To Rumste

It was quite a decent ride to Rumste for the campsite, a total of 180kms. They were mostly well paved roads but there were sections of sand and rock. All the dust has managed to make its way into my lungs and sit there just to piss me off. Well it's working. Thanks dust.

My trusty steed. Royal Enfield originated in England but they are now also made in India.

 

Water carved out this whatever-you-call-it. In winter there must be a lot of bloody water going through here to fill it. I don't want to be a duck in this river.

These winding roads are absolutely amazing and in a way it's a little too beautiful it's dangerous. You keep staring at things in the distance when you should be worried about the approaching hairpin bend.

 

Lunch break, this banana has seen better times. It was quite sweet and well-ripened but not too-ripened.

 

These are cookies duh, this doesn't need a caption!?

 

See if you can spot the little blue figure.

 

She's now making a dairy product. Guess what? It's inside that sheep skin. Yeop, they killed a sheep, skinned it, and are now using it as a bag to make something. She rocks it back and forth on her lap.

 

More awesome winding roads.

 

That's a lot of feet. I wish the person who invented the imperial system of measurement can see this sign, and realise how useless it is at visualising distances.

 

The novelty of 'local plates' has worn off. They are now 'boring bland plates'.

 

Watch out worms!!! (There probably aren't any worms in this dry sand)

 

There was a huge drag race between the 15 of us. It wasn't as fun because there weren't any speed limit signs to breach.

 

You've got boogas hanging down kiddo.

 

It's me.

These guys are part of the 2nd highest road building team in the WORLD. As in the planet man. That's pretty cool.

 

Here they are wiring up green little wires to connect to fuses...to...blow stuff up... COOL!!! They blow up the rock wall to widen it and make it less prone to instability, thus less chance of falling on unsuspecting bike riders.

 

5300m altitude. The air is thin here, a brisk walk and you really feel out of breath. In a few days we may be venturing to 6000+ at our own discretion. Gonna load up on the Diamox. At this altitude the air is pretty cold, but not freezing yet.

 

My balaclava had a hole the size of a straw to breathe through. I don't know what Alpinestars were thinking. Anyway, it's great for drinking through and i was excited at the fit that I had to take a photo. In the background is Mr Pete who has unfortunately been quite sick throughout the ride. You can see his bottle of Berocca in hand.

 

A paddock of sheep in the middle of nowhere.

 

Arrived in Rumste campsite not long after. It was tents only, pretty basic. Poo in the ground type basic. I lost my appetite because of the altitude and then these Nepalise trekkers who were hired to cook for us made this almighty meal. Two ladle-sized scoops of rice plus one ladle scoop each of veges, chicken, curry pasta, and potato. Our plate ended up weighing about 1.5kg. We ate about .47kg.

 

The next morning we rode on towards Leh, luckily it was only a short 50km ride. Just in Rumste was this weaving going on. Dunno what it was, I'm thinking it's going to be a scarf for King Kong.

 

And that's like the end.