Day 14

Woke up to the lake at Pangong in early morning light, still and blue, mountains reflected in the water. Then it was back on the bike, for the last time this trip.

The route retraced north toward Leh before climbing over Chang La at 17,688 feet, the third highest motorable pass in the world. After the high flying day before, it felt almost pedestrian. Bikes lined up along the road, a military chai stall, red plastic chairs, snow walls on both sides.

The descent dropped through a different landscape entirely, green terraced fields with yellow rapeseed flowers, flat-roofed white houses, the valley lush and inhabited after days of high desert.

160 km for the day, one more pass, and then it was done. Fourteen days, sixteen passes, somewhere north of 2,000 km.

The passes were brutal and beautiful and, by the end, just part of the day. What felt impossible on day one is a memory by day fourteen. Every highlight got replaced by a bigger one, right up until the last morning on the shore of Pangong Lake. I'm still not sure whether making it through untouched was acclimatisation or luck. Either way, I'll take it.

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