Street Traffic in India

Going back in time a little but some images of the various transport options and life on the streets in India - auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, motorbikes, cars, cows, elephants, tata trucks and buses!

Kunzum La 4501m and sleeting

Auto Rickshaw waiting for business, always need to barter - 250 rupees down to 150 rupees!

Typical street scene in Udaiphur dodging  cows, rickshaws, pedestrians and motobikes.

Very common to see 3 on a motorbike, definitely James Dean fan in front! 

Inside Tata truck over Kunzum La

And a very unexpected and close encounter with a working elephant in a narrow street.

The grind over and into the Spiti Valley

After a great day coming over Rhotang La, we were a bit shattered, but looking forward to a couple of days of relatively flat travel along the side of the mighty Chandra River, then over Kunzum La (4550m) to the Spiti Valley. 

These valleys together are said to be one of the most sparsely populated regions on planet.  We reckon we had about 10 vehicles max pass us each day - so the "road" is pretty quiet.  Soon you will see why....  It's not meant to be easy this Himalayan cycling thing...

16km in one day!!  You better believe it - scenery stunning, all to ourselves, but without doubt the hardest 

3 1/2 hrs riding I have done - sand and loose rocks, made it very physical on a loaded up bike!  We collapsed at the end of it.

Chota Dara - why do people live here?  

Mainly road workers - they seem to be the majority of people employed on this side of the hill.  I don't have any photos, but the majority of road workers are women with their babies or toddlers alongside.

Our room for the night - at an expensive govt guest house, the only place in Chota Dara,  but we managed to get it for nicks by sleeping with the motorbike on a concrete floor.

The kiddies at the guest house loved playing on the bikes.

Our next stop Batal, another one of those places that you wonder why people live here....

A lovely day trip to Chandertal Lake - using it both as an acclimatization trip, and a great chance to see this ever applauded lake.  Starts with a crawl up the long long switchbacks heading to Kunzum La.   

It's easy to feel really small in this landscape  

Amazing (for India) - no pollution and clean enough to swim.  This is very unusual, as for those who have been to India will know, rubbish gets thrown where it is produced, and eventually ends up in waterways.  Fortunately there are no settlements above this lake.

Having sat out one day of bad weather, we couldn't do another at Batal, so hitched a ride to Kunzum La with a Tata truck - early in the morning, so no traffic on the road.  Would rather be cycling it than driving it with traffic.

Would you want to cycle in this??  

At the summit of 4550m.  Bitterly disappointed that we didn't cycle it as we have become very fond of big hills, but it would have been totally miserable in the rain and the snow.

Then over to Losar, into the famed Spiti Valley - what a change, green fields, agriculture and even larger rock formations and considerably brighter weather than on the other side of the pass.

Yeha!  Back onto our bikes again and on tarmac with generally a slight downhill.  We have not had this combination yet!  What an absolute dream! 

As a pass was closed about 200km behind us, we virtually had the road to ourselves all the way to Kaza.  Just wonderful.

Bad hair day - both looking forward to our first shower in a week - where on earth did those wrinkles come from??

Indian road Signage - always lots of safety hints on the roads - apparently there is one fatal accident in the mountain roads of India each day.  I am happy to be on my bike!!

A typical Spitian house, with hay on the top drying for winter feed for animals.  The wee mannie at the top offered me chai.

That is the end of one of our easier days cycling so far - tar sealed ish road, and slightly downhill - an indication of the weather - this valley is meant to be a desert!! such is the odd weather of India at the moment.  Hope everyone is well.  Chrs Wendyxx

Images of Spiti

Descent of Rhotang La

After chilling out at the top of Rhotang La for about an hour and watching the Indian tourists do the donkey rides in the ski suits it was time to get moving again. 

Smooth Tarmac - Looking like a very fast descent!

OK not quite so straight forward.

This digger man refused to let us past until our French friend put his life at risk
by pushing his bike under the moving digger scoop, descent continued.

Finally reached Gramphoo and the Chandra river which looked pretty fierce. Instead
of stopping here we felt pretty good so cycled on to Chartru and an inviting dorm in
a Dhaba and a good feed.of Dahl, Veg and Rice.

Dhaba at Chartru

All in all a great day on bike - 52km and 800m ascent and descent over Rhotang La.



Phil

Rhotang La - Into the Himalaya

Finally with our bikes fully loaded we set off from Manali, a straight climb towards Rhotang La pass at 3950m. As per previous post we were wary of potential altitude problems and broke the climb over Rhotang La into two days, stopping at the truckers stop in Marhi (3,300m). This was a great move, we discovered in  the days to come that cycling at altitude on rough roads is down right tough and anything you can do to prepare the body helps enormously.

The climb to Marhi was through lush green hills, alpine trees and numerous switchbacks. Having done most of it a few days earlier, unloaded, there were no surprises and certainly made it easier. A few Dhabas on the way gave us welcome tea stops, snacks and time to enjoy the views.Marhi was our first introduction to basic Dhaba accommodation and the food we would be eating for the next week or two - dahl, rice and chapati. We were joined in Marhi by two French cyclists we had meet in Manali and shared our accommodation and the next days riding.

The next day the four of us eagerly started out for Rhotang La from Marhi. It was a stunning day but certainly with its challenges as this section of the road very narrow in places plus notorious for slips, lengthy sections of mud and permanent road works. Having said all that we loved the day and being on a bike gives you great advantages over the Tata trucks, jeeps and cars stuck in mud. At one stage it became one big road block with vehicles going up and down virtually wedged together as they tried to pass each other but with a line of vehicles behind nowhere to reverse. We just pushed our bikes through the mess and continued our merry way.  I can't imagine why small two wheel drive vehicles would even contemplate this journey into the mountains here.

As it turned out the road after this mess up was pretty good and as a result relatively free of traffic. It was a buzz to reach the pass and then compulsory chai and feed at one of the dhabas lining the road before pass. We could have even gone for a donkey ride or donned full ski suits for photos.

And then a wicked descent... but more on that next blog - off for some Tibetan food - momo's and vegetable soup - yum - Phil

Manali at Last

Into the hills - Manali finally!

Yeha!!  We have finally reached the hills.  We are now in Manali which is in the Himachal Pradesh, the Himalayan foothills.  So this is where we start our cycle.

Have been happy to indulge in Trout, Apple pie (regional specialties!) and beer, as it will be the last we have for a while, as our diet will be pretty much dahl and chapatis, at least for the next 14 days or so.  Might loose some weight, I can't say I am having a problem with eating here - Indian or non Indian food...

Things have changed a lot since a large flood devastated Leh, our key destination for this trip.  We decided that the last thing that Leh needed was tourists wandering around needing to know what was open and what was closed, while they are trying to sort themselves out.  And actually, the last thing WE wanted to do was to spend too much of our trip lugging our laden bikes over washed out roads....

So, that was about half of our cycle itinerary out the window.  Meanwhile the weather in the Himalayas has gone from bad to worse, with the onsoon hanging around over a month longer than normal..  Who wants to cycle in the rain?

Consequently we spent a couple of weeks at the beginning of our trip, touring around Rajasthan.  It was great to go there, but actually, I didn't realise how much the heat took it out of us, until we got here, to normal temperatures of the late teens.  Absolute heaven!!

Arriving in Manali was a bit like coming home, cool, clean with fresh air, great hill views, not too much traffic - Old Manali, where we are staying is very touristy, but the Indians are very laid back and totally non hassally.  So it's a bit of a dream.  We finally got on our bikes the last couple of days to see if our legs remember what its like, and yep, feels suprisingly good.  We will be calling on every piece of stamina memory possible, given we haven't been on our bikes for almost a month now!  Road up to about 3100m yesterday, to get some altitude, and once again it felt great.  I am sure we are going to get a bit of a shock when we get fully loaded up and touring though.

Yesterday's outing confirmed the reason we are doing this.  Its not easy, you know, dragging your bike around India - not that its gone too far, but, it's another hassal to add to the many of this country.  Add that to heat and humidity and a meltdown is never too far away...  And certainly when the floods occurred in Leh, we did wonder whether the hassal was going to be worth it, for what is now going to be a 20 day cycle.  We had originally planned on 40 or so days in total.  You may say - surely there are a lot more places to cycle??  The reality is, there are probably only three routes that I would want to cycle in India - the rest of the roads are far too busy and not scenic enough in my opinion.  We are cycling one of them, the other has been damaged in the floods and the other is close to Srinagar, the place of renewed political tension between India and Pakistan.  So that's it really.  And of course the easier way is to go supported - ie in a commercial group.  Which we did look at.  But, we wanted to do what we wanted, when we wanted, and to have that special contact with the locals.  The kind of contact you don't get by being in a bus or by being in a group with a guide.

So, as I said, yesterday confirmed we have done the right thing...  Great contact with the locals, and Indian tourists alike, who were keen to hear what we were doing (and why??!?!), and to talk about what they are doing, the shepherds stopping us on the way, NO TRAFFIC!!, on a very scenic route and a great connection with three other cyclists who were heading in the same direction.  (We're all mad!!)  So, it feels great.  Actually, we felt extremely light weight compared to the guys we met.  I hope we have enough gear...

We start tomorrow - I need to go and get packed - hoping to cull a little bit more to send home.  Our first big pass is at 3900m - only 2000m above here!!  - we will be taking it in 2 days, as that's enough with a full load, and our second biggie is at 4550m.  I have never been to altitude on a bike - done it plenty of times on foot, and managed it ok, but I think it might be a bit different on a bike.  You need to keep a bit of momentum going... so WISH US LUCK..

For those who are interested, and the best way is to Google Earth it, our route goes something like:

Manali - Rothang la (3900m) - Gramphoo - Kunzum La (4550m) - Spiti Valley - Losar - Kaza - Ki Monastery - Tabo - Nako - Recong Peo - Sarahan - Shimla  - anything from 18 - 24 days, depending on how many side trips we do, and how the roads are.  We should update the blog in Kaza in about 8 days.

Apologies for lack of and quality of photos - don't have time, need to go to bed!!  Will update later.  W

Hope all is well, take care,
Wendyxx (and P)