Day 2

Nobody said a word but we were all ready in time for the next day’s ride. We were told that the road from Marhi to Rohtang almost did not exist and it would be impossible for our vehicles to cross the stretch. The road turned out to be worse than we could ever imagine. We were glad to see that our support vehicles cross the messy slush and overtake us just short of Rohtang. I loved the downhill ride from Rohtang to Koksar. I zipped and waited just short of Koksar for tea for all. This was our first downhill ride. The gentle downhill 13 kms from Koksar to Sissu was a dream ride. Raman and I clocked over 63 km per hour. Gagan was extremely lucky not to have hurt himself when he toppled over Pagal Nala. We were later told only a few days ago a Scorpio had got washed away in the Pagal Nala. Fortunately, there was BSNL connectivity in Sissu and we could talk to the near and dear ones. It was really disheartening to know that there had been major landslides en-route to Leh, Darcha bridge had collapsed, Pang was completely cut off from both sides and many people had died in Pang. All contact to Leh was cut off. We were concerned whether Shambhala Palace Hotel where we were booked still existed. Col R.R Seth told Vijay and Anju that he would not be responsible anymore for the well being of the group if the group decided to continue. This was the first time we were faced with the dreaded thought of calling off the tour. Alternative routes were discussed and we came very close to going into Spiti Valley towards Chamba. We debated late into the night whether to go ahead or not. We all gathered that Sunil was the only one who wanted to call it off.

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