Bridge on the river Chenab

• 7th of September
• Sarchu - Darcha - Jispa - Keylong - Tandi - Keylong
• 100km

The three boys coming up bore foul tidings from the plains. A bridge near Khoksar was collapsing, and the BRO were not allowing anybody across untill the bridge was rebuilt. The boys were among the last to be allowed before they started dismantling the bridge. It was quite unlikely that we would be allowed across. The trouble was, this bridge is the only way across to Manali.

L-R: Prashi, Me, Ranga, Arun, Chaithra, Sam and Adrian

Early morning at Poppy Tent Camp, before we each went our ways.

Morning, we continued our descended towards Manali, and beyond to New Delhi, as the three boys ascended towards Leh and the skies. The road detiorated drastically a short distance from Sarchu, and by the time we were in Bharatpur, even the few traces of tarmac around the potholes disappeared.

Prashi through a water crossing. I wasn’t just kidding about the road now, was I ?

On the way we passed the spectacularly beautiful Suraj Tal lake. Zimply Zuberb.

First signs that we were approaching the plains… farms on the valley slopes.

By lunch-time, we were at Keylong. The bridge was now fully dismantled, and depending on who we spoke to, it would take anywhere between three days and a couple of weeks to rebuild it. We rode on to Tandi to fill up, after we dumped the luggage at a hotel in Keylong. It was futile to ride up to Khoksar, since everybody was sure that there was no way we’d be able to ride across.

We had a nice evening in Keylong with a substantial Tibetian dinner. A couple of other foreigner biker groups (Swedish, I think they were) were also stranded like us, and we had a nice time at dinner swapping stories of rides.