The Mother of all Cycling expedition Manli-Leh - The Ghost of Gata Loops

The last thing you want to know on a once in a lifetime physically enduring prolonged journey is a Ghost story. When that has to do with the an upcoming Mountain Pass it becomes even more disturbing.  No better way to spoil a rest day.  More on that later. 

It was like a Sunday when you relax your weekly routines. 6:30, 7:30 & 8 am departure schedule did not apply. Biological clocks change as your habits change. I woke up at the same time. For someone who had supported us all these days by getting up early in the morning in this chilling cold, it did not make sense for us to disturb the cooks today. I, Satnam and Gautam decided to walk up to the local Sarchu market for tea. The wind and the dust had calmed down as though it knew that it was a rest day. The thin air was making the brisk walks difficult. Like the Sun came out of the clouds, Satnam had come out of his illness. Today was the day of stretching, yoga and meditation. He led the group for a half an hour activity. Bobby was still struggling with his eye infection. The injury meant that he had to keep his eyes open for longer duration, putting significant stress on his riding. Pulling it through up till here showed his grit. 

BSNL don't work in this part, so after breakfast, I stepped out for phone call at the Sarchu satellite phone base. Before I, Tandava and rest of the folks could arrive, here was our networker in chief Abhishek at the phone booth. On the previous day evening when I went for a phone call, I could sense the rudeness of the person at the phone booth. Today he had changed. He called out - Abhishek sir has 3 more phone calls to make. My word he is so good at Jugaad that he managed to take some of the Bhojpuri movies from the Phone booth attendant to his mobile via Shareit App. 

We decided to walk down to the river and have a dip. Flowing directly down from the melting snow, Tsarap chu river was insanely cold. But taking a dip was imminent. Looking up at the mountains one could imagine the different shapes chiseled by the almighty - ranging from elephants to humans to trees. The walk down to Tsarap chu river bed was easy, but the walk up to the campsite was tough due to lack of breath. 

The second half of the day was spent in the camp relaxing and playing cards. Poker, bluff and theen pathi were the favorite pastimes.  In the evening, I stepped out for phone call. By now Abhishek had established his links with the guy at the desk. We were guests of Abhishek sahib now.

That night I did not sleep well. It was not the dusty winds of Sarchu which made my life miserable, it was the Ghost story of Gata loops. Gata loops comprises of 21 loops, winding up from the base of the languishing river Tsarap chu. On the 19th Bend is when this happened. The story goes back quite some years when the area was barely accessible even in Summer. It was this godforsaken truck which was carrying a truck load to Leh through this terrain. On the 19th loop the truck driver finds it difficult to negotiate the bend. He asks the helper in the truck to go down and help him negotiate the bend. In the midst of the Chaos, the driver accidentally runs over the helper. He then puts his body in a sack and throws it down the cliff. Few months later, riders along the pass are faced with ill-natured incidents. There are breakdowns on the 19th bend. Some riders are confronted with a person who asks for water, who mysteriously disappears in the end. When the incidents blew out of proportion, the villagers nearby and few commuters started researching on the incident and found a decomposed body down the cliff. Finally they cremated the body and did the final rites. In memory of that, there is small memorial on the 19th bend where riders have left plastic bottles (Plastic.. no no please). After the Barlacha la adventure, this was the last thing I wanted to hear on the break day. Compounding this was the incidents Saurabh shared about Baralacha la climb where few years he saw the remains of a young Biker who attempted the climb during peak snowfall. Nature is pristine when it is clam. However, when it turns against you, it is violent at the worst. Calamities! In such expeditions, you hope and pray nature is not adverse. If it does, you just ride with it and not try to fight it. First 3 days were furious. Luckily we past Baralacha la. The Sun was out, but the daemons were still not gone. And now you have to confront the 19th Bend! Middle of the journey when my partners were falling sick, I did not want to hear this. How will it be tomorrow?

Right step forward in the morning. Sarchu was still windy and dusty. The ride up till the base of Gata loops is an undulating downhill, followed by a climb up Ghata loops, further climb up till Nakee la pass and further down to the highest camping point in our journey - Biskynala. Soon we realized that there was not enough water around. Sarchu was unusually dry. (what else would you expect in a high altitude desert). The worrying fact was that the fresh water sources had dried up. Back at Sarchu, the lady at the Dhaba was also mentioning the depletion of water. Sandeep and Abhishek had to finally go down to the river basin to get water filled up.  

21/4 = 5, that was my calculation. 5 loops and a break. Saurabh's warning, one will see shortcuts which will save you couple of switchbacks, don't try them, you will get exhausted pushing up the cycle. When you are circumspect, you go by the rule book. In the end I was able to push uptill 7 loops in one shot and did the climb with 3 breaks. On the 19th, I stopped for a moment to notice the heaps of plastic that had got accumulated. As a ceremony, I dropped few drops of water at the site and was on my way with the Ghost behind my back.  Few kilometers ahead, there is a view point for the valley below. Right before that, there is a view of a hole created in a rock, fairly similar to the Akka-Thangi rocks at Hampi. 

Nakee la climb up was fairly similar to Baralacha la, though not that extreme, but still we had to climb up few more kilometers from the top of Ghata loops.  From there it is a down hill till Biskynala. As you climb down, you would see the valley, Biskynala and Lachung la ahead. We went right to the campsite. Sun bath at the campsite.

Soon the sun dipped down under the high mountains and the temperature dipped. Satnam had fairly recovered well by now and was in his elements. Bobby was also recovering well, but not quite. The water source at Biskynala was also depleted. The nala (stream) was non existent.  From the campsite there was  shortcut which would save 3 km uphill, it was pretty steep. For those of you who are curious about the name, the legend goes that there was truck load of Whiskey which overturned into the Nala and that is how it got the name. That day night the folks may have had a party at area.  For the non Whiskey fellows, there is Brandynala as well on the Manali-Leh route. Should I take it or not? Will decide tomorrow morning based on conditions. 

The morning was greeted by "ice" water bottles. All frozen by the night cold. 

I, Bobby and Ria decided to push it up the hill while Manas decided to take the longer route, going down to the base of the nala and riding up the hill. Sandeep decided to do his first uphill ride. Few kilometers uphill is Lachung la, the fourth pass on the Manali-Leh highway. By now we knew the routines of climbing uphill. At 16600 feet it stood at its majestic beauty. And here comes Sandeep like someone riding a road cycle on the plains. These guys have large lung capacity by birth :).

The downhill from Lachung la had stunning views, but the ride was daunting. Non existent roads and trucks blessing you with mud bath. Lungs get filled with dust if you don't cover your face with buff.  The creator in chief having chiseled the mountains with his his equipment such as Wind and Water.

Few kilometers before Pang, there is a river crossing at Kanglajal. I took a few minutes break to take a dip in the river and get cleaned up from the accumulated dust. Few years back there was flooding in this area which had cut off Pang completely. Now there are couple of bridges built by the Army. 

I took a few minutes break at a Dhaba in Pang. Bobby rushed to get an eye drop at the nearest Army Hospital. There is a phone booth available a Satellite phone available at the Army base for emergency calls. From Pang there is a 6 km uphill ride to the start of More (Morhe) plains. At the top of the climb, you get a perception of being on a plateau. 

A 30 km long stretch of downhill with a bit of headwinds greeted me on top of the Pang climb with snow capped mountains standing like soldiers on a march past on either side. Max speed we hit was was round 40. Before Meru we took a ride through dirt track towards our camping site at Tso Kar lake.

Water creates magic, it brings life. Tso Kar lake, though the area being dry, the lake brought about lifeforms, Himalayan wild ass, Cutie Pika (the Himalayan wild rat), birds to name a few.

As the night drew near, the anxiety of crossing the highest mountain pass in the route (second highest in the world) drew near. Debrief was pretty simple, if you have rode this far and crossed Baralacha la, this one wouldn't be that difficult. The last of the challenge, the biggest of all did not matter, but hey  the expedition was going to end in 2 days. The mountains had become and integral part in the last few days. The breathlessness, the pain, the fatigue was something I look forward to. One last pass separates us from wilderness and civilization. In the midst of thoughts, I fell asleep.

Next : Painting green at Tanglang la and the home stretch.