Sarahan to Kalpa. Things start to get more interesting!

---

We headed back down the dirt track from the monastery in Sarahan and turned back for a few miles to top up with fuel. Filling up 16 bikes does seem to take a while.Then we turned around and headed up the valley following the river Sutlej. In England when you follow a river valley it's usually 20 or 50 miles. In India they go on for hundreds of miles. The sides of the valley are incredibly steep and landslides are frequent. The river is wide, deep and very fast flowing. It is a creamy grey colour from all the sediment in the snow meltwater being washed down. The road was carved into the rock face on many occasions with hair raising drops hundreds of metres to the raging river below and often long sections of missing barriers. It certainly focusses your attention!

Further up the valley there was an enormous amount of engineering work going on building numerous hydro electric power stations. Consequently the roads were often excellent for a while, interspersed with sections of dirt and stones just to keep you awake! The dust also meant that it was difficult to see the pot holes. After a while a realised that the trick seems to be to stand up on the foot rests, loosely hold the handlebars and let the bike find its own way through the dirt.

We reached the hill town of Kalpa mid-afternoon and stopped to pick up permits for the restricted border are of India. This is a heavily militarised area with army barracks everywhere. We waited a couple of hours for the permits to be prepared and wandered around the town which was in the middle of a religious festival. Almost everyone seemed to be in town all dressed up in their finest clothes. The top religious man turned up to bless all who wanted to be and there was free food for everyone so people took it in turns to sit in rows on the floor of an enormous tent and be served their food.

Once we had collected our permits it was back on the bikes for a 30 minute trip up the hill to our beautiful hotel and a chance for more beers to wash away the dust and admire the astonishing view of the mountains around us. In the distance the departing cloud revealed snow capped peaks and the 6500 metre peak of Kinner Kailash, a holy mountain in this area.

The evening over dinner with the inevitable tasty curry was a good chance to catch up with the others on the tour numbering 13 and Kate and Adam, our two tour leaders. Most of the guests seemed to be the stereotypical male aged 50 to 70. The are all great company and range in jobs from retired through police and prison officers, IT people, teachers. A really nice bunch. Eventually it was time to head for a lovely bedroom, hot shower and comfy bed. In the middle of the night I was woken by the sound of torrential rain. I thought this was supposed to be a dry and arid area........

This is the last time that that will be internet access for a week or so as we head into the higher Himalaya so the next blog update may be a while.

---

Comments

[Michaela]

Himalayas
So....you have arrived! Sounds wonderful.....anything snowcapped sounds beautiful to me. I'm guessing the rain will clear the air and make it fresher and more comfortable which has got to be a good thing. Sooooo wish I was there.....I love an adventure..... minus the effort of riding the bike of course! Your bottom must be sore!! Have a safe week ahead Mx