Day 107 – 09th June, 2014 – Patsio to Zingzingbar (Kanyakumari to Leh Cycling)

Tented accommodation

We got up in the morning and it was really very cold. Water kept outside in our bottles was partly frozen. We could not take water in our mouths as it was very cold. One of my friends was not well and I guess he was having some problem with the high altitude.

Cycling through snow on both sides
Cycling through snow on both sides

We reached this high altitude too fast and we thought we should take some time to acclimatize. We did not know how far we would go that day but there was Baralacha Pass some 30 kilometers away. We thought of going that side of the pass that day itself. We paid that old man at PWD rest house for food & tea and left. We all were feeling kind of tired.

Its really a broad valley
Its really a broad valley

Soon we reached an abandoned army camp area and by reading on the board at the entrance, we came to know its importance. This transit camp was put up in 1999 during Kargil War and was dedicated to cooks and other officers. It was situated in a really broad valley.

Waiting for other cyclists to cover up
Waiting for other cyclists to cover up
BRO check post at Zingzingbar
BRO check post at Zingzingbar

After 09 kilometers, we reached Zingzingbar which was a check post of BRO (Border Roads Organization) but there was no place to stay at all and few workers were there in their tents that can be seen on this route and build roads with BRO. We rested there for half an hour as we were quite exhausted. We had dry fruits and snickers chocolates which we had stocked up. We enquired with BRO if there was a place to stay ahead and they said of a tented accommodation some five kilometers ahead. We reached there cycling slowly and resting in between. The route was not at all plain. Either it was up or down. Mostly it was going up, as there was a pass ahead. We looked a tent in the distance and we got excited. We all knew in ourselves that we would stay there for that night. We were not in the condition to go more ahead.

This bed is luxury
This bed is luxury

We are always a point of attraction wherever we reach, as we are doing this route on cycles. We were greeted very warmly by a Japanese man there and he was really excited to see us. He took a picture of ours by himself making a really funny pose. Then came an old Australian, who started talking to us and told us about his adventures when he was young. There were two big tents with beds and blankets all set inside for the travelers. Both tents belonged to a single person only, so there was his monopoly.

Tented accommodation
Tented accommodation
Buddhist prayer flags at Zingzingbar
Buddhist prayer flags at Zingzingbar

We stayed inside and did not pitch in our tents outside. We reached there at 11:30 am only after cycling for 15 kilometers and slept after having food. It was a really needed break for us and for our body to get acclimatized at this high altitude. All the bike riders who were coming there were looking a little sick because they reach to this place in a single day only from Manali and their body is not well set according to the environment there.

Waiting for food
Waiting for food
Our meal
Our meal

We had five boiled eggs for dinner and bread slices. Taking too many bread slices unknowingly proved to be expensive for us as he charged us Rs. 5 per bread slice. We charged our cameras there with a battery kept inside the tent and slept. It was a comfortable sleep but the entire night, local people kept coming inside the tent as they were travelling on this route taking things in their pick-up truck from one place to another. There was also news that the road was closed at Baralacha Pass as snow had slipped on the road, but the BRO cleared it in the night itself, so we could move ahead the next day.