After a days rest we embark back on the Bikes, the ubiquitous early 7 am up for breakfast resumes and we are off on the road for 8 am. Before leaving the hotel staff put a yellow scarf around all of our necks for a safe journey (in hindsight the french should have asked for their money back). This was a long 155k normally surfaced road single lane to our lunch destination. Of course, there were the usual local young Nepalese on the bikes overtaking us, trying to find gaps in the traffic that was just not there and then somehow there they were! it must be all the praying they appear to do.
Our lunch stop consisted of momo, a boiled mutton dumpling and chicken noodles, these dishes would not have been out of place in China, in fact, they are from China. After lunch it was off to the mountains, only a few Kms up the road and then a traffic queue, being on the bikes we managed to get to the front, the mountain pass that we were to travel on was blocked.
They told us a landslide and it would be a 3-hour wait! The news was filtering down that it was also a rock fall and 5 people had died. The mood amongst us was pretty sober and after about an hour they allowed motorcycles up to the pass. We went passed a totally crushed car and a lorry which had been decimated. Only motorbikes were allowed on the pass, and the riding was very difficult near the landslide. Many ambulances passed us, and I saw at least one injured person being transported. After 5km the roads got more normal till we came off the blocked section of the pass. Here the motorcycles in the opposite direction were being held at a checkpoint with a barbed wire fence. We had to go through in a single file and then on to some lovely twisty mountain roads where there was no traffic coming in the opposite direction, after around 20 km we found out why.
All traffic had been stopped due to the landslide. The traffic queue reached almost 6 miles. Many thousands of people on buses and 4x4s were going to have to stay the night on the side of the mountain.
We reached our hotel as dusk fell but not before we went through what can only be described as an enchanted wood it reminded me of being in the Ardennes. The road twisted around the trees and the mist was coming in, it was truly magical. When we arrived at the hotel we were very wet, but all our clothes were stuck with the support vehicle so beers were had while we waited two hours for it to come via a different route.
The hotel was the unremarkable Hotel Srinagar (http://www.hotelsrinagar.com/), it had hot water which was to later prove to be a luxury and plenty of room.
