Day 03 - The First Pass

Date : 20th July, 2015
Start : Marhi (1010 Hrs)

End : Koksar (1740 Hrs)

Distance: 37 Kms

Terrain: Beautiful uphill road till Rothang Pass. Extreme off road downhill till Koksar

What an ultimate down hill experience after that extreme incline to Rothang pass. Paid off all those efforts to conquer Rothang Pass. Today is a celebration day for us, as we have successfully conquered the first pass of our expedition. Today we had taken a halt at Koksar, a small village after Rothang Pass on the way to Leh. We have set up our tent near to a small ice water stream from the mountains. After the off road, our bikes were very dirty and chains were in a very bad condition. First thing we did after setting up the tent is the bike wash and servicing. 

It's around 8.30 PM and we come to a dhaba to settle down our stomach. Out side it's dark and the temperature dropped so much. We are frizzing even with two layers of cloths. While Vijesh is on his way for another adventure, let's spend sometime with completing the diary with this much needed hot full glass tea. 

Last night, in spite of the high altitude and fear of mountain sickness, we could able to sleep properly. Proper rest, good food and lots of water helped us acclimating the situation better and we were filling very fresh this morning. First day in tent, everything was mess and we took lot of time to wrap up and gave a start to the journey. Before starting we just cleaned our bicycle chains, as it was fully covered with mud. 

Dirtying the Hands, for a clean chain

Right after that we had our first meal at the same dhaba, where we had dinner last night. Unlike yesterday, we packed two stuffed parathas each for our lunch. What else just after a glass of tea, we started towards Rothang Pass. It's around 10.10 AM we could able to make a start and Rothang Pass was around 18 KM from there. Roads were more stiffer and even more beautiful than yesterday. With the rise in altitude, the temperature was dropping slowly and the climate became unstable. Sometime it was sunny and sometime it was raining. But as a whole, we enjoyed the offer from the nature. I am not that sure but I think we reached Rothang at around 1 AM. 

Tent @ Marhi

The Adventure Trips, ready for next adventure

Breakfast Point

Valley view, Rohtang

Rothang Pass

Rothang Pass

Salute to Sukhdev Singh Gill

Kannada Speaking Sardar Jee

Roads to the destination

On the way to Rothang Pass

On the way to Rothang Pass

On the way to Rothang Pass

On the way to Rothang Pass

Amazing ride towards Snowpeak mountain

Beautiful Mountains of Rothang Pass

On the way to Rothang tourist spot

The tourist spot at Rothang was fully crowded and was raining. When I stopped, lot of people started approaching with lot of questions seeing me on bicycle. Some of the questions were encouraging and some were annoying. So I decided to move ahead and stop at a lonely place.  We all three spent some time at the peak and decided to have our lunch near to a stream.

Soon after a good stretch, off road got started and It was horribly bad with sand, garble and slush. Running stream water on the roads made the roads even more horrible. But not for us, may be for those mighty bullet guys and four wheeler. We fully enjoyed the downhill off road. In some time we could managed to find a beautiful steam to have our food. Thanks to those travelers from Maharastra, who offered us vegetable curry and some Indian breads. Washing our utensils in that ice water stream was really challenging for us. Even drinking that freezing water was not that easy.

Downhill from Rothang

The BLU man

Cycle to pose now

Resting before the OFF road

Planing time

Celebration time

Food for life

Clear and cold water

No better place to have food

It was around 3 PM, when we finished with our lunch. Soon after the lunch, we started hunting for a place to put the tent for the night. It was raining, we checked couple of places. Vijesh was not quite comfortable to put the tent near to river. That was a good decision, as I just came to know that the river name is "Pagla Nallah" (Crazy Stream). It changes it's direction crazily. Finally just before Koksar, we finalized a place near to the water stream. Quite a scenic place; one side mountain wall with a beautiful view of the water fall, the other sides of the mountains are covered with show patched mountains with a view of snow covered Rothang. 

Plan for 2016, Road to Spiti Valley

 

OFF Road continues

Land slides

Bad Roads

Bad Roads

Muck!!!!

Bad Roads

Bad Roads

After a warm tea from the same dhaba, we put our tent and cleaned our cycles. By the time myself and Santhosh finished with tent setup, Vijesh arranged hot water bath at the same dhaba. Myself and Santhosh ditched the idea of taking bath in the stream. 

View from tent

Vijesh is just back from another adventure. Myself and Santosh are not going for the bath. Luckily we are getting both rice and Indian bread for dinner today. It's a Nepali dhaba and these people comes here every year from Nepal to earn some money. These are the few months they rent a place and run the dhaba with the hope of travelers and tourists. For everything their only hope is Manali and Rothang is the Wall in between them. In the month of October when show fall starts, these people move to Nepal till April. Some people just never want to give up the difficult life. Hats up the these people taking so much of pain. They are the real contributors of my expedition. With out them, I really can't think of it.