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Published: October 9th 2010
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The news this day was that the Rhotang Pass was closed but would hopefully reopen later in the day so we headed off in nice weather back towards Khoksar where the army were holding up traffic while the pass was cleared.
A Dutch guy stopped for a chat. He was doing the tour the hard way and taking all his gear with him (we had support vans carrying most of ours). He opened the conversation in Dutch! Long time since I've been mistaken for a dutchman (since my blonde hair fell out or went grey). He had also visited New Zealand and said, "no offence but this is even more beautiful". I had to agree with him. I hope that's not treachery?
After eating lunch there again, we saw an army truck heading up the pass so assumed that it was now reopened. We headed for the top but somehow ended up on a different route and I spent the last bits till we got to the pass wondering if we hadn't gone the wrong way. There were several really rough bits churned up by bulldozers clearing slips that I didn't remember from the way down.
Still, despite
my nervousness, we reached the top of the pass and this time stopped for a breather. Neil wanted to know where the toilet was as like many others, he was suffering a little from Delhi belly (forgot to mention that I picked up both a cold - thanks Anna - and Delhi belly in Manali but bought some anitbiotics from the chemist and had sorted out the latter largely by this time). The answer from the people in the tent where we were stopped was "everywhere". Handy.
There was a young girl in the shop so several of us took the opportunity to bestow some souvenirs. She was a lovely kid with really good manners - feeling pretty warm and fuzzy about the Indian people by now.
We were a bit more prepared for the mud this time but the traffic jam was a lot worse with long lines of trucks, buses and cars trying to get past one another with the usual issue with people blocking both sides of the road.
Still, knowing what to expect and having the advantage of gravity meant that I got back through the worst of the mud with little drama.
At one point we were riding down the outside of a stopped column of trucks (who had probably been stuck up there all night waiting patiently for the jam to clear) with the cliff on the other side and came to a point where the road had fallen away. There was a tiny narrow scrap of road to get past and although not a significant drop, enough to hurt and nowhere to put your feet down for balance. Very hairy.
Along one stretch, a large vulture soared up the road towards me and just a few metres overhead. One of those moments you wish you had a helmet cam. Of course by the time I got my camera out, it was way too late.
We stopped in the small town just a few klicks past the top of the pass (can't remember the name) and had a bite to eat. I was impatient to get going as the way was reasonably clear at that point but I could see that the traffic jam would only get worse the longer we waited. Sure enough the town was soon choked with vehicles with everyone trying to pass one another
on every side. I made it out although there was the usual drama of forgetting to turn my petrol tap on and conking out in the middle of a line of traffic. Fortunately a passing local pointed out that it probably wouldn't restart until I turned the petrol back on after I'd tried several times to restart in a panic.
Apart from riding the wrong way across a one-way bridge on arrival back into Manali, no more problems from then on and a breathtaking ride down the switchback road off the mountain.
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