Having spent the day before on the bikes – Brock and I decided to do a full day road trip.
So we rented two Royal Enfield Thunderbirds and set off early in morning on the road to Srinagar. Our bikes at one of the stops along the way:
After getting out of town, the road goes through some amazing scenery, along tiny switch back turns as the road winds through the mountains, and then across wide open plains with mountains on either side.
The road is mainly black top – but in places, particularly where construction work is going on, it can get very muddy, and is full of potholes.
The other challenge is avoiding the large lorries that run up and down the route from Leh to Srinagar.
On the way we stopped at a Sikh temple – where Guru Nanak is said to have visited, and where there is an imprint of his back on the rock on which he leaned.
Me at the top of the hill top shrine:
Further down the road it started to rain, and so we pulled the bikes off the road and sheltered under a large prayer wheel. We were joking that if we turned the wheel it would stop raining, and when we gave the wheel a spin – it started to brighten up straight away.
Slightly surprised by this, we gave it another spin, and as soon as it had turned the rain eased off. So we decided to give it another try for a laugh, and when the wheel had made a full turn (amazingly) the rain stopped and we jumped back on the bikes and set off again.
Brock and the prayer wheel:
On the road:
Our destination was Alchi Monastery, which has amazing carvings and even more intricate paintings that are hundreds of years old – for me – they were easily as good as the Magao Caves in China and it was a real find.
Traditional Tibetan style house at Alchi:
Turning wheels at Alchi Monastery:
Some of the carvings at the monastery:
Photos aren't allowed inside the main temples – but here's one picture from one of the buildings outside the main temple area:
After a good lunch at the local bakery, we jumped back on the bikes and headed back to Leh.
It was even better going back – powering down through the tight turns and racing along the long straights. The wind had really got up by this point and it was really cold – and I had to stop and put on a rain jacket to try and keep the chill out.
Brock's clutch cable snapped when we were just pulling out of Alchi onto the main road – so he had to drive all the way back making clutch-less gear changes.
The road back to Leh:
By the time we got back we were really cold – but nothing a coffee and a chocolate donut couldn't solve – followed by dinner with Gabe and Jo.
Perfect...
No comments:
Post a Comment