Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Day 4 : Keylong - Darcha - Koksar
View from the hotel
A bath and a breakfast later, I was ready to leave. I decided to ride up the route to Ladakh for a while and turn back and make it to Manali for the night. Jispa was the next town on the route, 23 Kms from Keylong. It was 11 AM. There were some army barracks on the way and a petrol pump that had only diesel and I guess that was not for public use. Jispa had another HPPWD rest house and a large hotel. The roads were pretty bad for long stretches and a real test of patience for any biker.
A nondescript village near Jispa
Next up was a descend to Darcha where there was a bridge across the river Chandra. There were some shops and dhabas here. I crossed the bridge and went up further for about 10 Kms when I saw a huge waterfall flowing down the slope and right across the road. I was not sure if it was safe to cross and decided to wait for a while for some vehicle to cross it first and give me an idea of how deep the water was on the road.
A while later a truck passed through and I found that I can cross it if I kept to the center of the road and avoided the tread lines of four wheel vehicles. I decided to try my luck, lost balance and had to put my left foot down on the chilling water to balance myself. I got through with chilling water in my shoes. I decided to proceed a bit further and then drain the water off my shoes. But just one Km ahead there was another massive stream flowing across the road. This was much tougher than the previous one, and I decided to wait and have a good look. The flow was so strong that it carried large chunks of rocks right across the road.
A while later a truck passed through and I found that I can cross it if I kept to the center of the road and avoided the tread lines of four wheel vehicles. I decided to try my luck, lost balance and had to put my left foot down on the chilling water to balance myself. I got through with chilling water in my shoes. I decided to proceed a bit further and then drain the water off my shoes. But just one Km ahead there was another massive stream flowing across the road. This was much tougher than the previous one, and I decided to wait and have a good look. The flow was so strong that it carried large chunks of rocks right across the road.
Soon a Tata Safari came along and had a tough time getting through.
This was when I decided to turn back. I rode back and stopped at a small dhaba at Darcha, drained out water from my shoe and had some refreshments. On my way back, I took this road up to Kangsar and May villages.
There were surfaced roads only up till Kangsar. Thereon till May, where the road ends, the roads were unsurfaced. Half way to Kangsar, I had a look down and saw the winding mountain road that that I was riding on. All the way till Kangsar, there were potato farms on the hill slopes. Kangsar was about 10 Kms off the Leh road, a few Kms after Jispa, if you are going towards Leh. May is further 2 Kms from Kangsar. May takes you up close to the snowy mountain peaks. A 2 Kms trek from where the motorable road ends, there's a monastery.
May is a small village, connected only by rocky, unsurfaced roads. The road passed over another waterfall. Thankfully, the roads were out of reach of the waterfall. The road ended at May, where a solitary cow was tied across the road.
Early in the morning, on my way to Darcha, I had seen a Himachal Tourism signboard, which had a map of the trekking routes in this area. One of them was a trek to Kugti pass, located at a height of 5000 Mts. I had a small hope in the back of my mind that it might just be possible to take my bike half way up the trek route. This took me to Shansha, which is about 25 Kms from Tandi. The trek started after a wooden suspension bridge over a river. The bridge was off limits for vehicles. So I couldn't attempt the trek. But the place was full of scenic beauty and I was glad that I made it here. The first picture has a view of the trekking route and even a few tourists on their way up.
There was another road going further up from Shansha. I didn't know where it led to but the whole place was so beautiful that I decided to wander up that road, just to soak in that natural beauty. Half was up I shot a good snap of Shansha and the road that I was on. The road ended up at a small village, which by the looks of it seemed abandoned. There was not a soul I could see around. But the road up to this place was beautiful with bright yellow and pink flowers on the slopes, making up a memorable evening for me.
Before I knew it was 5 PM. I had originally planned to reach Manali by night. But this now looked out of reach and I decided to make it as close as possible to Rohtang and call it a day. After a 2 hour ride, I reached Koksar and checked into the HPPWD rest house for the night. This place had no mobile network coverage. BSNL is the only service provider after Rohtang pass. Worse, this place didn't even have a STD phone in the village. So I had to ride back 14 Kms to Sisu to call home. The stretch between Koksar and Sisu was a tough ride in the dark, with the roads being almost completely washed away for long stretches.
This was another tiring day, and my tour was now coming to an end. I was a satisfied man. Had dinner from a nearby dhaba and went to sleep, planning to do the Rohtang to Manali stretch before the onslaught of tourists made the going tough for me.
Distance covered - 228 Kms
Expenses - Food and accomodation Rs 384
Fuel - Rs 300
Total : Rs 684
Day 1 : Noida to Shimla
Day 2 : Dhali to Jalori Pass
Day 3 : Khanag to Keylong
Day 4 : Keylong - Darcha - Koksar
Day 5 : Koksar to Noida
