India - Himachal Pradesh

The road to Manali was one of those ones that gets longer as you drove along it, or maybe we were driving on a conveyor belt going in the opposite direction, because after 9 hours of driving we had only done about 260 miles and we had to make a night stop. We were still at low altitude, so still quite uncomfortably hot, and we decided to sulk off into a cheap hotel for some cooler air. We met a lovely Isreali couple (well they said they were friends that were trying to be a couple?) driving about on bikes, and got a good nights sleep. Even the next day it was another 5 hours until we arrived in Manali. We had hoped to do it in a day - no chance, the roads were too steep, bendy and bumpy, and far too many desgusting trucks in the way to go much more than around 20 or 30mph all the way. We were really really looking forward to the cooler climate that the higher altitude was going to bring us, as we were quite fed up with the oppressive heat around Delhi making sleep almost impossible in the van. And yes, Manali was much nicer - even under 20 degrees - bliss!

Finding a camp spot in Manali was another story - it is ultra tourist location here, and every bit of developable land has been...well...developed! Hotels everywhere. We eventually found a hotel with a slightly secluded carpark, and they confirmed that it was fine for us to park there for the night...until around 7pm, when they told us that we were't allowed to park there? Oh well, there was another 'overland vehicle' just down the road who turned out to be Brits! They seemed not to have any problems where they were so we pulled in next door!

I think that we can already write a whole chapter about Indian driving even though we have only been through a tiny proportion of the country, but it is certainly the most aggressivly selfish driving we have come across. My favorite is the overtaking tecnique of those huge battered old buses, which is to pull alongside you on a blind bend...and then just move over on top of you. A lot of times the only thing to do is to stomp on the anchors, and swerve off the road, as you can tell by the amount of bashes they have that they would't mind too much either way if you moved or not! The other is when someone just flies up behind you horn blaring as if they expect you to just jump in the ditch to let them past! It's amazing how much pleasure it brings just trying to keep one of these cars behind you for as long as possible - comparable to scratching an itch. The main problem is that on a typical 2-lane-each-way highway, you have people walking at 3mph and rikshaws driving at 15mph on the left, all the trucks driving unmovingly at 20-30mph on the right (to avoid bothering to dodge rickshaws, bicycles and people), and everyone else (cars, buses and swarms of motorbikes) just has to flitter in and out between them.

So we met Sam and Becky and 3 year old Isaac, the Brits who are driving a monster 20 ton ex-army 4x4 truck that had been coverted into a serious off-road motorhome. With the amount of ground clearance I almost suggested that we parked underneath them! Amazing truck anyway with everything you need to live inside. We were still smug though as they have had so much attention on their travels, from people trying to break in, climb on top to get their photo taken, and aggressive police hassle. Our van now just looks like a white minibus with some stuff on an aluminium roofrack covered by a blue tarpauline. Would you believe it almost every other car here is a white bus/minibus/jeep (or 'Sumo' as they call them here) with an aluminium roofrack covered with a blue tarpauline!!! No one even looks at us until we stop and camp! We were even tempted to get some Indian transport graphics painted on the side!

We spent some time in Manali just acclimatising, and enjoying the beautifully perfect climate. We were also preparing ourselves mentally for the mammoth route to 'Leh' right in the middle of Kashmir, and the other side of the main Himalayan ridge ahead of us. From Manali the road climbs up and up to the first (of 4) huge mountain passes, the Rhotung pass at just under 4000m. From there the road to Leh goes down and up to 5328 meters above sea level at it's highest - that's only about 500m short of the summit of Kilimanjaro, and is the second highest motorable road in the world. The road is not always passable, infact it is only open for a few months every year in mid summer when the snow is manageable, and has only just opened up this year. Most people that drive it go in 4x4's, there is no fuel for one 250 mile stretch, the temperature drops significantly below freezing, there are precipitous drops right beside the crumbling road, altitude sickness is a potential problem, and there are very limited medical facilities - we must be mad!! Well we already knew that!!

We are pretty sure it will be possible for us though, and other people seem to think so as well. We will give it a shot and not be precious about it if it's too hard and we have to turn back. We will be spending pleanty of time making sure we are well acclimatized, although that should be fine as at no point will we be sleeping above 3600 meters, and just take it easy really so we'll see how it goes.

Tune in next time for more exciting news from the edge!!