Manali Leh Highway

Shortly before we set off from Delhi to drive the famous Manali - Leh highway into the Ladakh mountains of the Himalayas, I was a bit disturbed to read a warning on another overlander's website about operating diesel engines at high altitudes. Unlike petrol, when diesel combusts without enough oxygen the combustion temperature is proportionally higher. This means the thinner air at high altitudes can cause exhaust gas temperatures high enough to damage and even melt the aluminum pistons. Many landcruisers have a compensator on the fuel pump governor to account for this, except of course our crappy UK spec one which was a bit of a problem. After good advice from other landcruiser enthusiasts via a great forum on the web, we decided go anyway, keep a close eye on black smoke from the exhaust, and probably drive 1000km in first and second gear. The road had better be pretty bloody good...

In case you are interested, the discussion on exhaust gas temperatures is here on ih8mud, a goldmine of information and advice.

After saying goodbye to Jodi in Gurgaon, it took 2 days to reach Kullu valley in the foothills of the mountains, where we spent an evening wandering around the busy narrow street markets. The next day we drove to Manali. On the way we had chai sitting in an icy river. The water was painfully cold and the day was chilly anyway, i am not really sure why it is so popular?

There was no-where cheap to stay so we camped outside town in a rock quarry by the river at the bottom of the Rotang Pass. Up early at 5.30 the next day and up the pass, 3985m and the beginning of the Leh highway.

The road wound through beautiful alpine scenery but soon turned into traffic jams as cars tried to pass each other Indian style on the narrow mountain roads. Alarmingly the horn on the car had stopped working, which is no joke in India.
At the top, hundreds of Indians enjoyed the snow, many dressed in rented fur coats, some being pushed across the slopes on wooden sledges.

Luckily very few cars continued past Rotang as the road to Leh was rumored to be blocked and impassable. Over the pass the road dropped below the snow line into impressive windswept glacial valleys where isolated villages grow potatoes and peas in the inhospitable looking land.
That night we camped amongst boulders by a river swollen to a deafening, brown torrent by melt water from the peaks above. After chai the next morning we called in at the last fuel stop before Leh in a village called Tandi.

The high altitude and using four-wheel drive was consuming more diesel than usual so we used the second tank and filled up to 140 litres. We had some repairs to do - extracting a bolt mounting the second 12v alternator (to charge the auxilliary battery) that had sheared off in the engine block. Interestingly it had actually broken in two places, into three pieces. The belt was also ruined so we used an old spare one, fingers crossed it will last.

In need of a shower, we stayed in a hotel in a small muddy village called Jispa on the valley floor, about 80km from the Baralacha La pass that was apparently not yet open. Although it was freezing we were the first people that year so at least it was remarkably clean.

Vehicles had been trying to get over the 4890m Bara-lacha pass on the Manali-Leh highway for the past week - apparently four were stuck up there in the snow.- unlucky. However we were in a Landcruiser, not an Indian Tata so would have no problems of course, and we set off to have a go the next day. The police eventually allowed us through the checkpost and we set off with about 10 other vehicles into the snow.

Snow-cutters and bulldozers had cleared the deep snow from the route.

One hadn't been so lucky and had gone over the edge.

The locals, clearly not concerned by high exhaust gas temperatures, would thrash past on the clear sections in clouds of black smoke. Annoyingly, around the next corner there they'd be - stuck in deep ruts of muddy snow and ice which we could have breezed through.

Incredibly no-one else had a spade, luckily for them we had two, although digging at 4700m soon gets you out of breath. We met four Indian friends who had hired a small Ford Indigo (bit like an Escort) for the trip. After getting them unstuck a couple times we eventually left them waiting to be towed by a snowplough. (We had to give them their dues however - we met again in Leh. Their car was looking much the worse for the journey, body panels were dented in, and apparently they had a scary moment with wheel over the edge of a cliff on a hairpin bend. I would like to have been there when they handed the car back to the rental company in Delhi!)

A group of Kashmiri 4wd's came from the north, causing a major traffic jam, but told us the roads were passable through to Leh.

Six hours later we were through and driving slowly and alone in huge glaciated valleys,

We passed many frozen waterfalls, but did not have any real problems with the ice on the road.

Then over another 5065m pass, through a blizzard that formed a solid layer of ice over the front of the car. Just before dark that evening we got to the halfway stopover camp Pang - some tents selling dahl and a military encampment - where we spent the night at 4630m. Amelia was suffering a severe headache from the altitude and we had to drain the water pump and filter system to prevent damage from freezing. It was very cold that night in the roof tent.

The next day the sun was out and we followed a flat, wide desert plain, in places dotted with nomadic tents.

Herdsmen had moved in at the start of summer to graze their and sheep and yaks.

It looks like a harsh place to live and their red, weathered Tibetan faces certainly don't indicate otherwise. The route then took us over it's highest pass Taglang La at 5370m, and apparently the second highest road in the world.

Even though we had acclimatised over the past few days, the altitude worsened Amelia's headache and I felt oddly spaced-out, constantly seeing things out of the corner of my eye. In hindsight probably not the best when negotiating narrow washed-out roads over sheer drops.

At the summit the blinding snow and brightly coloured prayer flags look strikingly vivid in the crystal-clear, thin air. Just walking around starts your head throbbing and gets you out of breath but the views over the snowy Himalayan peaks in the distance are spectacular.

Over the pass we descended 1000m into the beautiful purple and green Indus valley that graduated into a towering gorge for a number of kilometers.

Folding and faulting of the different rock strata has created spectacular scenery along the whole valley.

Following the river, the road wound through small Tibetan villages of square white houses, roofs covered in thick layers of drying grass for animal feed in preparation for the next winter.

The Tibetan culture is clear to see with big, red drum-like Prayer wheels ringing bells as they turn, and old men and women spinning smaller versions in their hands, inside which folded prayers written on paper are tucked.

Puzzling Buddhist shrines - painted white chortens and seemingly random stone Mani walls - can be seen everywhere.

However, underlying all is a heavy military presence in Ladakh stemming from past conflict with China over the region.

As evening drew near we camped 45km before Leh outside the village of Hemis, hidden away up in a tributary gorge. The plan the next day is to visit it's famous Drukpa monastry and then continue on to Leh.