The Himalayan Puzzle

Doug Percival was slated to be the Assistant Tour Leader on the 2025 Trans-Himalaya Cycling Expedition. He shared his first-hand experience of what transpired as the rains began to fall and the tour was cancelled.

Trying to Find a place of where to Start with this Blog, is a Puzzle in itself.

The Original Tour From Kashmir to Kathmandu, took its first knock just a few months before our
scheduled arrival. The Politically fragile region of Kashmir, had sadly once again put itself into a ‘No-Go Zone’ for
tourism, and TDA changed its scheduled start in Srinagar, further Eastward to the Mountain
town of Leh, in the Ladhak region.

Leh sits nestled at 3600m, pretty much ankle height to its Surrounding Mountains.
It is a Dry and Tough Climate, with the only bit of agricultural land being along the banks of the
Mighty Indus River.
Leh is also home to a Large amount of Military.
With its proximity to Pakistan to the West, and China to The North… To say the Area is highly
monitored is an understatement…it is reportedly the highest militarized zone on the World…
Unsurprising with 3 Nuclear powered states all rubbing shoulders in a small corner of the globe.

Leh is also home to 10 000 stray dogs who live a life of clear skied nights, and i need not explain
what a dog does on a beautiful fully moonlit night shall i?

But, besides the Scouting fighter jet patrols, and the nightly canine choirs, Leh’s backdrop of
Colossal Mountain Ranges is what stands out the Most.

We set about starting the Tour, in a town called Kargil, close to the Kashmir border..with the
intention of riding back eastwards towards Leh, and then the plan was to progress further
Eastwards into the Mountains, towards Manali, then through the famed Spiti Valley, and pop
out in Shimla.

From Shimla, we planned to traverse the slopes of the Himalaya, cross into Nepal…and make
our way to the capital, Kathmandu.

That was the Plan, and how the plan became a frog in a frying pan within the click of a finger!

Within a day of starting the Tour, reports of violent storms, flooding, and severe damage to the
south, made its way to our news feeds.

By the 2nd day, that weather had moved itself into the mountains.
Not only were we dealing with 4600m mountain passes to cycle over, we had gone from bright
sunny dry air, to pouring rain and single digit temperatures.

The Himalaya’s are new mountains in the Big Picture of Our Earths development..they comprise
of sand and loose rock.
There is no vegetation up high, so it is a geographical painting around every bend.

But with the lack of any flora life form, comes the fine balancing act of rock upon rock, glued
together by very soft granular sand.
Now add severe quantities of fast falling rain, and a mountain range so tall, its area becomes
kilometres of vertical catchment Zone.

I think you see where this is going…

Yes that’s right, Flash floods and Loose Rocks…

By day 3, the rainfall had loosened just about every surface Rock on the slopes, and we were
now dealing with a new term…something we had read on local sign posts… Beware of Shooting
Stones.

I never thought much of a ‘Shooting Stone’, until i witnessed them.
A cluster of rock that falls from a 7000m mountain cliff, and has about a 2.5km free fall,
splintering and shattering its way into smaller shrapnel, and then at some point making its way
in front of you at warp speeds, whilst you pedal innocently along on your 8kg bicycle.
It certainly upped the Peripheral vision!

So We pulled the plug, enough fear and danger for a day, and the group got Shuttled home bit
by bit, not before making ourselves at home in a military cantine whilst the tour leader
performed Her usual juggling act of logistics to make a safe transition out of trouble.

We were back in Leh, it felt like we had been served some Hoerdervs before the main meal
began.

But there was something bigger Looming.

There isn’t anything i know bigger than the Himalaya’s. That is the lure of them, their Size.
But i was wrong. Weather is the bigger Player at the table.

Mother Nature is angry. Very Angry.

News from all angles came in, we were facing large scale weather systems from every angle.
Reports of serious floodings became a constant. Road closures grew by the hours, and ominous
forecasts were there to stay.
The tour was placed on hold, something i have only heard of twice maybe in over a decade of
being involved with TDA.
This must be serious….

I didn’t Envy Shanny & Nirmika that morning, telling a group of Clients, that their Dream Trip was
on pause, because of ‘things’ we could not control.
– all whilst mother nature laughed at us, because the sun came out and blue skies deceived us!

Surely Blue sky and starry nights meant all was fine? The night time Canine Choir seemed to
think so.

The riders disbanded and the staff split up. Half went to the End of the ‘danger area’ in
Rishikesh, and half of us joined the local support crew, and took the vans eastward, to shepperd
them toward Shimla, the chosen Rendevouz point of ‘safety’.

Day one in the vans, it felt like we had robbed everyone of what they came to see.
Mountains so sky high, its hard to explain their enormity.
It is very hard to explain the sheer Size of those mountains, ive seen pretty much all the big
mountain ranges around the planet..the alps, the andes, the atlas, the rockys,
yes they epic, and yes they are magnificent..but they just hills in comparison to the Himalaya’s.
We are specks of dust in size to each peak.
Behind a colossal peak, is another peak, which is just a foothill to an even bigger peak. They
stand over you with more Power and Might, than the brain allows you to understand.

Day one of Transit was glorious, a feast to the eyes for me.
Day two… Now that’s where the pendulum swung, and it swung right off the shelf.

Heavy rain in the night, delivered chaos by day.
Our roads became rivers, bridges disappeared, queues of truckers backed up, they all knew what this meant.
We were in a one way funnel…
And forward was the way.
Mother nature threw her fury into those mountains, i saw what were bridges, now look like
ground salt on a kitchen table.
I saw hillsides, taller than city buildings, just eaten away into mud, and dissolved into the angry
mountain river.
Chaos had begun, and further down the funnel we went.
We had a goal, rendevouz in Shimla in a few days right?
Day 3 of the transit, was when i realised this is taking a turn..and not a promising one. We
reached a small mountain village called Hull, in the famed Spiti valley.
On arrival into the village, a local farmer gave our local drivers and guide, a thumbs up to
attempt an upcoming ‘tricky section’ of road….we went around the corner, only to find a
boulder the size of a 6 story building now residing road central.
We scurried back to the village, only to be given a shoulder hunch and cheeky smile from the
man, it wasnt his problem was it.
For the next 3 nights, we bunkered up in a local farmers home.
The family gave up their lounge and rooms and accommodated us.
Phone signal floated in and out when it desired, and so did the updates on the status for the
roads.
Where we came from, had now had a freak snow storm (a month too early according to the
mountain men)…closing any chance of backtracking for us.

The Giant boulder was shoved out the way by one of the insanely brave mountain road workers,
and we could get ourselves to the small town of Kaza.
Kaza is nestled deeply in the Spiti valley, and is surrounded by Snowy capped peaks and Littered
with wonderful Buddhist temples. The rain eased up…in Kaza,
But not with the other crew in Rishikesh!
They were dealing with their own threats of ‘liquid mountains’.

Shimla became a hotspot for wild rainstorms, reports of landslides on almost all access roads.
The town of Manali to the south, had such extreme damage, there was no access from any
angle.

Day and Night we had conflicting information coming in, one road opened, another shut, then
both shut, then both opened… A clear sign nothing was open, was the fact there was no traffic
flowing through the village of Kaza.
By some divine miracle, we did happen to be Bunkering down in a Local hotel, that just
happened to be co-owned by an Australian, and with that, a top of the range coffee machine.
I think that caffeine supply is what kept me sane.

The TDA office crew in Toronto (& South Africa), the TDA crew on the south side of the
mountains, and us 7 crew stuck in Kaza, slowly and steadily formulated an extraction plan.
… And it involved backtracking!
Forwards, we had reached a wall. Literally a mountain wall.
That wall wasn’t being moved anytime before the potential First winter snows, which were now
predicted within 3 weeks time.

That drive back out the way we came, by some stroke of divine luck, went relatively smoothly.
Smoothly is subjective here, the road was Kaput… But there was a deep mutual desire from all,
to get out.

Whilst Getting out of the Mountains, it would only seem fitting that the final hour over the final
pass, would see deluge rains and fog….
Again i watched mud and rock flow off the side of a mountain with ease.
Of course it had to show us who the real boss is of this wild place one final time….

In all this commotion, TDA took the heavy hearted choice, to cancel the tour.
The Outbreak of a global pandemic in 2020, is the only other time in 23 years such a decision has been taken…

We got out those mountains, got ourselves to the flatlands of Delhi, where we rejoined our
Comrades and dealt with the realities of an early ending tour.
We all going home early, somewhat short changed of an experience for sure, but despite the
emotional loss of that journey, i will try explain the gain…

I witnessed Real Human Spirit in those mountains.
I saw people that don’t own much material possession, give out far more than any person i’ve
seen in the 1st world do in 20 years of living there.
Subsistence living Village people, giving up their personal rooms for strangers, local mountain
herdsman pushing stuck vehicles out of mud, local tea houses giving free meals and hot cups of chai to people in need, because they understood the situation…its survival up there.

i watched 3 special Indian men, who arrived in Leh as our local support vehicle drivers,
transform into the Backbone of our Tour when We found ourselves in real trouble.
They waved that Indian flag proudly, we were guests in their land, and they made sure our
safety, comfort and well being was more important than anything else.
How they got those vans out those mountains, i still don’t know.
No anger, no showing of stress, no critique…
Masters of disguising anxiety indeed, maybe helped by a couple boxes of cigarettes per hour.

But i also witnessed Mother Nature get really angry.
Those environments are changing fast, and the signs are there.
Villages, towns and Life, stand No chance when a Mountain decides to move…and it is
increasing with the Severe Weather changes the are experiencing.

The Himalaya’s once again Humbled me, for the 3rd time i have been into them.
I am so insignificant when i stand there and look up.
I got to see them in their beauty, and they also showed me just how Ruthless and cruel they are.
It is a hard life up on the Roof of the World.

To those who had their trip cut short, what a great shame we didnt get to experience the TDA
circus in that Phenomenal Place…
But In some ways, i’m glad you didn’t have to see those roads, i wont ever forget the noise a
mountain makes, when it decides to kick one of its 100meter high ‘Rock Shoes’ off.

Let’s All try play nice with Mother Nature please, the more We all pedal our bikes, hopefully the
happier She will be!

Cheers, Doug