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| Day 19 - Keylong - The beauty of Himachal |
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7.45am: Sarchu > Baralachala > Darcha > Keylong :1.00pm
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It had rained practically all night and we woke up to a drizzle. The tyre had held up beautifully so we left early from our Nepali tent and set off into Himachal, getting ready for our journey into Lahaul Spiti.
Unfortunately we heard that a bridge was blocked at Khoksar which is the only way out from this side, and this may delay us by a day.
Almost as soon as we started, the greenery began taking over; we had left Ladakh. We got some snowfall too which made me want to listen to Rain and Snow by the Be Good Tanyas.
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| early morning snow |
When we started the climb to Baralachala, we got into fairly heavy snowfall. All around us was white and we stopped and actually flung snowballs at each other at one point. After Baralachala we have covered 12 passes in 11 days including two of the highest. Not bad going at all.
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| baralachala |
Once we started our descent the colours of Himachal came into view and the stark browns and rust of Ladakh gave way to some brilliant yellows, greens and reds.
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| snow giving way to colours |
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| kaleidoscope |
No wonder Himachal is the prettiest state we have, it has everything - stark high mountains, snow, incredible greenery and lots of rivers and gushing streams.
We kept along the Bhaga river till we came to Keylong, a tiny little town, but critical for us since it was our first contact with an STD booth since Leh. There is no sign of Internet having reached these parts, but I ended up spending some time helping a computer centre guy with his MS Word. A while later, he was using his newfound knowledge to recreate a government document for a seventy year old lady.
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| bhaga river |
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| kaleidoscope |
We got to Keylong in time for lunch and found a decent place to stay.
The plan is to try and make it to Manali by tomorrow, do the tyres properly, then backtrack into Lahaul Spiti, instead of going directly in via Khoksar. Of course, this depends on whether the news that the bridge is now open for traffic is true or not.
Highlights: The lush scenery of Himachal Pradesh
Downsides: A sense of sadness at leaving Ladakh |
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| today's route - 110 km |
| day 19 |
km |
odo |
| Sarchu |
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185170 |
| Killing Sarai |
20 |
185190 |
| Baralachala |
13 |
185203 |
| Surajtal |
3 |
185206 |
| Zingzingbar |
19 |
185225 |
| Patsio |
6 |
185231 |
| Darcha |
19 |
185250 |
| Jispa |
5 |
185255 |
| Stingri |
18 |
185273 |
| Keylong |
7 |
185280 |
| total |
110 |
4650 |
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