Almost Ladakh - Self help is the best help?

Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) is something that can affect the fittest of folks. It occurs because the bodies of people from the plains are not accustomed to the rarer atmosphere at altitudes above 2500 mts. The earliest symptoms are headache, nausea, disorientation, fatigue. If ignored, the symptoms can worsen and at it's worst, AMS is fatal. The most common medication (preventive also) is Diamox, but is not a total solution. The only real preventive measure is to ascend slowly beyond 2500 mts. The night halts should be at small increments in altitude (500 mts), and it is best to spend some time to acclimatize at each increment in altitude. And once a person has AMS, the only real cure is to descend from the altitude. At 3800 mts, Rohtang is not a place to spend the night after Manali (1800 mts), but we were left with no choice!

We woke up to pleasant weather in Rohtang, that is, all of us but Chavan. Chavan woke up with a woozy head, and was too tired to get out of bed. It was a task even getting up and going to take a leak. When he finally settled down someplace, the only sign of life was when he looked up to check what we were doing. We had to get our asses out of Rohtang now, before this guy got any worse!

The rain had stopped, giving us a fair chance of going at the bikes. First, the Enfield , which was left overnight where it gave way. Abby and me got a piece of strong metal wire from our local friends and went up to fix it. An hour or so later, we had gotten a temporary brake yoke installed ... Not the best, but enough, we figured, to get to a mechanic (which was hopefully Koksar - 15 kms away, or otherwise Keylong - 70 kms away). Second, the Yamaha with the stuck accelerator. This was a trickier operation with none of us ever having actually replaced an accelarator cable before.

We started off confidently noting exactly what we were taking apart. Meanwhile, a local chap who was around and 'seemed' to know a little bit about the bike's internals came around to help us. After an hour it was plain that the help was totally unwanted ... He had already screwed up the part where the accelarator cable got into the carburetor. And we had not even observed at the time he was taking it apart! The only way to fix this? Take the good Yamaha apart, confirm exactly how the parts are put together, and then replicate it on the bad bike. Another hour of hard work, and the result ... 2 bad Yamahas!!! So much for the engineering brains! By this time it was getting to be noon, and we decided to load the bad bikes up onto a truck and take them upto someplace with a mechanic. We stopped a truck soon enough, and loaded up the 2 Yams and the shaky-brakes Enfield.

For 300 rupees, we got a really bumpy ride down to Koksar. The guy drove like a maniac on steroids (With the roads as they were, I could not help wondering if he had a death wish!), while Abby, me, and another helpful passenger wrestled with the bikes to try keep them in one piece. Kavi and Chavan rode in the cab with the driver. Whenever we could catch a breath because of an oncoming vehicle on the narrow road, we managed to soak in the scenery. The weather had simmered down as expected - the sun was shining bright, visibility was high and the sky was a deep blue, stunning altogether.

Pretty soon we were in Koksar, only to find that there was no mechanic available there. Our next option, Keylong, 55 kms away. Meanwhile Zappy and Bhatti were riding the 2 good bikes down from Rohtang. While we waited for them to reach, we decided to use the time and try to fix the Yams anyway. Systematically this time, in better weather and less pressure, we made much better progress. In some time, we saw an Enfield coming along ... not the one we were looking for, but it got us a message from our friends. Apparently, we had one more problem bike! In a bit, they were with us, Zappy with his engine off and rolling the bike along. It had just stopped breathing somewhere along the way! We had very smartly got the tools along with us in the truck, leaving them no option but to get rolling ... thankfully, it was all downhill!

Things were looking good for the Yams meanwhile. Both were usable (with a little bit of nylon cord in right places :-D). Confidence high, we examined Zappy's Enfield. We soon found the problem. A bad battery / alternator - the battery was dead and needed charging. With the battery from Bhatti's bike, we jump-started Zappy's bike. A little bit of revving and we looked like we could all move! Confidence was at it's peak now ... we even helped a local lad with his bike (Stupid chap could not himself figure out that his fuel was running on reserve :-D)!

Although it was getting late, we decided to make the dash to Keylong. The road followed the right bank of the Chandra river in the valley, which is really the only inhabitable part. There is terraced cultivation and a few settlements along here. The left bank is uninhabitable and rises very steep to the top, where there is snow even in the summer months! We were very peacefully soaking in the scenery and riding along when 5 kms from Koksar, Zappy's bike died again! We realised now that something was seriously wrong with the battery / alternator and the battery was not charging while the engine was running. Whatever distance we had covered from Koksar was the charge built up from the work done at Koksar.

Another repair session started. Then someone had the bright idea of switching the battery with the one from Bhatti's bike. It seemed a smart thing to do, so we tried it ... but very soon we smelt something burning in Bhatti's bike. It was time for Chavan to come out with his gem for the trip ... "Bullet mein to burning smell aata hi hai!!!" (I can guarantee it's not any obscure symptom of AMS that made Chavan say that :-D).

Well, that was the end of the day's ride. We deliberated the options (camping / someone going ahead to Keylong to get a mechanic), and finally decided to camp on the river bank. Was a good decision. We had a wonderful evening sitting on the rocks by the river, chatting and sipping Old Monk. In a clear starry sky, I saw the most awesone shooting star I have ever seen in my life, and later, an amazing moonrise coming out through the clouds over the mountains. I'll remember it as the most spectacular campsite ever!

For company, we had a bunch of Buddhist monks camping close by. They were on a 4 month pilgrimage following the river on foot upto Keylong. They just walked a few 100 mts everyday and setup camp.

Looking back on the day, I can't tell if it was a good idea to try fix the bikes ourselves. But it was a good experience, and although it was a lot of pain and bother, it was all good fun in the end.