“If you aren’t living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.”

*Since I haven’t had internet the last few weeks, I will post the entries I have been writing along the way every day or two until you guy are caught up! In the meanwhile, I am now making my way to Nepal.

After a three week break from cycling, I found myself, once again, planning a bit of a ridiculous warm-up to get back into the world of touring. I decided that a 55km climb, up a pass with a 2,500m gain, sounded just about perfect. And it was. Though I could feel my legs had lost most of their strength, I climbed 40km uphill the first day through the beautiful lush landscape. Unlike the high mountains in Ladakh, the ones surrounding Manali are much lower, making a green, rather than dusty gray ride. Most of the road was paved, though there were a few difficult sections that were dirt packed and rocky, which left me pushing my bike through ankle deep mud.

Here comes the rain!

Most of the signs posted along these roads are reminders to drive carefully, this one was a bit unique.

If you look closely, you can see the switchbacks climbing up this part of the pass.

And more switchbacks…

Here is a picture of the road on a pretty good section (for off road, there were sections that were paved as well). Sometimes it looked like this, with a few big boulders and six inches of mud on top as well.

Dinner and a sunset. My favorite kind of evening.

I camped on the only small piece of flat land for miles, it was just big enough for my tent and bike. The night was calm and starry when I went to bed, but by midnight, a storm had rolled in and I spent a sleepless night listening to the rain and wind pound my poor little home.

There is nothing better than a curious cow!