Adventures of Shyok Village Route | Ladakh – 2012

The Journey so far…

Day 6 | Tangste – Shyok Village – Nubra Valley

I woke up early in the morning with lots of excitement inside, imagining the adventures of the route from Nubra Valley to Pangong Tso via Shyok Village which we planned to cover today. Got myself ready, asked other to woke up and by 7 AM we were all set to go downstairs for the breakfast. We had to leave early because there was a possibility that we might come back in case the route is closed somewhere, which meant tracking back all the way to Chang La and then to Leh. The lady had cooked nice omelette and paranthas which we gulped within no time. All set, prayers to god, off we went into the unknown…

Rigzin stopped at police checkpost of Tangste where we submitted the permits to go ahead. Durbuk is a place from where you need to take a right (if coming from Pangong Tso), so that you move towards Shyok Village and further to Pangong Tso. The left turn follows the route to Chang La from where wither you can go to Leh or Nubra Valley from Shakti – Wari La route which is quite longer than the Shyok village route for Nubra Valley. There is almost a difference of 70 KMs between the Wari La route and Shyok Village route, meaning about 3.5-4 Hrs less of travel. We were ready to take the chance but mind you both these route are extremely isolated and help on these routes would be very difficult to get in case of any eventuality plus the Shyok Village route is in tatters and almost impossible to cross in months of July and August when snow melts rapidly. You literally have to cross the deadly Shyok river at times as it runs so close to the roads… We were ready to take that gamble and fingers crossed we were into the unknown territory soon including the local Rigzin 😉 …

Rigzin was quite slow upfront as we moved deeper and deeper into the unknown terrain. The vistas were magnificent, a bit different than what we had been seeing within Changthang for the last three days. The views were like paintings done by a world class artist using all his favourite colors 🙂 … At once, we were running close to Shyok river and soon we gained tremendous altitude. It was getting a bit scary and then we had a quite large bump to cross, even large for a Scorpio that it touched the foot base. Slowly, Rigzin negotiated it and we were almost like at the top, ogling at the great Himalayan peaks on the other side of the valley almost from the eye levels. We stopped there for a while but since, sun was rising from that end, could not capture it in the camera though we took lots of picture of ourselves. No one was behind us, no one was ahead of us, we were alone again… Soon we reached a beautiful Shyok Village, no words can describe the beauty and even the pictures below do not do any justice at all… A camper told us that few landslides were cleared last night and if we drive cautiously we will be able to pass through the route into Nubra Valley. It was a sigh of relief and we had full faith in Rigzin to get us through… There is a route that goes near Shyok village to Daulat Beig Oldie (DBO), a military base, which is the easternmost point of the Karakoram Range and about 9 KMs short of Aksai Chin Line of Actual Control between China and India. The temparatures goes below as low as –30 degree celcius here and also DBO is considered to be the Northernmost built up area in India after Siachen Glacier military bases.

We continued and there came a point where I could not resist to stop amidst the rocks. It was super fun sitting there taking pictures and seeing the courage of Rigzin who kept us laughing wit his jokes. We were told by that villager there is a GREF hut from where we can inquire about the conditions ahead because there are lots of rocks present on this route right on the road. The Captain there said they had clared the road upto end last night itself, warned us to be cautious and go ahead… It was such a photogenic point that it looked as if a rock had been placed right there to take the pictures only. Good opportunity for Himanshu to get some nice matrimonial snaps 😉 … As we moved, ahead the road deteriorated badly, as if we were running on a river bed, it was indeed a river bed only. Extremely bad and dangerous, and yes the Shyok river was flowing right aside. At places we had to move out, clear the rocks in front, make our way and then move ahead. Finally, there was water all over the road, a part of river was flowing on the road itself 🙂 … This was the adventure, we never knew what lied ahead for us. We got out, check the level of water as Rigzin planned the exit path, I took the position to get some pictures out of it … We managed but guess it punctured the rear tyre. We kept moving ahead since there was still OK type air pressure in it.

One could also see Sand Dunes on this route as well, as you see in Hunder. The route was so fascinating and unpredictable as we stopped aside a huge Sand Dune which we decided to scale. Slowly, gasping for the breath we were at the top and I cannot explain how it felt. River flowing in front of you, you are right at the top of a big hump of sand, everywhere you see is barren landscape, even the snow clad peaks of mountains… What a cocktail of natural beauty and we could not have asked more from the route :). But, there was still plenty of things left for us on this route running aside the Aqua coloured Shyok River. We met few Nepalis who were camping right there amidst a wide piece of land near the river. I distributed chocolates and Poppins among the children as Rigzin had a word with them in their local language. They used to stay here only for the last two seasons living here working on as labours for maintaining the roads in this part of Ladakh. Imagine, the life in winters for them, most likely they used to trek back to Leh or some other place in winters but two years in such barren land is shocking to imagine 😯

As we moved ahead, there was a very rough road full of sharp rocks, negotiating which Rigzin pushed the car on the dirt track and one wrong move, VOILA!! We were stuck in the sand!! 😀 … Badly!!  It is in a situation like this when you feel how isolated the route was and if it had been more ugly then it meant trekking back miles to get some help… We were all alone on our own and the funny part was Rigzin had taken out the shovel from the car before the start of the trip only, which meant pulling out sand had to be done with hands only… The fun begins now of removing all the sands below the rear wheel by hand and gathering stones, placing them beneath the wheels and a hard push. The cars moves 1 feet ahead 😥 … It was about 12-15 feet from the road and first attempt had exhausted us but our Spirits were very high still… One more cycle of placing the jack, removing the sand beneath, placing the rocks, a hard push with throttle and we inch ahead a few more feet… Hats off to the stamina of Rigzin as we were only playing a supporting role and he did all the hard work and finally after 7th attempt, we were back on road, hugged each other with joy!!

We took out some dry fruits, food whatever we had in our bags, offered first to Rigzin and the precious water as we stopped ahead aside of Shyok River… We got stuck majorly due to the low air pressure in the tier or perhaps we were unlucky enough. As we gathered back the breath sitting aside the river and gulping the ice cold water, I realized how serene and calm was the whole aura around us. It was a great feeling but we didn’t know that it was not over yet. As we moved ahead, there came an extremely bad section on the road with around a 200 feet fall on one side and active landslide on the other, as Rigzin jumped out of the car removed the rock in front and moved ahead a bit. Then, I jumped out of the car to provide guidance and let him concentrate on the road as rocks were falling from above (happened twice) and I was clearing in front. But, glad we got out in one single piece… It was tough and heart pumping moment. The hardest part was we could not accelrate as well because of loose big rocks beneath which did not let car to get the required grip. Thankfully, it was done and again we were laughing at ourselves, thinking was it worth the risk… Well, some questions do not have any answers in Adventure!!!

As we by passed that rough section, soon we were on the tarred freshly laid road again. We stopped to wash our hands again and get a final feel of the remote adventure. Meanwhile, an Army convoy came in and stopped by us. The young Captain came out, asked us where were are going and we said we are not going rather coming from Shyok Village!! 😯 … He was in a shock state and asked again, and then realized yes we had come from there. He told us that they do not cross that active landslide section and told us that we were brave enough to do that. He told us that they wait before that landslide section for their platoon that was coming from DBO (Daulat Beig Oldie). The other trucks will drop them before that section from where the party will come walking to the other side. Again, we had nice chat with the charming guy about our adventure and how they used to sustain in such harsh conditions as finally he congratulated us for the adventure we had and off we went back to road… By then the air pressure in the rear wheel had gone down considerably forcing us for a change in tyre. It felt nothing what we had gone through before, so within few minutes we changed it and were back on road to reach Agham Village to enter the known territory of Nubra Valley. Agham is the village in Nubra Valley from where one road leads to Wari La Pass and the other leads to Shyok Village from where we were coming…

The Journey ahead…