Himalaya Enfield Challenge 2008
Day : -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- -14- -15- -16- -17- -18- -19- -20-
Date: 080915


07:30
Slept again very bad. Eventually i fel in sleep with my earplugs in.
In the morning we got again a hot cup of tea and a warm bowl of water to wash with.

13:40
Finally a break and lunch. Along the way pleny has happened.
We went to the Changla pas which is at 17800 ft ( 5,25km) high.
The weather was bad, a lot of wind with snow and hail. When we finally arrived above, all we felt were our cold fingers. After the fotoshoot at the top we took very quick a cup of tea to get warm again.

After we came back to our normal tempature, we needed to go again, and back down from the mountain. Going down was a lot of "fun" again, in the rough wind and hail over the bumpy road again.

About vife minutes after we left, i found the bike react very strange, specially in the corners, a wiggeling feeling. So i though a maye had a flat rear tyre.
Geert, who was driving behind me, couldn't see anything strange either. I didn't have a flat tyre so i decided to move on.
No more then two mintes later, i was forced to use my rear brake to get the speed out of the decent, and suddenly my rearwheel blocked totally, and i shifted with a reasonable speed towards the abyss. Though fortunately I was slipping quickly to a halt.
So, there i was, at 5200 meters higg in the cold wind and hail, with a bike of which the rear axle of the bike was vibrated out the wheel.
I couldn belive my eyes what i was seeing and just experienced, and had to laugh about it.

Fortnually the follow truck was nearby, and had seen the accident from a distant. The guys went right away to work, and after 30 minutes i could continue the ride down.

16:30
W're back from the visit at the lake.
The way to the lake was 34km long, which was special at its own. We went through several valleys on asphalt, which was pretty comfortable to ride.
On a phew place, we had to use the bike like a motorcrosser. Everyone passed their exam.
At the first stop at the lake Danielle dropped her bike, which caused the clutch handle to brake.

The lake, Lake Pangong, was in a certain manner special, that it has some history.
One of the stories is that a submarine has been test by the Chineese.
The lake is about 130km long and 5km wide, and is at 4420 meter altitude, of which 30% belongs to India and 70% belongs to China.

One of the reasons that there are so many milatary in this region, is that India has borders with Pakistan and China. It seems that Indian is no friends with both countries.

The road back from the lake went like lightning. The roadcaptain, Koen, was good to keep up with, but he kept the gas throttle open. Back in the village Tangste a hotel was arranged. It all looked very well.

17:15
Everyone is in and having tea. And with the tea all sorts of stories arise. After my "lost-my-rear-wheel" story, it was the turn of Danielle with her electrical problems on the bike After that Geert got stuck without gas, and received from Danny half a liter of gas to be able to continue his trip. After that Nano ( the mechanical aid ) arrived on the bike of Danielle, which has been fixed in the mean time, where Geert drove in from of him, so he could keep an eye on him, just in case he ran out of gas again.
After that the bike of Danny, made a sound like "Boob, booob, bob, bb.." and then went dead. He trade his bike against the one from Danielle and Nano took the broken bike of Danny. Nano was later on picked up by the follow car and loaded the bike in the back of the car.

When we arrived at our destination, the bike was unloaded and repaired. It had something to do with the valves.
slow up











What we thought of it => __"India will never let you go again"__
© 2008 Mike Beijerbacht