Earning My Quarter Mile Posts

First attempt to leave Leh came to a naught thanks to the Raid. So when I woke up today and thought what to do, one thing was clear – I had absolutely no basis for making any decision. So I went back to my best friend is such situations. The coin. It was ceremoniously tossed and as it fell on the rug, it pointed fair and square towards Kargil. Now one cannot disrespect the coin. It is always right. So it was off to Kargil in the next 20 minutes.

Had a chat last night with a close friend. He is going to be in Kullu in time for the apparently famous Kullu Dashera. Hmmm… could be a nice idea. Kullu. Manikaran. Kasol. Dharamsala. So when I wake up in the morning, I have a three way dilemma on my hand.

Full day of rest had just made me the opposite – restless. I had to get out soon. The new morning said, well you want to go, here is a nice morning. Now go. So I load up the Cramsters and the petrol, put the key in the ignition and wait for the guest house lady to open the gate for me. As it happened, along came Shashank.

So we have reached Leh. The road still continues north and there I shall go. Indeed, there is the other milestone to be achieved. To go as high as one can on wheels.

Being alive giving you happiness!! Sounded like the stuff of philosophy and self help books to me. Today morning, though, I was glad I was alive. I made it out of the dark chilling night. In one piece.

Keylong is cold. I don’t have anything against cold except that it simply means I am late by 2 hours. Creeping out of the warmed blankets is a difficult job. I had thought of waking up early and capturing the mountains in the early morning glory. To be fair to myself, I did wake up early but decided that there are too many photographs of mountains in the morning and I would stick to the afternoon. So at 10 am, I was off.