Day 11 to 14 - Spiti Valley

So we had our hotel breakfast packed up and left. Nice to have wifi, you don't realise how much you need it these days.

Headed to Tandi and made it to the petrol station my spare can leaked so that got ditched. After fuel went to a monastery close by we had been told about.

Headed back towards the Rohtang Pass it was raining all day and it was cold. Had some lunch at a darbha close to the police checkpoint then following our passport check headed up the Rohtang. Now we were looking for the Spiti Valley turning and a few miles up the road we found it but oh boy has it changed since we were at the junction 3 years ago. It seems to me they are ruining the pass and the highway, It made me a bit sad to see the destruction of such a beautiful place.

So anyway with the rain it made the road muddy and slippery. The start of the Spiti road was gravel and down hill it was in a very bad condition. With the rain we were concerned with the water levels of the rivers. We decided to ride a short distance and see how it it goes. We stopped a couple of other bikers and they gave us info but it didn't seem to be looking good. We came across a darbha in the middle of nowhere the guy spoke English and was very helpful. The place was a little bit of heaven, chai boiling on a log fire. Awesome place. We had water crossings, river beds, mud, rocks. Very technical riding. We made it to a cluster of buildings which included darbhas and a camp site. We stayed the night there, met a Cornish girl. It rained all night but the tent held up. The new tent is very much coffin shaped but effective.

The next morning the river levels had dropped and we saw a bus and various tourist vehicles heading further up the valley. We all decided it was game on. We had two major river crossings to do. One was short and knee deep the other was longer and shallow. We all successfully crossed them. My bike was struggling again and having to turn the fuel on and off.  Spiti Valley is awesome, quiet and the views are out of this world. We came across a Buddist temple on the top of a mountain, we stopped they offered us chai and they were cooking curry for 200 people. They refused money for the chai. 

We made it to a place called Kaza and is a big town in the Spiti Valley. We had to stay in separate hotels, me and Dean, Simon and Jim. We met for dinner but had to walk across town to a darbha, no street lights. We had been told that we needed permits to travel the road close to China. The next morning the guys had photos done and at 10am we were outside the permit office with three Isralies. 40 mins later and 20 pence lighter we had our permits. Yes 20 pence is correct.

Fuelled up but the pumps had no electricity so had to wait for it to come back on. A guy gave me a plastic Coke bottle to have as spare fuel which I starred on the back. We left Kaza at lunch time and headed towards China. Hope we don't get lost of take a wrong turn as it could end up as an international incident.

Eventually we came to the checkpoint, the rather grumpy copper wanted passports and permits and we got 20 questions about who owned the bikes. We then headed into the DMZ between India and China. Basically it was no different to India. We rode all afternoon and abut 5ish we came across a sign  for Nako Lake. We though we might be able to camp out. We found a guest house for £10 per room and had a terrace overlooking the lake. Beer available and the resturant had food to die for. Between us we had paneer, momos, Dal, chips. It was by far the best meal I have ever had in India. All for about £6. A cracking nights sleep then on the road again.

Nearly in Pooh, had to be done.

Wednesday is little G's 23rd birthday. I have a habit of being on my travels for her birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY babe. Paid the bill and started riding. It wasn't long before we wer stopped due to a landslide and once the road was clear we were off. Anyway this happened 3 times and we wasted 2.5 hours in total waiting for the road to be cleared. This really hampered our progress. We eventually made it to the checkpoint the other side of the permit area. Passports and permits all checked and recorded. The roads were terrible and we could not build a huge mileage. No Tarmac just gravel and sand. We had to to take a diversion over a mountain which took at least an hour and at the end the mileage boards showed it had been reduced by 8 km. It was getting late and on the verge of darkness and we arrived in a town called Tapri. Only one hotel very grotty and over the top at £10 per room. Nice to have a shower and a quick bite to eat. Tomorrow the last 100 miles into Shimla then back to Delhi.