The Ice had melted by then and was more of slush
Prayer flags at Leh Palace
The next morning we headed out to Kargil, it was going to be a long day so we thought of heading out early. As usual everyone was late, Sandhu and me were ready and headed off leaving the rest of them behind us. I was controlling my emotion better by now: so pat on the back to me … :).
A quick fuel stop and we started off slowly, waiting for others to catch up. Sherry, Apjoo and Amar soon caught up. Mr. Pandey, our Dude was missing. As we waited in patthar Sahib, we got the news that he had banged into a Van, Head on. Apparently he came out with only scrapped fingers. Sandhu went back to Leh to get him. We were contemplating the end of the ride for Pandey, but after a few frantic calls back to Leh, news was in, that all is ok, including the bike and Mr. Pandey.
Yeah we climbed all the way up..well half the way atleast :)...Amar went the entire way :)
We decided to have Lunch at Nimu where we waited for Sandhu and Pandey to catch up as well. BTW the roads in this part are amazing smooth Tarmac
Finally they arrived and we were very late. We had to see Lamayuru monastery en route. I must say Pandey is a brave man, no sign of the accident besides 2-bandaged fingers, and he was still flying ahead of all of us.
Lamayuru
By the time we reached Lamayuru it was late afternoon, Apjoo didn’t get off well with the monk there :). Amar slipped in the gravel, as a result he had a puncture; this was the very thing we were dreading before the trip, his tyre wasn’t flat though, so we decided to fill air up and keep filling it afeter every few kms,hoping to find someone to change it. Sherry and me tailed Amar and countless stops later just before darkness fell we found a guy, who helped us remove the tube. And between all this we climbed over Fotula
Sherry and me tailing Amar witht a pump
All hands on deck puncture repair...
Amar was "THE" guy when it came to breakdowns. He helped Akhil with the crappy bike at Khardung la and Pangong.
After this we all rode together in the dark, and dust and reached Kargil in the dead of the night. It had been an eventfull day an a tiring one, thank god we found a decent place in Kargil to bunk considering it was about 11:00 pm.
We had no idea about convoy timings next day and had to cross Zorji la.
