03/09/17 Keylong to Patseo

  

03/09/17  Keylong to Patseo

Garmin Connect

 

Leaving Keylong early morning

We steadily climbed after Keylong and the weather became sunnier and warmer. The scenery remained much the same with us following the river with steep sided valley walls on both sides. Just before Jispa we met a group of Indian cyclists having coffee  at a local dhaba. They were travelling as a group of six, [ one Swedish women included who turned out to be their strongest cyclist ], and were being followed by their two support vehicles including an enormous camper van in which they slept. Very nice. We were to see them repeatedly over the next few days. As was often the case the next village was something other than expected and Jispa had several Guesthouses to choose from for brunch. The reality however was that we were spotted and pounced upon by a local owner who directed us to his Hotel where we had omelette yet again.

Carrying on we saw some of the Indian cyclists get picked up by their sweep vehicle and met them all again at Darcha where we had another passport check. After the checks we left them behind and began the long climb up to Patseo. The kilometre roadside marker posts counted down steadily and eventually the marker post said zero but there was nothing there ! Another 1.5 kms and over the crest of the hill we found an isolated Resthouse where we were the only clients. Extremely basic but  at least it had a bed and additionally a nice veranda to enjoy the views. It was a godsend to have the solar panel at this stage to recharge the Garmins and phones as there was no electricity and wouldn't be for days.

Other than for cups of coffee we didn't use our stove a lot. We did like to boil our packets of noodles though.  Some people
eat them raw we were told.

Later on whilst relaxing  we saw the Indian group arrive separately. Confusingly the first two pushed on and the followers looked confused and waited and eventually the campervan arrived, started to drive up the approach track towards us but turned around and continued up the valley , around the corner and out of sight. We were surprised that they were prepared to cycle on as they were usually slower than us.

A bit later Max arrived at our Resthouse and negotiated camping and food for 150 Rupees. Like us Max had stocked up on whisky and we had an excellent evening getting drunk and swapping stories. As usual , people you meet on the road are often very interesting characters with amazing life stories and adventures to tell and Max  was no exception.

I think these were the last of the building we saw  until after we crossed the Taglang La