Rest day in the city of Shimla, it has a long colonial history. The Viceroy kept a summer palace here as did many of the British and Raj’s. After sleeping in that interesting hotel in Manali totally by ourselves, which didn’t provide sheets, so slept in our clothes, things have really changed. At First we had been very nervous, but they made us feel so welcome and as you saw in the photos so attentive, great people and the food was good too . The Oberoi ‘Cecil’ hotel is over 130 years old and has the statly charm and elegance of that bygone era. Super staff, courteous and welcoming.
Here we are now in the lap of luxury. Service is impeccable and everyone smiles and tries to help. This hotel is so wonderful.
Since today ended up as an unexpected rest day, we took the opportunity to clean windows, air out the car and check all the minor issues that have arisen. The car so far is driving well. The roads are worse than Mongolia these ones are inconsistent, so we must drive slower. We managed to ding the running board on the passenger side after an altercation with a truck and rockslide. A mexican (Indian??) standoff developed very quickly as we rounded a sharp corner and found ourselves bearing down on an overloaded Tata truck or the adjacent rockslide he just skirted. We decide the rocks would hurt less and took a dive into the pile of rocks. I think we got off lucky with minimal damage.
After a hearty breakfast yesterday we headed out to survey the damage from the boulder and found out that someone else had a similar issue with that same rock! Most drivers were out checking oil and reviewing and fixing everything from brakes to a car that received poor grade petrol and was trying to syphon it out. We shared photos of the bridge crossing and the schizophrenic drive in. We learned much later that the early morning convoy and rushed crossing of the suspension pedestrian bridge was extremely fortunate. Only a couple of hours after our crossing the bridge was shut down and closed indefiniatly due to structural concerns.!!!!
We also started to receive updated photos of the Rangla pass that we had originally intended on crossing. At 14,950” elevation it was completely blanketed in meter deep snow. The nearby towns of Kaza where trapped in the same snowfall and completely cut off. Airlift operations are underway to bring in supplies and evacuate stranded travellers. Had we been early by 1 day in the itinerary the whole of the rally would have been similarly trapped.
The drive in to Shimla was a manic affair since one minute the car was driving on beautiful tarmac the next we were on narrow ledges destroyed by rockslides. The car was still very wet inside and we had it doing the ‘wet pelican’ impersonation; everything flung open and air drying.
I cleaned windows and we pulled everything out of the car to dry seats and carpet we threw out stuff that had been ruined by the weather. Tony checked spark plugs, she is running a little rich. We are at 2250metres in Shimla. Checked for damage underneath car from rough roads and realized we are very low on petrol so took our old Jerry can to the local station to pick up fuel.
Tony worked on loose headlight again and we discovered that front grill slats are loose. Two are floating again. It is a little disappointing since this was something we just assumed were repaired (twice) since P2P.
We carefully inspected the underside of the car since we had ricocheted of rocks and bolder on a bunch of occasions and found the bottom solid and intact with no signs of damage. Can’t help but admire the beautifully crafted skid plates and our bespoke cow-catcher ahead of the grill and light. All these were the work of Andy at “Specialty services” in Ladner south of Vancouver. Brillantly done and still the talk of everyone who stops to admire them. Must say that it inspires some confidence when running rough shod over the terrible pavement. We have had our friend Tim Smart in contact with us as well, offering welcome advice on the technical issues. He is the mechancial wizard for our vintage racing corvette and has teamed up with us for most of our races in Mexico such as the Carrera Panamericana and the Chihuahua express. Great support and happy to have him following and supporting our effort in India.
Other events happening around us made us stand up and take notice. The finance Minister for India showed up with a big entourage. We had the Indian Army perform a changing of the guard. Photo ops.
We had monkey Pooh and pee all over our balcony this morning. So we assumed they were peaking in at us last night. Fortunatly, we had the curtains drawn so they wouldn’t have seen any monkey business on our of he curtain.
Late today we walked up and up and up to the top of the Shimla Mall. Interesting walk at that altitude, we had dinner at a local restaurant so hopefully it will not come back to haunt us.
Massive thunder clouds rolled over the mountain tops and lightening flashed but thankfully no rain so far.
So now off to bed, and up early to start back on the route. We will drive today but return back to Shimla tonight to another hotel. The real rally hotel. Then we are officially back on our route.
Sept 28th. My birthday 🎉.
ERA has arranged two regularities for us all, it will bring some racing back into the challenge for those who are getting ´antsy’ to be on the road again.
