Last night was a nightmare. I was cold, almost freezing cold. I woke up in the morning to see a layer of ice formed on top of my tent. It was a windy morning and I was feeling pain in my joints due to cold.
With so much pain in my fingers due to cold, somehow I folded-up my tent, prepared the bicycle. Spending a night at top of Rohtang was an insane thing to do, considering what I experienced. Perhaps being brought up tropical climate my body couldn't take in cold weather.
I started to pedal my bike, but couldn't ride after 10meters. I oxygen was low and I was gasping for air with my mouth wide open. I pushed the bike till the point from where the descend started.
Next challenge was the descending roads. Infact, there was no road at all. With roads being fully destroyed by landslides, It was like a trail wide enough for a car to go, with rocks and puddles. If you make a small mistake you can fall into the valley and never wake up.
After tackling the last 8km of bad road once gain, I reached a small, but nice & warm hotel, in the outskirts of Keylang. The hotel manager said, cycling till Leh may not be a good idea. The climate is getting cold and even the bus services to Leh will be stopped soon due bad weather. I listened to him and imagined how tough it was for me at almost 4000 meters altitude in Rohtang. If I had to reach Leh, I had to cross passes which were even higher.
I didn't have any clothing for cold weather and after what happened in Rohtang, I decided to buy some.
With so much pain in my fingers due to cold, somehow I folded-up my tent, prepared the bicycle. Spending a night at top of Rohtang was an insane thing to do, considering what I experienced. Perhaps being brought up tropical climate my body couldn't take in cold weather.
I started to pedal my bike, but couldn't ride after 10meters. I oxygen was low and I was gasping for air with my mouth wide open. I pushed the bike till the point from where the descend started.
Next challenge was the descending roads. Infact, there was no road at all. With roads being fully destroyed by landslides, It was like a trail wide enough for a car to go, with rocks and puddles. If you make a small mistake you can fall into the valley and never wake up.
After tackling the last 8km of bad road once gain, I reached a small, but nice & warm hotel, in the outskirts of Keylang. The hotel manager said, cycling till Leh may not be a good idea. The climate is getting cold and even the bus services to Leh will be stopped soon due bad weather. I listened to him and imagined how tough it was for me at almost 4000 meters altitude in Rohtang. If I had to reach Leh, I had to cross passes which were even higher.
I didn't have any clothing for cold weather and after what happened in Rohtang, I decided to buy some.
No comments:
Post a Comment