Ladakh Tour... dream destination....: My dream Destination...Ladakh....

Ladakh Tour... dream destination....: My dream Destination...Ladakh....: Ladakh....it is in my dream for a long long period. Many of my friends visited this beautiful place and I heard just stories from the...

My dream Destination...Ladakh....

Ladakh....it is in my dream for a long long period. Many of my friends visited this beautiful place and I heard just stories from them and went on thinking when shall I be able to go there! Now this year the thing ultimately happened. I went there in August 2014. Its a fornight tour and I was part of of a group operator.
We reached Srinagar by flight and stayed there overnight. Early next morning we started to reach Kargil by the end of the day.Our tour operator informed it will be journey of about 9 hours. We crossed river Sindh and stopped for breakfast at the picturesque spot in Ganderbal district with back drop of the river and the bridge.

As we proceeded further ahead the beauty of the valley also started to become more and more beautiful, Its being the month of August evrywhere the earth appeared lush green. We crossed Sonmarg but couldn't proceed further since at the check post just after controls the road traffic since ahead lies Jojilla Pass and being a landslide zone with narrow road with high traffic without control it wil be atotal mess. We are informed that the upward journey will be allowed at 1.30pm which means a wait of almost two hours for us! We were sad but you cant do anyhting about it. We just roamed around the area, went to river  Sindh and finished our lunch also in the meantime. Actually the road opened around 1pm. As we proceeded we saw the route to Amarnath pilgrimage. This route is shorter but more difficult to climb. You can take helicopter ride also from here. Since this is the time of Yatra we saw innumerable shacks and shanties and flags along the route beside the river in the valley.

river Sindh at Sonmarg

Sindh @ Sonmarg

As we proceeded furhter ahead and went on climbing higher and higher towards  Joji La (the pass at an altutide of ~11600ft) the sceneries changed slowly from more green to more rocky. Joji La is 9km from Sonmarg. But we took much longer to reach because of a nasty traffic snarl as we neared the Pass. Due to some landslide the road got closed and the caterpillar of BRO is found to working on it to remove it for smooth traffic movement. BRO maintains this whole route and does an excellent tireless job to maintain the road in servicable condition for both military and public. This is the only link of ladakh cvalley with the Kashmir and the rest of India and remains out of bound of traffic because of heavy snow fall during winter and remains closed from November to May. This pass was taken over by Pakistan army during 1948 to capture Ladakh from India. And India by operation Bison recaptured the same by using Tanks for the first time in such a high altitude.   

I became quite emotional and romantic when I remebered that this is the Pass through which Alexander the Great, Megasthenis the historian, Fa Hien the Budhist Monk and many more such illustrious persons arrived in India from time immemorial. History is such a facsinating subject and I n

Crossing Joji La

Traffic jam at Joji La

glacier @ Joji La

We got stranded for  more than an hour here. Then again we started to go further ahead. The route became more and more rugged and beautiful. Snow is found here there.
                                                                                                                 

We reached Drass are where the fierce battle of Kargil war actually took place. Its huge grass land area with only hamlets of shepherds and villages are far off almost not visible with naked eyes. it became quite clear how the enemies stealthily entered and occupied a huge area, the military bunkers etc with so much ease in winter. and it also became quite clear why the information reached to Indian Authorities only through the shepherds for whom this is a natural place for living. We saw the Tolloling peak in the back ground of the war memorial built and was thrilled to know that the LOC lies just in the opossite side of that peak! We also saw the highest peak of this area The Tiger Hill which was occupied by Pakistani army and the fiercest battle took place there to snatch the region from the foreign invason!

The Tiger Hill top seen @ far end...Drass

Vijay path..the Kargil war memorial @Drass...Tolloling is seen behind!

When we reached Kargil it was quite dark. The town appeared conjested but our hotel The Caravan Sarai being at a higher altitude the whole town can be seen from the nice balcony and terrace. We again started after breakfast for Leh giving short breaks at Mulbek to see the famous Bamiyan styled Budhha, the bass relief is etched out from huge hanging rock of the Ladakh range. During my trip to Ladakh I remebered the stories of khaled Hosseini at many places and for various reasons. This spot is a stark combination of bright yellow absoltely barren stone mountains along with green valley along the River Suru. The Maitreya Budhha bass relief itself is quite interesting with four hands holding rudrakhsha, kamandalu and lotus and looks more like Vishnu than Budhha!

Maitreya Budhha @Mulbek

Mulbek Monastery

We rode further ahead goes on up and up to reach the Pass Namik La (12200 ft) and then to the top most point of this route at Fotu La.I felt like I'm on the top of the world! The passes are so windy I felt I shall be airborne! By this time the vegetation vanished completely and the mountains all around are showing beautifull magical colours of red, yellow, purple and different shades of grey. The structures of the mountains are also very different from the ones we are used to see at other Himalayan ranges.

Fotula Top....the highest point in Leh Srinagar High way...

 From this point there is a sharp down hill journey along the famous Langroo Loops.We didn't see any sign of human habitation along very long stretches and this is the uniqueness of Ladakh region! I wish it remains so and the invasion of hordes of tourists does not make this place go astray like all other beautiful places! Its good that its so difficult to reach there.
Our next place of interest was Lamayuru and the famous monastery. The rock structure at this region is so unique that it looks like lunar terrain and hence the name "MOONLAND". There are deep gorges and hollow stone structures! The monastory is the oldest one in this region.
We took a break for a very late lunch at one of the way side dhabas crossing Lamayuru beside the river Suru at a picturesque unknown place.

Lamayuru Monastory

The spot where we had our lunch...nameless but picture perfect!!!

River Indus near Uletokpo

@Uletokpo

Apricots @ Uletokpo

Srinagar- Leh high way in between Uletokpo & Nimmu

After seeing the beautiful confluence of Zanskar and Indus at Nimmu we saw the wonder spot of magnetic hill where your car even when in neutral gear moves backward with apparently no gradient in the road! Next stop was Patthar Sahib, the Gurdwara of Guru Nanak Saheb an encient one. We enjoyed the warm tea with savouries offered at the gurudwara along with pure ghee halwa happily. Here the young guy offerring tea is actually a young army Jawan posted at Drass. He is doing KAR SEVA by taking leave from his duty for one week! I'm always facinated by this beautiful custom of voluntary community service of the Sikhs where you can feel so much your usefulness and bonding with your own poeple. Its such a nice tradition. We all cleaned our utensils and started again. By this time it was completly dark out side.

River Indus @the confluence



Confluence of Indus & Zanskar rivers @ Nimmu

By the time we reached Leh it was quiet late in the evening. The next day we stayed at our Hotel Himalaya in Leh. In the afternoon visited Leh Palace and Shanti Stupa. Leh Palace is made in the style of Potala Palace of Lhasa in Tibbet! I walked uphill through the market and densely populated living quarters of local people to reach the Palace. You can see the whole town from there. Next went to Shanti Stupa about 5km away again on a hill top and the whole surrounding can be seen beautifully from there! The mountains around appeared to be made of loose mud and the colour of the same is very similar! So it is no wonder that when cloud burst happened in 2010 summer the whole town was submerged in mud deluge. I have never seen or imagined mountains can look like this. 

view from Shanti Stupa

Shanti Stupa

 Our next destination is Nubra Valley via Khardungla Pass (18400 ft) allegedly the highest motorable road of the world (debatable!) on the following day (9th August). As the road passed the outskirt of Leh we saw Shanti Stupa again from far and the road slowly went upwards in every bend of the mountain. It's a long and hazardous journey with regular military convoys and traffic jams being  a routine in this route! The road condition is also quite bad with constant land slide of the loose stone structure. Though BRO works tirelessly in  all  the routes of Ladakh  to keep the road safe and motorable for both public and military but still the road condition in long stretches here is in very poor shape. 

The most common perceptions of the tourists are that to reach the destination as hurriedly as possible. But if you do it in Ladakh you will miss almost most of the charms of the place! Since the beauty of this region lies everywhere in the landscape itself......it opens up like magic before your eyes! It changes from place to place. We stopped at many places during our journey to different destinations and got soaked in the beauty and uniqueness.

We got entangled in a nasty traffic snarl just before Khardungla Pass. We heard so many things about altitude sickness before coming here and this spot is naturally the most dreaded  being the heighest point of our whole Ladakh Tour. Though the claim of it being the heighest motorable road in the World written at many places of Khardungla Pass by BRO and military is actually no more a reality since there are at least two more such roads in Tibet and China! But fortunately none in the group  had fallen sick to any great degree to need any medical intervention. The thing which made me very uncomfortable and almost sick was the smell of partly burnt fuel coming out of the stationery vehicles mainly the the goods trucks  and military convoys. Because of high altitude the vehicles have to keep the engines running though we got struck there well over half an hour! You can get tea and other eatables as well as souvenirs at the army canteen at Khardungla. Here it is written in bold letters that one should not stop there for more than twenty minutes since that may cause permanent health hazard because of very little oxygen in the air. I have already told that we were forced to stay about an hour there but fortunately nothing went wrong! We saw two glaciers at Khardungla and like all other passes it was very windy. At this time of the year there was no snow but in general you will find snow here at almost round the year.

way to Khardungla....Leh valley is seen below

Khardungla Pass

We saw beautiful flourescent blue wild flowers in abundance in the rocky mountain side! It appeared so fascinating in that absolutely barren and dry landscape. 

 We reached North Pullu after Khardugla (16000 ft, 14 km) and had our luch there. South and North Pullu flank khardungla Pass in the two sides and one has to get inner line permit to visit the Pass from these two places. The scenery changed somewhat with wide grasslands along some small springs and rivultes running down from different glaciers and yaks are found to graze at many places.

North Pullu

Yaks

Shyok river- first glimpse

Shyok River n Karakorum Range

From North Pullu we proceeded further ahead.After some time we got the first glimpse of the Shyok river, a huge river flowing Northwards which made me so confused since right from childhood I'm  used to see only South bound great rivers because of the position of Himalaya mountain. The Shyok River, a tributary of the Indus, originates from the Rimo Glacier, one of the tongues of Siachen Glacier. The river widens at the confluence with the Nubra River. The alignment of the Shyok river is very unusual, originating from the Rimo glacier, it flows in a southeasterly direction and, joining the Pangong range, it takes a northwestern turn, flowing parallel to its previous path. The Shyok flows in a wide valley, suddenly entering a narrow gorge afterChalunka, continuing through Turtuk and Tyakshi before crossing into Pakistan. The Shyok joins the Indus at Keris, to the east of the town of Skardu. The Nubra river, originating from the Siachen glacier, also behaves like the Shyok. Before Tirit the SE flowing river Nubra takes a NW turn on meeting the river Shyok. The similarity in the courses of these two important rivers probably indicates a series of paleo fault lines trending NW-SE in delimiting the upper courses of the rivers. The importance of the Indus and the Shyok rivers is in the deposition of the thick quaternery sediments—a treasure trove for geology researchers.

Karakorum Range beside Shyok River

Way  to diskit, Nubra Valley beside Shyok River and through Karakorum Range

Seabuckthorn berries, Nubra valley, Ladakh 

Strange rock formations of Karakorum range

 Diskit monastory @Diskit, Nubra Valley

It was past 4 pm when we reached Diskit after travelling the whole day. The long route was excuisitely beautiful and very sparesely populated which adds to the beauty of the place. Karakorum Range I saw for the first time and its formations are distinctly different from the Himalaya. Its much more rugged and has strange colours and rock formations some of the glimpses can be seen in the uploaded photos. We had some tea and provisions were lifted from Diskit market since our destination Hunder is a much smaller place. We saw the Diskit Monastory from a distance only. Again we proceeded further ahead for Hunder and was feeling quiet excited for the cold desert by this time. We went straight  there to see white sand desert and two humped bactrian camels. The road leading to under from Diskit lies along Shyok River and then white sanded desert. The forms of the sand dunes changes its shape and size and design with time due to strong wind flow! Hence the nature of it we saw during our ongoing journey varied from that seen during returning!

I was awe struck with the beauty and uniqueness of the whole scenery. The rock formations of the Karakorum is extremely striking! After getting soaked  in the bauty of the place to the fullest extent we started for our hotel at Hunder and when we reached there all of us were thrilled to see the hotel. If I just say its bautiful nothing can be understood because its actually the whole ambience of the place starting from a fantastic flowers, fruits and kithcen gardens surrounding the two story small structure and the back drop of  rugged wall like mountains and poplars and wheat fields surrounding the hotel... its simply divine something! Apples and Apricots trees were looking so tempting with full of ripe fruits. The view from our room was simply awesome with steep stark naked rocky mountain standing like wall just out side our window crossing the boundary of the hotel. It was full moon night and we couldn't sleep because of  moonlight like molten silver flooded our room! It was a most romantic spot, moment and place to remember and cherish life long.

view from our hotel room...wheat field with full harvest in the foreground

just beyond our window!!!

Chortens at Hunder.....

Ladakhi women eagerly waiting for the Head Lama... .in their traditional festive attire!!!

sand dunes @ Hunder...for miles n miles..of white sand ....

We started for the model village Turtuk of Baltistan next morning after break fast. The road is all along by the side of Shyok river. This village became a part of India only after war of 1971 from pakistan along with four other village of Baltistan. Its about 80 kms from Hunder. Even Indians of other parts of India were not allowed to visit this village till 2010! LOC is walkable distance from here but one can't go there! After we travelled through rugged and without any trace of human dwellings throught the route this village appeared to be a sudden burst of green which always signifies life. We were greeted by merry shouts of a bunch little naked boys who were frolicking in the ice cold spring coming from the glacier and flowing down to the Shyok by the side of the hamlet. A picture perfect wooden hanging bridge welcomed us. Now green is the colour which you will see all around as if by some magic touch evrything has turned into life! I felt so happy. We finished our lunch and then the local villager Karim Bagdour narrated us about the history and geography of this unique place. Then we went to guided tour with him. Everything appeared to me to be fascinating. The local people there are Baltic in race and speak that language only. This language is only spoken and can't be written!!! They are Muslims unlike other places of Ladakh where majority are Budhhists. It is claimed that these people's ancestors came from Greece and hence lies the secret of their unusual good looks and blue eyes. This village was part of encient Yagbo Dynasty (800 to 1400AD) of  Baltistan. The heir of the dynasty Yagbo Modh Khan lives here and in his modest humble way is trying to showcase that dynasty's few artifacts of the KIngs in his personal museum at the residence. A family tree of the dynasty is also there. Karim took us to his place and he explained and showed us proudly the things and stories of his ancestors.

 Yagbo Modh Khan

The spring from glacier going to Shyok River @Turtuk

The beautiful wooden bridge at the entrance of the village

This little girl under the tree with hand made tandoor breads and tea for some reasons made me remeber Pari of Khaled Hosseini in  "The Mountain Echoed.." In fact while taking the tour in this village for some reason I repeatedly remembered the various stories of Khaled Hosseini!!! 

elders of the village......

K2 peeping ...the only place in India from where you can see the World's second highest peak!!!

Shyok river beside Turtuk.....

 We started the village tour through the cobbled stoned path layed along the village dweelings and saw just like the Indus Civilisation nice arrangement of flowing water from  springs through well made channels throughout the village in front of every house.  Beatiful looking women and girls were doing their household chores in front of every home in that ice cold water coming from  glaciers just like running water! Its a simple but fantastic arrangement. The village is strewn with apple, apricot, grapes and walnut trees all of which are  full with ripe crops  this being the right season. Karim took us to the hydraulically oprated wheat grinder. Wheat is fried before grinding. The village is unusually fertile compared to its surrounding places with  absoltuly dry and arrid Karakorum mountain ranges. Various kinds of green vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, capsicum, raddis, carrots, many leafy green vegetables are found in abundance in the fields. The best apricots of the country is available here and dried apricots are exported from here  Five varieties of apricots are harvested here. Wheat and other serials are cultivated in abundance. This is the only place in the country from where you can see the second highest mountain peak of K2 which is about 100 kms from here. And POK is  walkable distance. The guide Karim is a great entrepreuner in that distant remote village which does not even have a high school! He appeared to be  the Prince Charmng of Turtuk, the dreamland. All the girls, women, elders, kids have something nice to share with him. He is the owner of the only grocery of the village where you can get even bottled mineral water and soft drinks even. He is also  the owner of a home stay with nice, cosy, humble rooms with bed, dinner and breakfast for meagre five hundred rupees per head. It was a pleasure to know him. After the tour we decided to come to this serene and beautiful place away from all hubble bubble of human civilisations once more and stay there for a few days leisurely at his home stay!

When we started our way back to Hunder it left a splendid parmanent memory in our mind! 

I forgot to tell you about the awesome full moon night at Hunder. Everything surrounding us appeared to be unnatural in that strong silvery light. The mountains just beyond our plane glass windows looked ethereal in its beauty! After spending two beautiful nights at this awesome place we again proceeded for Leh early morning after breakfast.

 The way to Shia Cheen glacier falls along this route but only military is allowed to go in that route and none else. From the diversion point its about 60/70 kms. The Shyok river also comes from the same glacier.

Coming back to Leh the same day in the afternoon we visited Thiksey Monastory, Shey Palace and Sindhu Ghat where the festivals are held. You wont miss anything if you give give a miss to the last one I mentioned. But Thiksey is a place worthy of visit. The monastery is located at an altitude of 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) in the Indus valley. It is a 12-storey complex and houses many items of Buddhist art such as stupas, statues,thangkas, wall paintings and swords. One of the main points of interest is the Maitreya (future Buddha) Temple which is installed to commemorate the visit of the 14th Dalai Lama to this monastery in 1970. A 15 metres (49 ft) high statue of Maitreya, the largest such statue in Ladakh, covering two storeys of the building is deified in the monastery. A nunnery is also part of the complex. It also houses a library of encient books! A huge silver lamp appeared to me to be quite interesrting. 

Chortens at Thiksey

Silver lamp

The Library

Tallest Maitreya Budhha spanning two and half floors at Thiksey

 Thiksey Monastory

Thiksey from far off

Shey Palace and Monastory

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Beautiful and huge Copper Lamp @ Shey

 Shakyamuni Budhha @Shey..spanning two floors...!!!
Next day we started for the much awaited and most desired destination Pangong Lake via Changla Pass and Changthang Reserve sanctuary. The route as usual just like all other places of Ladakh equally beautiful and charming. We reached Chang La (17590 ft), the third highest motorable road of the World. By this time I have got used to see this kind of sign boards of BRO! Glaciers are found on the adjacent Himalayan ranges at Chang La. At most of the time of the year this Pass remains snow covered and BRO has to clear the road for vehicle movement. But in no snow is found on the road in August. The place got its name from Chang = South, La= Pass like most of other names of Ladakh the origin is from Tibetan language. So this is The pass of the South. People give the credit of its name to a temple of the God Changla Baba... but basically its the other way round!  Crossing the Pass you will enter the land of the Chang Pa Nomads and Chang Thang Reserve Sanctuary! this sanctuary is the home for ahordes of flora and fauna some of which are endangered also!

 

Yaks grazing

Ladakhi Lady

 

Marmot @Chang Thang Reserve sanctuary...cute n smart guys!!

The mountains looked like molten gold in afternoon sun near Pangong lake...its an unbelievable unthinkable scene!!!

The mountains on the way to Pangong ...it appeared molten gold is running down the gradient in the afternoon sun ray!!!

The first glimpse of the Lake from far off.....

Pangong in its full glory.....

In the afternoon light....

Morning at the camp....moon over the sunkissed mountain top....

The Lake from the tent in the morning...

Brahmini Ducks...@ Pangong

wild horses @ Chang Thang

While returning from Pangong Lake went to Hemis monastery about 50 kms from Leh. Monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Drukpa Lineage, located in Hemis, Ladakh. Situated 45 km from Leh, the monastery was re-established in 1672 by the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal. The annual Hemis festival honoring Padmasambhava is held here in early June. 

Hemis Monastory

Chortens near Hemis....
After spending the night at Leh we started for Tsomoriri Lake and also left Leh once for all since our next destination after Tso Moriri...Sarchu is situated at himachal Pradesh! So unlike the previous occasions we took our total luggage. The way to Tso Moriri is mostly by the side of river Indus. Its as usual absolutely deserted with no sign of any human habitation. In fact we saw very few fellow tourist cars also. The route appeared to me even more beautiful.One of our four cars broke down after about two hour drive! The first car in the car was oblivious of its fate and sped away forward!!! The other cars stopped and all three drivers tried to solve the problem for almost two hours without any success. The place being totally deserted you cannot expect any mechanic, car repairing garrage or any external help. Here you are your own master in its true sense and human ingenuity and intelligence and perseverence is tried at every moment. The situation was quite hopeless. The first car couldn't be contacted also there being no mobile net work! For me it was quite a feeling of adventure! The scenery was awesome with Indus at one side, a picture perfect wooden carved bridge is hanging on the river. The other side of the river is green with willow trees and grass land. this side of the river is sheer rock standing tall and rugged. There is a road junction showing the other route to be trekking route to Khatpoo. I was getting tempted to walk that way but none in our group was liking my straying around! I went upto the wooden bridge. The other side with lavish greenery at the middle of all rugged mountains looked so inviting....I wanted to go there and lie on that grass under the trees. 

The beautiful spot where our car broke down beside Indus River and rugged mountains!!!

@Khatpoo trekking route starting point.....we got stuck for two hours!!!

from the bridge side our cars and trekking route

Curved hanging wooden bridge on the Indus...the other side looks so tantalizingly tempting!!! How I wished I can go there...its like verdant picnic spot in that rugged mountain area!

The shape is tantalizing....its difficult to keep you at this side!!!

Even after much endeavour by our drivers the car could not be repaired so it is planned to ferry us to the nearest human habitation available and some other plan has to be formulated for our onward journey to reach Tso Moriri! It was already past lunch hour to arrive at the next human habitation quite some way far off from the spot. We worriedly started to have our food but due to some good luck the car was ultimately repaired in the mean time and even after loss of more than two half hours we were able to restart for our destination. It was a great relief!

Deserted roads with hardly any traffic found in either direction all alonh the route leading to Tso Moriri....and the scenery is breathtakingly beautiful.... you cant have enough of it!!!!

the Indus...here permit is to be taken before you go any further. You will have to cross Indus and go left for Tso Moriri and in the right direction is Pangong Tso...but this route is not for civilian movements since LOC is close! Otherwise Tso MORORI can be easiley reached from Pangong via this route!

Roundish Lake Kiager in a beautiful grass land comes before Tso Moriri....the place is excuistely beautuful. But since we re already quite late we couldn't wait there for long! There is almost no habitation and hardly any vehicle is found along this whole route since number of tourists visiting Tso Moririr is very limited.

Lake Kiager

Tso Moriri....in the afternoon....

wonderful Tso Moriri

It was very very windy and biting cold @ the afternoon at Tso Moriri!!!

We reached Tso Moriri around 07 pm. The day was partly cloudy and place was very windy. We were shiverring even in mid-August even after wearing all kindis of possible warm clothings! We took a few snaps and hurried back to the safe custody of our cars. next we proceeded for our night dwelling place at Korzok...The Nomadic Camps. By the time we reached there it was completely dark outside. It was dark, cold and some how appeared to be damp inside the tents. I understood that its actually due to cold everything is appearing to be damp. After some warm food we went inside thick layers of blankets! In the morning also because of the cloud the lake was not seen in its expected colour splendour. But I enjoyed the stay all the same and from this morning I was feeling a starnge sadness since the tour is coming to an end! After breakfast we again  started and stopped beside the lake. Due to declaration of Ramsar sites the area surrounding Tso Moriri is conserved and people are not allowed to visit the lake where ever they wish. In most of the place the lake is fenced to conserve the ecology......the special and rare flora and fauna of the area. The bank of the lake has huge grass land with beautiful small yellow flowers in abundance. Brahmini ducks are found to be gracefully floating in large groups.We also saw black necked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis).

We started towards Sarchu enroute (Lake) Tso Kar. Its a long journey but the route is simply enchanting. I wished at many places to alight from the car and stay back for few days!!! We saw extensive salt deposit along this route till Lake Tso Kar. Lake Tso Kar has marshy land surrounding it unlike the other lakes of Ladakh. We saw anumber of  wild Ibexes (an animal with head of horse and body of donkey), wild horses, wild donkeys along our path in the valley!

Ibex....

Sulphur deposit....there was storng smell of sulphur @ the place.....

lots of salt deposits along the way

Nomadic Changpa camps...who are found in abundance in this valley... how I wished to visit their camps and stay there at least one night!

salt deposits....salt is found to be extracted also by some contraption at some points here!

Wild Donkey....

 Tso Kar from far off....

Marshy land surrounding Lake... Tso Kar . It looks like a spectacular painting of some great artist!!!

After crossing lake Tso Kar you will not find anormal road to take you to your destination! I was surprised to find that the drivers are going by different ways according to their free will! its atotally new phenomena to me. The landscape here is that of huge grass land in a valley surrounded by hills surrounding you. one of the car in our group was found atop the mountain road while the others were crossing the grass land in great speed but again in slightly different routes. It was such a fun all the way.

More Plains............where you fly to your own desire and make your own route!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ultimately we crossed the huge grass land covered valley and fell on Leh Manali high way. The whole area is known as More Plain and looks awesome.

 Leh Manali High way

high way ...More Plain

Sumkhel Lungpa River @ Pang

wonderful creation of nature ...wind erosion designs.....Sumkhel Lungpa river @ Pang

Military transit camp @Pang

 Make shift road side eateries, Pang..... this place remains out of bound almost eight  months of the year!!!

The out side view of the place.....life must be very hard here...just take a look at the terrain!!!!!!

 

The awesome viw of the route continued till we reached Sarchu. The total area along the way is completely without any sign of human habitation. The structure of the mountains at most of the places is unbelievably striking. At one spot it appeared that there is aruined fort at the mountain top which in fact is just wind erosion rock design!!! You will see stunning shapes and design and colour of rock.

 

wild flowers by the side of the river Sumkhel Lungpa...

 We reached Sarchu in the evning after whole day'long journey. The weather here is wet unlike Ladakh. You cross to Himachal Pradesh alittle before Sarchu. Sarchu appeared to be breathtakingly beautiful but we didn't get any time to explore the place since we reached late and  have to start early next morning. It rained whole night and the mountains turned white with snow in the morning. There is beautiful grass land in the valley and the tent site was also very picturesque.

 

Camps at Sarchu...after night long rain the surrounding mountain tops became snow covered. The terrain change can be understood very clearly as you enter Himachal Pradesh from Ladakh..... the rain shade cold desert area turns to more moist and damp here. Snow is found in much more abundance. Rain fall is found only after coming here though the month is August! We had to start after an early break fast of hot soup and and noodles towards Manali. It was drizzling. The day was very cold and windy. After we started the rain actually turned into snow flakes and the visibility became very poor. The terrain  is found to be all covered with snow. The change from our  experience of the last 10/11 days appeared now so unreal. It's cold ,damp and windy and very chilly day with almost no visibility. We couldn't see the lake enroute because of the inclement weather although we passed just by its side! A beautiful bright pink flowers are found in abundance just beside the snow covered white rocks which made it look more beautiful.

 

 

From Sarchu to Baralacha Pass ( 16500 ft) its continuous uphill journey and the weather was fowl. We passed Surya Tal but couldn't stop there because of the inclement weaher and only watched it from closed window of the car. Sometime after crossing Baralacha Pass and Zinzibar the weather improved as the height gradually decresed and scenery slowly changing to our known green mountains near Darcha. The road is running by the side of  Bhaga River. Jispa comes after Darcha a little further.

Darcha beside Bhaga river

Jispa .........

 

Crossing Darcha and Jispa and Keylong the confluence of Chandra and Bhaga is found at Tandi. We crossed the Bhaga river and arrived at the fork which is the confluence of Chandra and Bhaga to form our Chandrabhaga in Sanskrit or Chenab in English (Greek?). The confluence looked beautiful. Now we followed the road by the side of Chandra river.

 

The Confluence

confluence of Rivers Chandra and Bhaga to form Chandrabhaga 

wild flowers near Tandi

Potato cultivation i found in abundance all over the places from Darcha to Tandi, Sissu

 

Potato plantation

 

Our trip ended at Manali after crossing Rohtang pass. The fortnightly tour appeared to me like dream sequence. I'm still dreaming of visiting the awesome beautiful spots in my dream. I hope to go there again at some other time and stay at the places where I couldn't stay this time. I would love to make alonger stay at Tso Moriri and to cover Lake Kiager more leisurely and go near the Lake Tso Kar to spend much longer time there.  And Turtuk...I must stay in that beautiful model village with girls and women like fairies and gaze at the world's second highest peak K2 for long period and to roam around the village aimlessly or to sit beside that beautiful singing spring coming down dancing from glaciers.

Over all I must say Ladakh is such a place which will haunt you forever after you visit it once. It has such a rugged, fearful, awesome charm which you will not find anywhere else.