Seerthi overlook, en route ChangLa

The road from Karu to ChangLa starts rising along a mountain stream that turns the ochre landscape into a narrow sward of lush green fields and willows sighing alongside its banks. This is a brief respite before the road keeps turning on itself to reach even greater heights.

Fort TsoKar

Just before the climb to TanglangLa, a small road heads towards the village of Phuga 18 km away close to TsoKar lake. Our night halt - TsoKar Eco Resort - looks like a battlement against wind and rain and we are glad to have some respite. Dinner was excellent too-- pasta and vegetables sautéed to perfection.

Thunder Road

As we topped the rise from Pang to the Moré Plains, we were confronted with a spectacular sight of thunder clouds barring our way. We stopped for an hour for the storm to pass before heading to Tso Kar. Even then, half an hour down the road we were pelted by a stinging hailstorm that hurt even through our protective gear.

Canyon Run

The ride down from LachungLa to Pang offers some spectacular views of ice and wind carved rock as we follow the Pang Nala all the way down.

Good morning Tso Kar

Waking up to Tso Kar to this view is a super start to the day.

Water crossing fun

Harsh and I are riding stock Classic 500s for a change and its been fun specially through the water crossings.

The sunny road to Darcha

In the last two years every time I have ridden down this stretch it has poured down so I was really kicked that the sun was out and not a cloud in the sky.

Cloudy with a chance of rain

As usual it looked like rain as we left Manali but fortunately the weather got better as we climbed up Rohtang.

Photo op at Gulaba

Wet in Paradise

Woke up this morning to the sight of dark clouds scudding over and into the mountains. Hopefully in a couple of hours, when we ride up to Rohtang Jot, the sun would have come out and made things more cheerier. Otherwise, we're in for a wet, wet ride to Tandi...