June 6, 2016
to (upper) Zing Zing Bar - 4300m: gaining another 500 meters
Early in the morning lots of trucks pass the hairpin we are sleeping in. We get up at about 7:00 and head for the dinner tent to have our bread-omelet and chai. Today we plan a very short day, just to gain altitude and sleep almost as high as what we will have to do after the Baralacha La (La means pass). If we or Dan have a problem with the altitude on this side of the pass it would be easier to just head back down to Keylong to recover.
We start with a few switchbacks and a downhill to the river. There is a second part to Patsio, mostly a roadworkers camp, but there is a large stone compound that has “guesthouse” written on the wall. Without checking it out, we still think we made the right decision on our place to stay.
We climb for about 10 km and reach the place marked as Zing Zing Bar on the roadmarkers. All there is at this location is a roadworkers camp and the start of the first hairpin up Baralacha La. Not even a Dhaba for some chai. We are carrying food so we have a quick lunch and start the hairpins.
Only 6km further and about 250 meters higher is Upper Zing Zing Bar where there are several competing Dhaba’s, all serving basically the same food. Just before we reach the Dhaba’s, we see a cyclist standing on the hairpin above the settlement. We wave, she waves back. (at this point we assume it is Rocio, the Spanish cyclist we met in Kaza). When we reach the Dhaba’s, it turns out to be a he, a cyclist from Costa Rica who has been on the road for three years. Rachel has had contact with him through Facebook, plus he ran into Rocio this morning and already knew our names. Allan Cascante came cycling from Srinagar to Leh and is now headed for Manali. We might run into him again later in Burma. We have some chai with him and an English motorcyclist and wait for Dan to catch up.
Patrick checks the prices of the tents across the street and is quoted 2000 rupees with no wiggle room. Dan tries again later and gets them down to 750. Great! A large tent beats our small tents. It is very warm in the sun, but the wind is strong and cold and the temperature plummets once the sun goes behind clouds or mountains. It is only around noon, a good afternoon to stay warm, eat, drink chai and let our bodies make more red blood cells. We have lunch of Maggie noodles and omelet and more chai. In the evening rice, beans and chapattis are what’s on the menu.
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Today's ride: 16 km (10 miles)
Total: 17,880 km (11,103 miles)
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