Day 5 Another day in Manali

Snow covered Himalayas after storm

The rain has stopped and the skies are clear for the moment. The scenery is beautiful; snow capped Himalayan Peaks high above lush green Valleys below.

Major portion of the roadway that collapsed because of the landslide.
We needed to be careful navigating, on foot, around the hole.

We started out this morning traversing the landslide. Much easier with no rain and walking downhill. And an opportunity to stop and survey the damage. Boulders are still falling off the mountain and road which was 25 feet wide before the landslide is now about 9 feet wide.....so we still need to be careful making the crossing. The river has lowered its ferocity and is now full of young men out among the rocks savaging for bits and pieces of wood, fencing and anything of value. Still very dangerous because one could slip and get thrown into the current.

It was only a short ride back to the schoolyard to reclaim our car. We proceeded down river to yet another hotel in Manali. I’ve now spent three nights in Manali, each in a different hotel.....you could accuse me of “sleeping around.”

All of the crews will eventually make their way to this latest hotel by nightfall and we will get our new route instructions for tomorrow. I believe we will go directly to Shimla, skipping some of the higher elevations upstream.

In the meantime, Brant will work on the car; change plugs; install a dry air filter and dry up the interior.

We can only hope that the remainder of the rally will be a little less eventful.

  

Manali after the storm