does not remember that you have previously been at high altitude.  you have to start the acclimatization process from scratch, i.e. spend a day per 300-600 meters elevation rise.  The focus is not what you might do during the day, but the elevation that you overnight.
2. That I get no credit for previous ventures to high altitude is bad enough but worse is no alcohol.  Alcohol interferes with the body’s natural mechanism for acclimatization.  The very strong advice is we wait till Shimla (lower elevation) before we should consider a beer.  That’s over three weeks away!

Normally TDA makes heavy use of Sat phones since we are commonly out of cellphone range.  But due to the “troubles” in Kashmir, the Indian army has insisted, actually directed no Sat phones.  So TDA will have an extra truck that will patrol the ride.

Did a small hike today to the top of a local hill to the Shanti Stupa - about a 100m (350ft) climb. i.e. 500+ steps.   I was pleased, we are at 3,500m (11,500ft) so the breathing was heavy but the legs were totally happy and a very quick recovery as soon as I stopped climbing.

Erwin and Dunnery

No shoes

Tomorrow we are going for a short bike ride just to make sure everything works and remembering how to keep the pace very slow.

August 19, 2019 Leh

Went for a 55km ride today - complete with a beautiful downhill part, belching diesel trucks, ponds across the road to navigate and some wonderful scenery.

Bike in riding form complete with prayer flags

We twice crossed over the Indus river, we are close to the headwaters.  

Dunnery in the Indus river

They like prayer flags here

Some other pics from the ride:

note the outdoor class

Visited (rode up to) the Thikse Monastery today.  It is a Gompa (Tibetan-style monastery) affiliated with Tibetan Buddhism.  It resembles the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.  

note the coins

This carved Buddha is about 50' tall

Note the "free wifi"

When one looks from a higher vantage point is is sure obvious that if you add water to dirt one has very lush vegetation.

The Himalayas reminded us today that we are irrelevant insignificant specs on the landscape.  It went from warm, no rain, no wind - i.e. very pleasant for riding to cold, rain and very strong winds within 5 minutes - no question who is boss.

Reminder:  If you click on any of the pictures you get a hi-re version.

I'm not very happy with Telus, they have had a major problem with their email service, I can now receive some mail (lots missing) but still cannot send - very frustrating.