Day 4—Manali to Leh cycling expedition

20 August 2018 — Jispa to Upper ZingZingBar
On the fourth day of Manali to Leh cycling, we started cycling from Jispa and stopped at Upper ZingZingBar approximately after 30 km. If you start your day at Jispa, it is advisable to stop at Upper ZingZingBar to avoid covering too much altitude on the same day. As you proceed from Jispa to ZingZingBar, the landscape changes from greener to dryer. While traveling to Upper Zingzingbar, note that accommodation is not available Patsio for travelers.

Highlight of this route —the beautiful Deepak Taal (lake) at the altitude of 12303 ft. It gets it’s ice cold water from the melting glaciers.

Upper Zingzingbar is a temporary camp site mainly used by BRO road workers and tourist, it is an uninhabited place. There are temporary tent Dhabas where you can comfortably spend your night. We stayed at PEACE café.

At Upper ZingZingbar, to our pleasant surprise, we met with two separate groups of cyclists. We met Gabbi, Truven, and Mica who were from Spain and Nitesh who was from Goa and he was a solo cyclist.

After exchanging social pleasantries with Spanish cyclists, the conversation sparked up around cycling, types of cycles, their itineraries, experiences they had as overseas cyclists in India, and the talks went on till bed time. For desserts, we all had home made dry fruit laddus, which we carried with us. After that we tasted the cheese which Truven got from Spain. When asked what’s so special about this cheese, he said this cheese reminds him of home and he carries it on every international cycling trip, just to avoid home sickness. Indeed, the cheese was tasty.

Nitesh was a solo cyclist. It was very courageous of him to cycle all alone on this almost deserted highway. He followed his own cycling itinerary, stopped where he felt like, enjoyed his solitude with nature, and captured beautiful moments. Just to enjoy his cycling tour to the fullest, unlike us, he did not book his return ticket in advance. After cycling to Leh, Nitesh went on to explore Jammu and Kashmir. Nitesh Parulekar is a graphic artist and owns a graphic design firm in Goa called as designfirefly.

Quick facts
• Day 4 — Manali to Leh cycling
• Route followed— Jispa > Darcha > Patsio > Zing Zing bar > Upper ZingZingBar
• Distance covered — 30 km
• Altitude gained — Total altitude gained is 3150 ft. Jispa is located at 10,860 ft and upper Zingzing bar is located at 14,010 ft.
• Challenges faced — Once you move across Jispa, the terrain becomes parched and availability of stream water becomes limited, make sure you carry extra water with you. Though the terrain is dry at this place, it becomes very cold at night at Upper ZingZing bar.

And the cycling continues, read on…

Day 5—Manali to Leh cycling expedition

Cycling on one of the highest yet the most stunning highways in India

Scroll down to view some of the pics we captured on Manali to Leh cycling expedition day 4

Darcha at the altitude of 11020 ft at the mountain ledge

Darcha from another angle

Somewhere after Darcha

Vaibhav and Raj relaxing at Deepak Taal

Deepak Taal (lake) with translucent water

One of the endangered flowers found on Manali to Leh highway

One of the endangered flowers found on Manali to Leh highway

These are the moments for which this cycling trip is worth — just be as calm as the serenity the mountain view is offering

Finally at Upper Zing Zing bar

Interior of Peace Cafe, usually all the tents provide warm blankets enough to keep you warm in freezing temperature

Karan, Mica, Gabbi, Vivek, Vaibhav, and Raj, and in the top row Nitesh and Truven. Karen, the tent owner was generous enough to allow us to keep our cycles inside the tent as well.

Raj, Vaibhav, and Vivek

Nitesh, Vaibhav, and me

Vaibhav posing with the front view of five star Peace Cafe at ZingZingBar

Magical view seen in the evening at upper ZingZingBar

And the dawn appears with mist and dew