तुएस्दय 21st

Dropped Katie off to Delhi at 530am!!!
Finally left for Manali the long way round ( Go Charley & Ewan) Learnt how to do water and waterfall crossings. The Enfields are amazing, first gear little or no throttle and if they dont stall, they will chugg through anything. The road had been washed away and was closed. We waited for the bulldozer to sort of clear a path and we were away.On the way our crazy lead car driver liked shortcuts... why would you use the tar if there was a dirt/sand track that cut off the hairpin? We headed over the edge at one stage- acute mountain sickness makes you sleepy which is not too much fun but this dirt/sand woke us up. Each time we think a road is bad IT GETS WORSE!! We travelled across the More Plains a large area of dust and dirt. The roads filled the valley a bit like the NT if you dont like the road you just make a new one so the whole plains are filled with tracks. Once again 1st gear no throttle and the Enfield just chugged along. Jo was chasing Raj but lost the others behind so thought she would stop. In the middle of a desert like valley, no vehicles or road to be seen in either direction. Dead quiet and where the #*#* was that road anyway. Then trucks could be seen on the far right of the valley and of course we were taking the left side. The others had caught up Michele had taken a small lie down in the sand. So we gathered together and off again. After a discussion we thought perhaps the right side might be better, surely the locals knew .... Ah well as long as we went south we would get there eventually.
We lunched at Hot springs which were not like the Peninsula ones at all. We rode through lots of wildlife Yaks, horses, goats and sheep. Passed a Nomad group of tents thought it was our accomodation would have been happy as the roads were tough. Then 40ks or fairly ordinary dirt/sand/rocks to get to the stunning Tsomoriri Lake. It was a stunning landscape but we werent up to enjoying it much. We were still up high again & acute mountain sickness claimed a few of us again. The tourist tents were great with an ensuite! No hot water but at this stage all we needed was a toilet! we did celebrate with a scotch that night. The next day were still ordinary, dont think the one drink hurt us though!