Finally off on the bikes

Like released coil springs we fired out of bed ready to go, we then felt the slight hang overs and sat back down for an hour. The previous nights good bye beers had been maybe too plentiful.

We said goodbye to everyone and set off on our way, was great to finally get going. Soon after setting off however, we realised our first problem, how the hell do we get out of Manali?!?!?!?

There where no sign posts! Just a mess of small streets. We asked a local and he said aim for the bridge and turn left.

Once on the road we thought was right, we were greeted with confirmation. I think Lara wished she had never seen the sign post as it said 'Leh 478km'

Our first few days were going to be purely uphill to the Rohtang Pass, this was also to be the busiest part of the road we were to encounter, as many Indian tourist drive up to here from Manali to see snow and even have a go at skiing (no lifts). All the way up the road are little huts renting out 80's ski suit one-seys and skis from God knows what era.
The ride up the valley was very green and the road surface was very good. We bumped into a couple of Spanish cyclists who were coming down, we stopped and talked to them, they were going to do the same route as us but starting the day after, they were just out for a spin.

The traffic was quite heavy with all the cars going up to Rohtang and Army trucks heading up north with fuel for the military. I am not sure how old these trucks where, but they sure kicked out a big cloud of black exhaust which was horrible to breath in as at even this relatively low altitude one breathes heavily up the hills. These trucks were to become the biggest nightmare of the trip, but also a saviour......

The trucks were not the only smell that we had to contend with:

On the bottom right, that is a dead cow, this thing stank and was rather hard to try and pass it with not taking in lung fulls of rotting flesh smells, Lara is demonstrating the hand over mouth technique that I could have told her does not work!

After a few hours of cycling we stopped at a dhaba, a small road side cafe that serves basic food,
we stopped at this one and interrupted a serious game of cricket, we were invited to join in, so Scott was first up to bat. I say bat, it was a rudimentary bat carved from a bit of four by two. He got a couple of fours but his baseball style soon saw him get out.

Next up was me, I did not let the British down getting a couple of crackers, unfortunately I was a bit to eager and walloped the ball straight into the forest, after about 20 minutes of searching we finally found it and I thought it was time I gave 'Lara the cricket pro' a go.The local guy seeing it was a women bowled the ball slowly (how sexiest I though) old cricket pro smacked her own stumps then hit the ball into her face. It was time to make our excuses and get on our way quickly.

Back on the bike the truck traffic was getting heavier, thankfully we came across a truck that had snapped it suspension and had blocked the road.

Nothing could get passed and it caused a huge traffic jam, perfect for us as we had now got clear roads. We passed a small reminder of how dangerous this road is; the remains of a truck that had driven off the road.Time was getting on and we decided that we were not going to get over the Rohtang Pass that day. We aimed for a small food stop called Marhi where we could get some dinner and find a place to camp.
These dhabas had put tables in the stream, was lovely and cool and we had some more curried Dhal. We then set off to try and find a bit of flat land to pitch our tent, this proved a little harder than we anticipated. Eventually a little higher up we found a semi suitable place and as the sun was going down though it better to camp there on a slight hill than go on into the dark.

There was a river next to where we camped so a quick strip off and a wash was in order as it had been a hot day, to my horror I found out half way through that my delightful wife was sitting there taking pictures of me washing in the river, most far to graphic to publicly post, but she insisted I put one up as she thought it was funny. ha ha ha.