Day 9
After spending the not so good night at Sarchu, we got up early in the morning and started journey towards Manali. 35 KMs from Sarchu we crossed the most beautiful passes of all Baralacha La. Took a small break there and clicked some photographs. The pass was full of snow even in the last week of June. We also saw the Suraj Taal Lake a few KMs from Baralacha La on the Manali road. This lake is the originating point of Bhaga River. The beauty of nature on and around the Baralacha La pass was stunning. Baralacha La pass is one of the most beautiful places we visited in our entire trip.
We had the breakfast at Jispa in IBEX Hotel. The distance to Jispla from Baralacha La pass is around 55 KMs. IBEX Hotel is the best place in Jispa for food and night halt. From Jispa to Keylong, we drove on one of the most dangerous roads of the entire trip. Roads at some places were in very bad conditions with river flowing deep down along the narrow road all the way till Keylong. Road before Rohtag Pass was totally broken for 40 KMs. It took more than 2 hours to travel this 40 KM stretch. We reached Kothi (Manali) at 3 PM and had the lunch there. Our initial plan was to do the night halt at Manali but as there was some time left and most of us wanted to reach home as early as possible, so we decided to drive till Palampur and end the trip today. Munish was going to Delhi so he has to stay in Manali any way. We arranged the accommodation for Munish and met our old time friend Ranbir at Manali. Had a cup of Coffee there and then started the journey for Palampur at 6 in the evening.
It was not easy to drive along the Beas River in night. It was a dark night and the noise of water at Beas River in the silent night was scaring. I was the only biker riding at night and vehicles coming from other side were making it much more difficult for me to drive as no one was bothering to switch to low beam light. I was driving at the river side and at some places I had to stop in the middle of road, as I could not see anything because of the high beam light from other side. Drive up to Mandi, till where Beas Rivers flows along the road was quite adventures and scary. I had the shy of relief after crossing this stretch. Distance from Mandi to Palampur is around 90 KMs.
We encountered the heavy rain before 60 KMs from Palampur. Because of the heavy rain there was no visibility at all in road and we had to stop our vehicles on road side to wait for the rain to cool off. Rain didn’t stop but cooled off a bit and there was some visibility in road. We drove in the rain for next 50 KMs and reached Palampur at 2 O’clock in mid night. It was quite a hectic day with us driving more than 450 KMs in extremely hilly roads. But finally the happiness of reaching home after 10 days long and most adventurous trip of our life was there.
This is the End of Trip. We hope people who have never been to Ladakh can experience the region from our story and photos, and those who are planning to go there it may help them to plan the trip in better way.
Your feedback is Welcome. Please let us know how you find our experience sharing and how we can improve to make it more interesting for future posts.
Distance Traveled on Day 9:
Sarchu to Manali: 240 KMs
Manali to Palampur: 210 KMs
Story by member, Palampur Bikers Club
