Bob has a personality crisis.....

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Hi there! Haven't I done well.......only a few wks since the last one!! There's still tons to write though, so hope you're sitting comfortably!!
I think I left off in lovely Leh...I have fond memories, even now! I'd just aquired Bob, and Claudio and I were about to set off on a new adventure to Zanskar valley. There were a few of us going, or so we thought. I had a few things I wanted to do to the bike before we went......new back tyre, check the gear box, just small things. Most things for bikes are really cheap over here. The new back tyre was a shock.....around 1500 ruppees! Considering a whole new front shock would only have cost 600, I nearly fell over at the tyre. It's really good though....probably 1 and half times the size of the original enfield back wheels. It makes the bike look fab from the back too! I also managed to find some luggage racks......they're a rare commodity over here and took some finding. Consequently, they were quite expensive too ......about 1100 second hand. They're pretty much that price brand new, but being that this was the only set in Leh to be found I snapped them up. Looking back, it's probably one of the best investments I made!
Anyhow, having fixed the bike, we got ready to leave. I wanted to leave the majority of my stuff in Leh, thinking I'd definitely be going back there, but after talking about it with Claudio we decided to take everything....that way we aren't tied to anything if we decide not to go back to Leh.
So off we set with fully laden bikes. The road from Leh to Zanskar takes you West to Kargil, and then South down through the Suru valley into the Zanskar valley. Heading out to Kargil from Leh, the road is fab......new tarmac! That's a real treat round here.....one that we'd grow to appreciate more and more!
About 20ks outside Leh, Bob started misfiring. Not so bad at first, but getting worse and worse til he cut out. Not a good omen! I considered heading back, but he started again ok and after a good blat up the road, he seemed to be running ok again. I assumed it was just a bit of dirt stuck in the carb or something and giving him a good run blew it through.
First stop was Alchi......a small gompa town just south of the Kargil road. I'd heard it was a nice little place worth a visit. We'd tried to get there one time before......the last day I had the bike on hire when we got back from Nubra Valley.....only we'd set off late (after the full moon party the night before) and in a hurry, and thinking we had enough, we didn't want to waste more time queuing up for petrol. Queuing, I say in a very loose way! I don't think they know how to queue. It's more a mob at the petrol pump. The closer you get your front wheel to the guy with the pump, the more chance you have of being next! I've tried queuing.....it doesn't really work! Anyhow, we didn't that day and hence had a nice 'sunday type drive', but didn't make it to Alchi! Hence the stop there today.
It was a nice little town. The Gompa is beautiful.....they all are. A Gompa is a buddhist monastary.....not sure if I've mentioned that before. There's something about Buddhist temples that get me every time. as soon as I go inside, I feel calm and peaceful every time. Beautiful, beautiful places. This one was no different. There were 4 temples inside Alchi gompa.
We had lunch in Alchi before we set off......thukpa. We were heading back into Tibetten food country! Thukpa, I actually like a lot......noodle soup basically, with the emphasis on the noodles not the soup. In general though, I think Tibettans eat to live and not the other way round! Consequently, the food is fine for a short while, but soon enough you're dying for an indian curry......or anything with a lot of flavour!
From Alchi we headed to Lamayuru.....another gompa town on the way to Kargil. We thought Dori and Simon may be there.....they apparently were heading to Zanskar as well the day before us, so we thought we may catch up with them there. On the way, we took a little side road.....Avi had mentioned that the best way into Lamayuru was to take the right turn about 10ks before you get to the village. We weren't sure how far exactly Lamayuru was.......a map may have been a good investment!.....and we saw the turn so thought we'd check it out. (Road signs don't really exist over here....only at major junctions). It wasn't the right turn.....it was a dead end with another Gompa.....a village called Rizong. Well actually not a village, just a gompa on the side of the mountain. A beautiful gompa though! Unfortunately, it was getting late, so we didn't have a chance to look inside, but it was nice to see from the outside. It was a fab little detour. The road was beautiful.....just a single lane that wound around the mountain alongside one of the River Indus' tributaries. Beautifully lush green.....very nice.
Having realised this, although very nice, was not the road Avi was talking about, we headed back and carried on. We wanted to get to Lamayuru that night and it was probably getting towards 4 by now. We probably had another 50 60ks to go......no distance at all on English roads......on Indian roads, that can take you hours!! I think I've mentioned the roads over here before, so I won't go into all that again, but let's say you can spend a good proportion of your time in first and second gear!
On the way to Lamayuru, it wasn't rocks and potholes that gave me the problem......it was oil or diesel on the road. About 20 30 metres of it on a hill. I didn't see it til I felt it! I probably would have been alright had there not have been a left fork which I saw and, not sure if we were going that way or straight on, I touched the brake......and the tarmac! I have to say, between the crash bars and the luggage rack, I couldn't have been placed onto the road any more gently! I was only going slow, but probably fast enough to get some cuts n bruises had my leg not been completely protected from the road. The side of the bike didn't touch the road at all. The worst thing was the petrol pouring out the tank! There are no petrol stations between Leh and Kargil. We had two 5litre containers with us, but watching your fuel pour out all over the road isn't ideal! Have I mentioned how heavy the enfields are? They're not like my ducati, put it that way, and even the ducati I had problems picking up. Luckily there were two guys sat by the side of the road who were there immediately to help pick it up. Claudio was there pretty soon after to help me get the bike back to the bottom of the hill to inspect the damage. The road literally was like a skating rink.....just walking down it was dodgy. Claudio nearly lost his bike pushing it back down the hill. From the bottom of the hill we watched the trucks skate down towards us on full lock.......needless to say we got on our way pretty quick before we were wiped off the road or smeared all over it! As I say, virtually no damage.......good investment, those luggage racks!
We got to Lamayuru around 7ish, just at last light. Having checked a couple of hotels, i think we ended up with the best view in town. A room with windows across two sides with views out to the gompa, over the village and to the mountains on the other side of the valley. The stars were amazing that night.
We ended up staying there for three nights......two days. We thought there was a festival on at the end of July, but unfortunately, it had already taken place earlier that month. There were buddhist teachings taking place at the monastary though, and hence, there were many people in town. Many, many locals and a few tourists. There were some great opportunites for photos there. (Hopefully I'll get somewhere I can load them soon!) Lamayuru was lovely..... dusty but lovely. I think I spent most of the time there sneezing! I don't really suffer from allergies, but there was something about that place that got right up my nose :O) I think it was the dust. Literally, from the minute I got off the bike until we left there, I spent half the time sneezing! It seemed worse up near the hotel next to the road, which was more dusty, so I assume it must have been that that did it. Apart from that though, it was lovely!
So after a couple of days rest, we headed on to Kargil. The road out of Lamayuru was pretty awful....back to potholes and rocks, but once we were over the pass, Fatu La, it was a nice ride. I was worried about Bob setting off, but that day, he was running really really well. We made good time to Kargil, arriving there mid afternoon.
Kargil is a horrible place. When it was mentioned first over here as being a stopover for Zanskar, I couldn't place where I'd heard the name before, but then it dawned on me. It's been on the news on and off for what must be the last 15 years or so as the place Pakistan tend to shell when they decide to attack India! Maybe that's why the roads are so bad round there!! The town itself is pretty shitty too. Not a place I'd recommend for a holiday! Stop there if you have to, but that's about it! The first hotel we pulled up at looked ok, but was over 1000 rups a night, so Cloud went and found us another option while I waited with the bikes. It was really hot here in Kargil........we'd come down from 3500 metres at Lamayuru. Kargil is apparently 3000m, but the temperature didn't feel like it! The only food option we found that day was mutton curry in a local dhaba.......we were so hungry though ...... and to be fair, it wasn't too bad. Once we'd eaten, we went to find a local mechanic. I had a couple of small problems with my bike......the kickstart lever was loose enough to fall off by itself, the tank had a small leak and the horn had stopped working when I got into Kargil. Being that horns are the only rule of the road out here, I wanted to get that fixed. Claudio also wanted a few things checked. I forget which things now....... Cloud's a perfectionist........worse than I am.....hard to believe I know, but true! Anyhow, the mechanic was really good. Deserved a blue peter badge in fact for the job he did on the kick start lever! Amazing what you can do with an old tin can and a pair of snippers! Anyhow, there's a badge whizzing it's way there as we speak :O)
We whiled away the rest of the day until dinner playing cards. We spend a lot of time playing cards....I'm getting used to losing! I'm starting to think Cloud's cards are the type you can see what they are from the back. I'm not really too sure how one person can be so lucky so much of the time! I think I can count the number of games I've won to date on one hand. mmmmm, maybe something fishy going on! :O) Cloud is good company....... he has a good sense of humour. He takes the piss like Ian ........ almost feels like I'm back home again! It's good we get on.....it helped to get me through what we had in store!
Anyhow, the next day we set off to Zanskar. Did I mention we met this local guy the day before on the top of the Fatu La pass? He came over and started talking when we pulled up there. (nothing unusual about that....the problem here isn't getting people to talk, it's getting them to shut up. :O) ) Anyhow, he was telling us that the Zanskar road is 'deadly road' or 'death road', I forget how he put it now. Not a good road anyhow. (Mind you, he said this while sitting slap bang in the middle of the road waiting for a truck to come hurtling round the corner!) He wasn't wrong about the road though. It was pretty awful immediately you got out of Kashmir. It starts off as tarmac, but then the tarmac diminishes, pothole, by pothole, til there are more holes than road. Eventually the tarmac finishes completely and we were back onto the familiar dirt track, with bolders.....just to make it interesting!
The good thing about roads like this, is there is virtually no traffic to worry about, but the concentration is immense as you're constantly trying to pick your way through the rocks and holes on the smoothest path possible.......not only for your arse's sake, but for the bike's too. Screws seem to work their way loose on these roads no matter how tight they're done up.
It's a lovely road though. You're heading right through the Suru valley, so there's little up and down, just flat road, which makes a nice change. The scenery is also fantastic, and different every valley you turn into. One will be lush green, where it's cultivated, and then the next arid desert and mountains. We stopped for tea at Sanku, but other than that pressed on, trying to get as far down as possible on the first day.
There are an amazing number of police checkposts on that road.....I think 6 in total. On the bikes though, you can go straight through, unless they're outside waiting and flag you down. I'm not entirely sure what the point of them is. It's just a formality I think. They just take your details down and on you go. They're normally pretty friendly though. I reckon they must get really bored sat out in the middle of nowhere in a tent for days or weeks at a time. We did get through the first couple unspotted, but from then, one, either, or both of us had to stop. It's a bit of a pain on the bike though. Stopping, getting off the bike, getting your gear off, getting your passport out, then going in, then coming out and doing it all again in reverse before you can carry on. It's a good 10 minutes each time.
After one of these checks, I left my helmet strapped to the luggage rack. It was nice riding without it for a while......wind in your hair and all that. The trouble was, when I came to put it on again, it wasn't there. ooops! I had no option but to head back and look for it. I was amazed how far I'd come without it. It must have been a good 20 minutes backtracking before I passed a truck on the side of the road. As I got passed him, I heard all this whistling and shouting from behind me. It was the truck driver, jumping out the cab and running up the road after me......helmet in hand! What a nice man. 'good on head' he kept saying. Yep, I could only agree with him! It was remarkably unscathed. The visor was the only casualty. Still, better to lose a visor than a helmet!
We made it to Tangola that night. A tiny village in between Parkatchik and Panikhar. It was getting dark and there was virtually nothing around apart from this one tourist bungalow up a steep track leading back from the road. Cloud made it up no problem, but Bob struggled to get the power to get up the hill from standing and when I triedto get down into first gear he wasn't having any of it. So there I was stuck rolling backwards on the hill, trying to get it back into neutral so I could start it, with Cloud disappearing into the carpark at the top. He didn't realise I had a problem at all, so carried on checking out the place to see if we could stay there the night. Meanwhile I'm still struggling, with this young boy just standing on the edge of the track staring. They like staring. I'm kind of used to it now, and normally you don't mind, but when you're struggling, you could do without it. Eventually Cloud reappeared and looked to be enjoying the view before finally spotting me halfway down the slope. Eventually with a bit of a push, Bob made it up and into the carpark.
After all that, the guesthouse appeared to be full. Apparently there were two rooms.....one with someone asleep inside, one with somebody's stuff and then a dorm room with 3 mattresses, but all had sleeping bags on already. Cloud wanted to carry on, as it was getting dark and if we couldn't stay here, we'd need to make it to the next place. I really didn't want to carry on. Bob was lacking power, for some reason, and I was struggling with the gears slipping, especially first and second. Eventually the guy who ran the place turned up after 10 15 minutes. The young lads around the place kept saying, 'wait wait' (they repeat everything twice!) and eventually, we could see this figure winding him way down the hill the other side of the road.
I was glad we'd waited. There was a room.....the sleeping person was just having 40 winks, so the room was available. No curtains, and a load of guys from a mountaineering training expedition camping just outside, but having fixed up a blanket and scarf at the windows, it was perfect. It was a nice spot there and the guy turned out to be Mr over helpful! Tea and biscuits came first, bucket of water, then dinner......guess what?........rice, dahl, vegetables! We were herded from one to the next.......'tea ready, tea ready', 'dinner ready, dinner ready' etc etc! funny.
Next morning, before we set off, the guy was determined we were going to come back there. Preferably that night! Having persuaded him, it wasn't going to be that night, but maybe on the way back, we set off.
The gears were pretty bad that day. It was a lot more hilly. On the flat, I wasn't having such a problem, but put the bike under any strain on a hill and the gears were slipping a lot. It was great when Cloud was there to give me a push when the gears let me down and Bob died, but I think he likes riding on. I don't blame him, sometimes the solitude when you're riding is really nice, especially in this kind of place, you can literally be the only one in the valley. It's not so good when you're having problems with the bike though.
Hills weren't the only problem that day. We also had rivers. Some fairly small, but some pretty big. Bob doesn't mind water too much. Not when the rivers not that wide anyhow. If you can keep the revs up, you're ok. Vasilya, Cloud's bike (named after the goddess of wind apparently!), is not good in water. He dreads rivers, like I was beginning to dread hills! One time Vasilya conked out completely, which meant wet feet for both of us. The bottom of the rivers are sometimes stones and boulders, which makes it hard to get going again if you're stuck with your wheels up against big rocks.
We made it to Rangdun for lunch.....apparently a big village where you could get everything, which turned out to be a big wide open plane with 3 restaurants with bed or 2 in the back and a few houses......oh and the obligatory police check post!
Having eaten lunch, I was unsure if I should carry on or not. We were coming up to Pensi La, the pass which takes you from Suru valley into Zanskar. It's only 4400m which isn't that high compared to others in the area, but none the less it was a hill, and I was starting to dread them. I said to Cloud that I wasn't sure if I should be turning back or not. He obviously wanted to continue though. Not suprisingly....we'd come a long way and on the face of it, Bob was running. I'm not sure if he understood the problems I was having with him. In the end I agreed to try the pass and see what happened. If we didn't make it, we'd turn back.
Cloud was in a hurry ..... no change there. (I don't think I've met anyone quite as impatient as him before. That's saying something coming from me......my mum's told me since I was a teenager how impatient I am. I wish she could meet him! Maybe that would put it in perspective :O) ) There were no cigarettes available anywhere on the road to Zanskar, so I was busy trying to get some satisfaction from a lollypop after lunch. Being told to finish my lolly on the bike so we could get to Padum that night, when suffering nicotine withdrawls and stressing over whether the bike would make it or not, didn't go down particularly well. We then ended up having a really silly argument over whether we'd make it to Padum or not that day anyhow. We had about 4 hours daylight left and twice the distance we'd travelled in the previous 4 hours to go, with a pass in the middle. Padum that day was a dream, but he wasn't having any of it. Having told him what an 'argumentative little f*****' he was, we set off ...... lollypop in mouth (slightly difficult in a full face!).
I was pleased to find the road up to the pass wasn't actually that steep, (I think we were at a fairly high altitude that side anyhow.....the road had been uphill most of that day) and Bob and I made it without too much incident. When we got over the other side, I got a very sarcastic 'so the pass was no problem then' from Cloud. mmmmm. I'm not really sure, maybe he thought I was inventing problems with the bike, or the problem was me and not the bike...... who knows. I would've killed for a ciggy, I know that. Actually, at that moment, I'm not sure if I'd have got more satisfaction from a smoke......or pushing Cloud off the edge of the cliff! :O) Only kidding. It's amazing how much less you can take as a smoker when you've got no fags. Terrible habit......must give it up!!
So onwards towards Padum. We didn't make it that night. It was getting dark when we drove through a village ....... well, a few houses dotted around the field on the side of the track. There were a group of men sat by the side of the road so I pulled up and asked if there was a guest house or anywhere to stay. They told me to carry on to the next village. We were really tired by then and needed a place to stay. In desperation, when we passed a guy repairing a stone wall a few hundred metres up the road, I stopped and asked him too. Someone up there was looking after us coz he jumped over the wall and motioned for us to follow him.
He led us back to where we'd asked the other men and across the field to a house......his house it turned out, where he lived with his three children. None of them could speak English, but they were really hospitable. The kids were amazing.....did most of the cooking themselves. Well, 2 of them. The third kiddie was really cute, but obviously had some kind of disorder. She didn't speak at all, and probably couldn't do much for herself. I imagine something like that is really hard when you're living out in a place like that, where you need to do everything yourself, by hand. Not easy for the Dad I guess, as it didn't look like the Mum was around anymore, just dad and the 3 kids.
We had a really nice evening there, watching the kids making the chapattis and taking photos. The kids LOVE having their photos taken. I guess the digital camera thing is fantastic to them, to see themselves immediately. They can't get enough of it.
We slept in what I think was their sitting room, or maybe where they normally slept.....I'm not really sure. It was a shame they didn't speak english.....it would've been fab to talk to them, but to be honest, just finding a bed was luck enough. Slept like a log that night.
Next morning we headed off bright n early to Padum. Lovely drive that day. I think the last bit took about 3 or 4 hours. Not bad at all. It was nice to arrive at lunchtime and have half a day rest. Riding the bikes is great, but it's really nice to get off them when you've been riding a few days. We got about 5 ks from Padum when we stopped and asked someone where it was. I was dying for a drink, so we decided to head to Kasha, which was closer, to get something to drink and then head on to Padum.
Kasha turned out to be so nice, we stayed there instead. Cloud went on a guest house hunt, while I looked after the stuff in the village's one cafe. We ended up staying in a homestay which belonged to the family which owned the cafe I was sat in, as well as the shop next door...... they pretty much had the tourist trade in Kasha sewn up!
The house was right on the edge of the village, with amazing views down over the valley. At night, you could go up on the roof and look at the starts, which were amazing out in the middle of nowhere, with little light pollution. Again, it was a lovely family........even better as they spoke a small amount of english. Not much, but enough to be able to communicate. Despite limited language, the mum was loads of fun and the kids were fab. There were 3 kids there and 1 more who was a Llama (a re-incarnation of a high ranking buddhist monk). Apparently they'd 'identified' him when he was really young and he'd gone off to the monastary so he could get the necessary education to continue his role as a Llama. It's an amazing theory that. I believe in re-incarnation myself, but I'm not sure how these people can tell that a child is the re-incarnation of a particular person. Apparently they give it certain tests, like getting it to recognise the deceased's belongings out of a pile with several other peoples' things. Apparently, when you see it, you have no doubt that this child is the soul in question. Not 100% convinced, I have to say, but I find it fascinating.
Kasha was lovely. It's a really small village with a gompa up on the rocky mountain. The afternoon we got there, having taken the stuff down to the homestay, we headed up the mountain to the gompa. It was a really hot day, and the walk up the mountain pretty much killed me! The views were amazing though. When we got to the top, we found the monks sitting in the courtyard having a cup of tea. They were really lovely......invited us to have tea with them, sat and talked, posed for photos etc etc. Really great fun...... lovely, lovely people. Both Cloud and I got some classic photos that day. One of them even went and opened the temple for us and sat reading tibettan prayers out loud while we looked around.....just to make it atmospheric! It was a great couple of hours and the walk down was a whole load better than the one going up!
When we came back down, we decided to head over to Padum to see if we could get a mechanic to fix the gearbox for me. We'd had mixed reports as to whether there was or wasn't a mechanic in Padum, so we thought we'd check it out.
I had a real problem starting Bob. A guy came over to help and soon enough there were 10 or so guys around .....'helping'! It appeared to be the battery at first, but after trying another charged battery this guy had at his house, we changed the spark plug for the spare I had and he came back to life. There was a bit of engine noise, but nothing that really concerned me......enfields have a lot of engine noise! Anyhow, off we set to Padum. We pulled up in what looked like a tyre yard and Cloud said to the guy we had a problem with the gearbox, was there anyone who could fix it. The guy was like, yep, no problem and told me to take the bike up the road out of the tyre yard. All seemed well. It wasn't until the whole gearbox was in bits that he told me he wasn't actually a mechanic! Well, I say 'he'. I should actually say 'them'. People don't do things on their own over here it seems. Where there's one, there's several! Anyhow, so I had 6 or so 'non-mechanics' trying to fix my gearbox. Things went from bad to worse really. First, they couldn't get a nut undone......not their fault, just the nut had lost its shape so the spanners wouldn't fit. I'm not sure entirely what they did to the gearbox.......I'd gone up the road to get some more gearbox oil, but when I came back they were struggling to put it back together again. Cloud went off to use the internet......when he came back they were still struggling. I was having kittens by that point. Finally, they got it back together and it seemed to work and the chief honcho of the group took it up the road to test it. Poor Bob. The guy thrashed him completely. When he came back, he said he wasn't sure if the original problem was fixed. Well, having seen them at work, I wasn't really suprised! I was so relieved to see him working though. I took Bob up the road to see. They hadn't fixed the orignal problem, the gearbox felt worse....and now there was a louder noise coming from the engine.
We needed to head back to Kasha before it got dark so we set off. However, when we a little way up the road, the engine noise was so bad, it had me worried. Not good with no mechanics in town......and I defintely wasn't taking him back to the other guys again. We decided to try and make it back to Kasha as it was near dark. Very slowly we headed back across the valley. We made it to the bottom of the steep hill leading to Kasha main square, but there was no way Bob was going up there and I was really worried to push it, not knowing what the noise was. Instead, Bob had to stay where he was, on the side of the road.
The afternoon hadn't really gone as planned. I'd started with a small problem, which I'd hoped to get fixed in Padum, but instead I now had a very big problem. Bob no longer sounded like Bob.........the nice 'bob bob bob bob bob' sound had gone. Instead, he'd turned into the Crazy Frog.......exept Ring ding ding was more like Rang dang dang!
Things weren't looking great. I was worried that I'd pushed the engine too hard on the road up, getting up hills with a dodgy gearbox. Whatever it was, it sounded pretty terminal. Bob was having a personalitly crisis.
We headed back to the house as it was too late to do anything that night. The next day we went down to see if Bob had survived his night on the roadside. He had, but the noise hadn't changed.
That afternoon there was a festival up at the gompa.....pretty similar to the one at Hemis a month or so ago, with lots of costumes and dancing, with the general theme of the good spirits outwitting the bad. The first time round it was really good, but having seem Hemis, it was pretty samey. Also tibettan music doesn't do an awful lot for me, I have to say. We did see a friend of Cloud's there though. There was a guy in costume keeping the crowd in order....... with a sword! No-one dared be in the wrong place or there'd be in trouble. Even old ladies were smacked on the backside with the sword if they were caught in the wrong place. That guy turned out to be Cloud's friend.......a really nice, 'gentle' monk, who'd been in the Tibettan Olympics in Dharamsala a couple of months ago. Cloud had volunteered as a chaperone for the event and had been looking after this monk, making sure he got to all his events on time. Small world eh! He came down to see us at the house a bit later and had dinner with us and the other guy staying there.
For the rest of that day, I'd almost forgotten the problems with Bob, but unfortunately they weren't goign to to away. Without a mechanic in town, the only way back was to put him on a truck to kargil. We asked around and apparently, there were trucks which left Padum headed back to Kargil, so the next day we went over there to try and find one. We could only see one truck, and the driver didn't even want to talk to me. Just one word answer......'no'. So we carried on walking down the other roads in the town to see if we could see another truck. We walked past a small truck having something repaired and asked the guys there. First they told us to take it to the 'mechanic', but having explained the problem they then told us there was a truck down at the police station that needed some repairs, but when it was fixed it was heading to Kargil. Bingo. The police station turned out to be a little walk the other side of town, but when we got there, we found the truck being repaired. The drivers weren't overly enthusiastic about talking to me. They prefer talking to Claudio. I don't think they're used to dealing with women! Anyhow, eventually, between us, we'd agreed on 1500 ruppees to take Bob to Kargil. At first I was thinking about going in the truck to Kargil with Bob, but having seen the four Kashmiri men who'd be my travelling companions, I decided I'd take the bus instead! That left me really, really nervous about Bob though. I could be kissing my bike goodbye as he gets driven off up the road in the back of the truck. I have to say, that's one of the only times in my life I had sweaty palms! I didn't have too much time to think about though, as having had lunch, it left us with one hour to get back to Kasha (we'd come to Padum on the bus), siphon the petrol out of Bob and get him back to Padum as the truck was leaving at four. If he started it would be no problem. Luckily he did and soon enough, Bob was loaded and tied onto the truck. I couldn't help myself in giving instructions to the guys on how to strap Bob down! They took it very well from a woman though and I did leave feeling a lot more relaxed about him getting to Kargil. The police had come out and were talking to us about the bike and I'd got photos of the truck and the drivers, and Bob in the back of the truck, so I felt fairly happy, they weren't going to do a runner.
Having seen Bob off, I then worried about Cloud having to do the drive on his own. Not that he's not capable, but it's just a hell of a drive when you've got someone there, let alone on your own. If you get a flat tyre (which is more than likely with the state of the road) it's a long walk. Still, that was the only way, so the next morning Cloud loaded up the bike and headed off. The day before, we'd seen a bus in Padum that was leaving for kargil that night, so I headed over there to get a ticket. When I got there I was told.......'no seats, all sold'. The day before the driver had told me the next bus wasn't for another 3days, so I was desperate to get on this one. I offered to sit on the floor or the roof or anything. Having begged and pleaded....almost down on my knees.....they let me have a ticket. Thank god. I then went and checked into a g.h so I could get a few hours sleep before the bus left at 2am. It was going to be a long night on the floor of a bus on one of the worst roads in Ladakh. Luckily when I had put my bags on the roof, and got on the bus the driver came and found me......'come come', he gestured to me to follow him. He let me sit up the front of the bus with him and about 5 or 6 other people. It was a tight squeeze, but at least I had a seat......and it's my favourite spot on a long journey. When it's daylight, you get the best view from the front of the bus.
When we finally arrived in Kargil, we drove past the mechanics where we'd arranged for Bob to be dropped. It was the same mechanics we'd been to before the trip to Zanskar. There he was! Yeay! I can't tell you how relieved I was to see him there. The mechanic there had seemed really good so surely that would mean the problems were over. Bob was going to be back to his old self in no time......or so I thought.

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Comments

[Jackie Saunders]

Oh Sharon you can't stop there ! What happened next with Bob ? Luv jackie x