Manali to Leh

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It has been a few days since I updated my travelblog, and though I would like to bring everyone right up to speed with what I have been up to over the last week this is going to have to be a really small post. I made the trip from Manali to Leh in three days, but was really quite sick for most of it. I am not sure if it was a mild case of altitude sickness that ended up becoming a migraine headache, or just a migraine headache itself, but I spent four days total without sleep. The altitude didnt seem to have any effect on me either ascending, or descending, so I think it was just one of those headaches that I sometimes get. Now that it has finally cleared up, I have a serious case of stomach troubles that seems to be getting worse by the day. I have to say, that in spite of being in absolute agony while traveling over those mountain passes, the scenery actually did make up for it.

We set out from Manali on September first and drove a little over 100km to Keylong where we spent our first evening. The scenery gradually changed from alpine forests and meadows into more and more scrub and rock. The first day we went through the first of the high passes reaching an altitude of 16,500 ft. I was completely amazed to find families living in tents at the side of the road just a kilometer or two behind the pass. They live here during the time of year that the road is in use; selling food, snacks, and shelter to truck drivers, and tourists that may requre them along thier travels.

The second day we set out from Keylong and traveled another 100km to an area called Sarchu where we camped in tents for the second night. There is no town to speak of, its just a series of tent camps set up at massively inflated prices due to the fact that it truly is in the middle of the dessert. We had to pay rought $40.00 CAD for one of the tents you can see from my pictures. What really upset me is what they charge for water in places like this, but what can you do. Our driver told us that when he was younger he used to go to Afghanistan with his father, and that the dessert camp always reminds him of his trips there.

The scenery changed even more drastically the third day as we finally crossed into Ladakh, and got closer and closer to Leh. Huge, glacier cut, purple mountains looming high over a lush green valley floor. We crossed the highest pass this day at 17,600 ft. Mattius and I managed to hike (very slowly) up a bit higher off the road and find a decent place for a picture while we were stopped at the pass.

Sorry I havent gone into further detail about everything that has happened over the last few days, but as I said, I am sick as a dog and I really just need to get back to bed. I took more than five hundred pictures over the last four days, and I just grabbed a handful of them for you guys to have a look at. I promise to recount this portion of my trip to all of you interested in far greater detail with pictures once I make it home. I have it all written by hand in a journal, but by the time I am feeling better and able to type it up on my blog here I will have a whole bunch of new stuff to post.

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