Day 2 - Way too many puddles to cross to get to Sarchu
Now to Day 2... June 25, 2017
Goal
Day 2 goal was to ride from Keylong, HP to Dorje Camps in Sarchu, HP in one piece. Riding distance was 100 kms and there was no specific time target.
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| If you see a name of a place en route, it's just a tent with 2 people selling dal and rice. |
Caution
Our guide advised that the ride is not going to be easy and we will be encountering a lot more broken or missing roads and most importantly water crossings. We had to start early to cross as many rivers/streams as possible before the ice starts to melt more.
The first stream crossing was a nightmare but by the end of the day we were looking for streams to cross, just for the fun of it.
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| First big stream crossing of Day 2 (Scared) |
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| Later in the day (Excited, look at the cheering squad) |
The Lake of the Sun God (Suraj Taal) is one of the highest lakes in India that we saw en route. The beautiful lake was surrounded by very unstable and rough slopes by the side of the road and it was very dangerous to stop to take pictures due to fear of sliding rocks. We did stop at the top of the lake to take some beautiful pictures.
Passes
Crossing passes was a norm in this trip and by this time we were very comfortable with high altitude riding aka Bullet 350 cc performing at 100 cc power. This route included crossing Baralacha La which is at an altitude of 16,000 ft above sea level.
Beauty
There was not a single moment that went by without feeling the breath taken away at every sight of the beauty.
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| Suraj Taal |
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| Road block due to landslide |
We were scheduled to stay overnight at Dorje Camps in Sarchu. Dorje camps is tent accommodation at about 14,000 ft above sea level, with temperatures below or at freezing and no guaranteed hot water.
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All in One
The full ride on Day 2 in a 8 minute video here.
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