15^th September

At 9:30 Bian Ba came to collect my passport, he had to take it to the customs to get some additional papers before we could leave. In the meantime I had breakfast, and packed the bike. We had actually moved the bike into the foyer of the Hotel as the management and Bian Ba feared theft of small parts… so with the help of a hotel attendant moved it out and ran the engine to warm it up.

We left at 10:30. For New Tingri which is 250 Km away but considering the roads all being uphill it is expected that we will take about 6 hours.

Kodari  (Nepal) is at an altitude of 5,841 ft. from there I had climbed to 7,590 ft when we went to Zhangmu or Dram. Today we climbed to 16,896ft at the Nyalam Pass….Quite a jump in one day! New Tingri our destination is lower - 14,107 ft from sea level !

About 20 Km after we left, we stopped for the first check-post (there were 4 on the way) to get our passports and permits examined. Here I noticed that there was a pool of oil where Rocinante stood. I shuddered as I had already changed the oil at 3000Km and then at Kodari as the clutch plates had to be changed. I had brought the oil with me from Bombay as only a certain type of oil has to be used. I have only 1 liter left! The guard told us we could get this fixed at Nyalam- 15 Km ahead. We stopped at a mechanic’s but he was clue less. Finally I called Ziad from Spark Motion Bikers in Bombay and he told me what to do over the phone! It was not serious… All settled we resumed the journey. And what a journey it has been today! I have crossed some of the most amazing landscapes. I kept stopping to click photographs every now and then. The weather had quite naturally changed, as we proceeded I kept adding layers of clothing… I had to now wear my heavy duty snow shoes, 2 jackets, and gloves with all this and my helmet I felt like a cosmonaut!

Now surrounded on all sides, the first range around me was of brown muddy mountains backed at places by snow capped mountains. Soon after Zhangmu, as we ascended the vegetation had disappeared from the mountains, they were now greys purples, golden browns…sometimes with a patina of blues and greens- incredibly breath taking. There was a spot from where Mt. Everest can be seen, but today there was only a huge cloud. There is only this one road that runs through the landscape, no crossings, no bifurcations so there’s no way one can lose the way even if there are almost no signs,(what few are there are in Tibetian and Chinese). There are no brooding, meditating cows, baffled sheep or rather Yaks in the middle of the road. It is quite desolate save a very very few villages with a single row of houses on either side of the road. Near inhabited places, as clichéd as it may sound, golden barley stood ready for harvesting.

We had lunch at old Tingri at about 16:30 hrs and reached new Tingri at 18:40 hrs. We were on the road for 8hours. And today I am really exhausted and have a blasting headache- the last 2 hours were really killing- it is also because of the altitude, the oxygen is thinner…My body should have adapted by tomorrow. It’s going to be another long drive tomorrow.