The Score Magazine - Archive April 2009 issue! | Page 44

WORLD - II
On top of the
Obeid N
W
e left Jispa and headed for Leh stopping
overnight in Serchu. What a place! Ser-
chu equals Siberia. Cold, desolate, bar-
ren and windswept. In fact, it brought
forth a whole new meaning to the word ‘freez-
ing’! I cannot explain Serchu or the cold. If I told
you it was -7 degrees Centigrade, I’d be telling you
the half-baked truth. We landed in Serchu around
lunchtime. It was so quiet and eerie you could actu-
ally hear yourself think. In about 30 minutes all we
could think about was when we were going to get
out!
The accommodation was very basic - simple tents.
We had nothing to do except huddle up under a
mountain of blankets and wait for the morning to
descend . I don’t know how we passed the night.
With the lights out just after 10 p.m., the darkness
was almost tangible. At last morning came. We
rounded up the boys and left Serchu. That was a
night that will stay in my memory for a long time to
come! Flat, dusty, rocky and with literally no road
to speak of - Pang was a world of its own. But for
Mr Spemba we could have easily got lost. The rules
there are pretty simple - lose your way in Pang and