Sun, Jul 17

6:14 am: woke up at 6 - its been raining all night. Today we plan to start the drive and get upto sarchu.

9:51 am: so we started out at 7 but there was a small landslide just after manali - people had apprantly been waiting since 2:30 - just got cleared - we had a nice hike to marhi. Waiting for a while till our jeep gets through. Rohtang is still 25 odd kms.


10:33 am: zuzer's mountaineering pearls ''you don't get a prize for reaching the camp first'', ''some fat helps (ed: zuzer must believe in that) becuase it gives you energy towards the end'', ''90 percent of mountaineering fitness is in the mind''

12:49 pm: passed rohtang at around 12 with some quick photos - clouds are beginning to descend into the valley. We are not at koksar - chandra river flows from here and we are about to cross the bridge - from himalayan range to lahoul spiti - have come all the way down from rohtang. The monsoons don't cross this valley - its the leeward side of the mountains, and hence very little rains. Our driver is fast - zuzer calls him a pilot - crossing the bridge makes a sound as if a train was passing over your head.



7:32 pm: reached our campsite in surchu. Well, once we started out, kshitij said he wanted to drive and the driver said ''is route pe gaadi nahin dete'' - $!@! - ''zuzer, what's the deal''. ''i will talk to him'' - okay, the jeep went on an on for another hour or so and zuzer is not talking! So I stop the jeep and tell zuzer ''zuzer, pls talk to this guy and resolve the issue'' - here he goes, has a quick chat and he's ready. So kshitij gets beyind the wheels and our self-drive begins. The guy apparantly is not convinced of whether we can handle the drive. Zuzer has built in the caveat that after 20 km or so, the army mandates that a local has to drive :-) and after that the drive is too stiff till baralacha s okay, let's see.




Kshitij does a good job behind the wheels - and we pass the army funda place and noone says anything so we go on. We stop after another 20 km for tea at kellong. Kshitij gives us that classic pose in the 'nature's temple'!




once done with the tea, still the original driver doesn't want the key - maybe he is now convinced of kshitij's driving ability and is enjoying hid vacation! the tough part is kshitij also doesn't want the key, so I take the wheel. Zuzer again starts building up his defense ''after 20 km, the climb get really steep and tough'' - okay, we'll see when we get there. So we go on - man, the drive is lovely! Beautiful mountains and streams around - very desert-like - dry. We reach the 20 km mark and noone's talking, so I go on. Slowly we aproach the barlacha pass and the route gets more and more scenic.







At around 5, we hit baralacha - 4880 m! I've never driven so high - its amazingly satisfying - and I am feeling fine. We stop for quick photo session and go on. This time, I get the jeep into the mud so the driver comes around and takes the wheels. With about 10 km to the campsite, pawan takes on and steers us to the camp - I think we've earned tomorrows pole positions!



The camsite at surchu (surchu means water (chu) of gold (sur) - some buddhist belief that this place once had golden water) is amazing - mountains all around, absolutely clean, great kitchen, dining halls - our tents even have attached baths!

we get the cook to fix us an onion garlic soupam and whatever little heaviness was there is gone.

Today's been great fun so far.