From Srinagar to Pensi La - Day 1

Cycling in India 2012

From Srinagar to Pensi La - Day 1

After 10 days of sickness in Srinagar, we cycled the following route on our first day.

We lost a lot of time being sick in Srinagar, so we decided to take the bus and ride to the top the first pass Zoji La. We saved at least a day and could cheat on the big uphill.

The turns of Zoji La. The tents in the valley are a military summer camp.

View downside

Riding the bus is exciting: Small stones falling from above are constantly hitting the side windows. The roads gets very bad at the upper part of the pass, so the bus swings heavily while driving close to the decent. After a big bump, the passenger behind me on the last seat row even got launched into the air.

Traffic jam

At midday we finally reached the top and managed to tell the bus driver that we want get out.

Finally the top of the pass

I helped the conductor to untie the bikes from the bus top rack. This was the first of many times to climb on the top of a bus.

I learned that also unearned downhills are fun. The Indian asphalt roads sometimes have bumps, which can send you flying into the air for a very short time. With the fully loaded touring bike, this was a new experience for me.

During a break, we noticed after some minutes, that two soldiers were sitting on an outlook post 20 meters above us in the rocks. One of them came down to make some small talk.

In the evening, after passing a few villages and a military checkpoint, we finally found a nearly perfect camping point.