Eastern Ladakh I

Leh has a lot of cultural display regarding Ladakh, but due to commercialization, it is bound to change. The prosperity has led to modern buildings. To have a look at 'not so modern' Ladakh, one has to move away to Karu or Upshi or even further to Rumtse. Eastern Ladakh starts showing of variations in terrain as well with more vast open spaces and a higher elevation. After crossing over Khardungla on my return, I ended up in Karu and perched around near by villages. This was the longest stay as I had to wait for the fantastic Leh Manali route to open up. Meanwhile, I explored Pangong Tso and Chushul regions. Eastern Ladakh stays the best part of the journey with lots of scenic moments and good tough experiences. The heighest passes were fought in this region. 7 out of 10 times I crossed 5000m altitude mark on the bike. While some say it was the man not the machine to achieve such feats, I would have to agree. If it weren't for Mr. Cannondale, 12000cc of thighs would not have scaled the heights so efficiently and quickly!

Solar Cooker. 2 houses: an old and a new one

On the way to Pangong Tso

Chemrey Gompa cluster on the hill

Tsoltak: snowed on ChangLa

529mbar of pressure on Changla! almost half of that at sealevel! Killer...

Wildlife near Khardungla

On my return, as I struggled up to North Pulu, the ride had lots of surprises in the form of wildlife. That was the most active day in the complete regarding wildlife. But one has to ensure that the animals are not scared away by the motor sounds and what I missed while I hurried down the slope was mainly due to speed and sunset. Some of them find their way to this blog while animals like ibex are too common to find on the ridges high up during mornings and evenings.

Wind on mountains

Some times wind on mountains provide for a much fascinating view. After some show, I decided to take this video

Nubra and Shyok Valleys

 The Nubra and Shyok Valleys are almost adjacent and split a little distance from Khalsar. Though both together are also called Nubra valley usually. Nubra means flowers. There are a lot of wild flowers which had not bloomed while I was there but did manage to see some of them. There are just too many oasis in this desert and riding along the river is a treat for the eyeballs. Going along the Shyok river, one comes across the sand dunes at Hunder and farm lands there after for quite some time.  The double hump camel is the landmark in this region. While crossing the sand dunes, I was actually caught up in the dust storm but it was a thrilling experience. The prologue of the dust storm was what I could record.

After the storm: A relief

The frequent landslides and other harsh factors contribute to erosion but one can even see the formation of sedimentary rocks. Playing with them, one can realize the diverse toughness of these rocks which could be attributed to their age or method of formation.
The dogs in this region are known to have killed Humans at times. Some of them managed to chase me from under the bridge while I was riding over it and did not give up even after we were on different sides of the river. Reaching the last Indian village of Tyakshi and then returning on the same route also seemed interesting. Got a lot of time to hang around with the lazy camels. Most of them are domesticated by the villagers of Hunder and the only work they have is to showcase themselves. (tourism icons)
At this point of time most of them were shedding their fur as summer approached

Life on the other side of Khardung La

2 hours later it will grow dark and I am still an unknown distance away from Khalsar. So far no milestone has given me this information. An upper bound of 50kms should be a safe consideration. A further downhill should give a good speed but the roads do not support it and are way to narrow and curvacious.
This was the situation at North Pullu and despite lights, I did not want a ride in the dark night. I accelerated spontaneously and tried to maintain speed above 30 on those rugged downhill with almost no weight on the saddle. Bike control was an enhanced skill and my bike had achieved a top speed of 75 kmph just a few days back. There was hardly any one coming from the opposite direction as no one attempts to reach Khardung La in the evening and also hardly anyone left in the direction. The road was laid out just for me :)

There was no hesitation to stop and take pics. The terrain was way too interesting. Also the place has varied wildlife due to the altitude variation (A drop of over 2000m) which I was unable to spot on the speedy downhill late evening ride but later observed pretty well on the return way up. There was just one village, Khardung, on the way till Khalsar. 

Characteristic erosion patterns

Meandering River at Khalsar

The Route approx.

A look at the bigger picture after lots of focus on J&K. The map shows only the major locations.

End of a long ride

The velometer reaching 5 digits made it a long ride. The ride is over but there is a lot to be shared. I spent over 6 weeks in J&K and away from internet and telephone at times, which I hardly ever missed. The blog shall remain active in coming future and postings might be a bit regular again.
Entering J&K from Udhampur side, saw me drenching in the rain almost everyday till Zojila. So far there had been some tough rides but Zojila was a different level. It wasn't tiring but the weather made the going difficult. It was a heavy snow fall and I had to stop short of what I had planned; a rare event as of then. The next morning I headed towards Kargil but one slip and there was a scare of any wet road.

 Later on the road till Leh the passes steadily rose ensuring a better acclimatization. On the way I was fortunate to have luxuries of a kerosene heater at times which usually makes one suffocate after a while. Riding becomes difficult after such times.

Srinagar-Leh route has fascinating and varying landscape. One of such extremes is at Lamayuru which is called the moonland. The pictures tell the remaining story (at the end)

Road after Khardung La

In order to get to Nubra and Shyok valleys, there was the first huge obstacle: Khardung la and though there were suggestions to cross it in the first attempt, I took a day off for a rehersal/acclimatization/check ride. There was a headache on the following day as well and Iwas slow enough to take around 3 hours for the last 12 kms of the climb. It usually is a great relief to reach the top after working your heart out. But stories change over 5000m. Descending was time consuming as well. Reason evident from the pic above. The ride till Khalsar showed a terrain which made the experience far more thrilling than that of Lamayuru. (coming up in later posts)

Moonland, Lamayuru