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)