Ladakh Journey | The Last Drive, Nubra Valley to Leh

The Journey so far-

Day 6 | 5th, August 2010 | Diskit – Khardung La – Leh

We started the run towards Leh from Diskit and had a plan to have lunch at Khalsar village roughly 20 KM ahead. The main highlight of the drive was the straight run on a road which leads to the turn towards Panamik just before Khalsar and to take pictures on Khardung La in sunlight. We all were excited for the Pangong Tso day trip which was scheduled next day and were in dreams in imagining about the same. My colleagues were also busy with shooting videos of the drive across the landslide prone zone which looked a bit true too. I was busy in jotting these memories right into the deepest part of my mind so that I never forget them ;)… Soon that magical road of heaven came and we were down to shoot some part of the beauty to cherish them later in the life :)…

Volcanic Clouds…

After taking the snaps we packed back, and stopped at a dhabha at Khalsar. There we were surprised to see a huge herd of vehicles, some parked and some venturing to witness the Nubra Valley. It was surprise for us because within just a day so many tourists were ready to flock the valley since the past two days we rarely saw tourists in our presence. After having quick meal including soup and thupka we explored the streets of the town. Once we came back Tsewang asked us if we can accommodate two of his family members who wanted to go to Leh and we had no objections as the back seat was still vacant but luggage had to be adjusted a bit. Now, we were seven in the Scorpio as we started the ascend towards Khardung La.

The vistas looked altogether different in the sunlight which we witnessed a day back in the bleak weather and I feel this is the beauty of this place called heaven of earth. As we crossed the Khardung Village, at the back drop of the hill the radiator of our car was emitting all kinds of fumes 😉 which triggered a stoppage of more than 40 minutes and for us it was time to take the pictures to utilize this precious time. We had fun overall…

Dheeraj Sharma

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Catching a High Waterfall…

Sparkles of Sand in Oasis…

Straight as an Arrow… Black Tarmac…

Straight as an Arrow… The Way to Go…

Truth of Project Himank…

Flowing stream at Khalsar…

Deeply Studying…

The Rocks…

Other Side of Khardung Village…

Yet Another White Water Stream…Running Down…

Our Drive… Getting Cooled… 😉

Framing… The Natural Way…

Caught in the Action… My Friend…

Caught in the Action… It’s Me ;)…

We soon reached North Pullu post where army guy stopped us to ask the delivery of some package to the South Pullu post. We kept waiting for more than 30 minutes there and sun was beating hard on the skin which was getting tanned every second of its exposure. We tried a few clicks there too and started our ascend towards Khardung La. After climbing few KM we were again stopped by a mighty convoy of SUVs / MUVs accompanying the holy “RIMPOCHE” (monk at the highest level I think) of the region who was visiting the Diskit Gompa that day. There were as many as 120 cars 😯 as told by one of the drivers who asked us to stop aside and we kept waiting for more than 20 minutes to let them pass by. Each and every car had flags of prayers all over and people inside were chanting the words of some holy prayers.

Sunny View from North Pullu…

Distant View of Khardung La… As we waited for “RIMPOCHE” to passby…

Finally, we reached Khardung La top which had different colors this time and our friend Deepak came out of car this time to get his pictures clicked :)… A fellow BCMTian had parked the car (Black Tata Safari, West Bengal Number) right in front of the sign board which we felt he should have moved after clicking the pictures he wanted. Being parked right in the front it was troubling others to get pictures getting correctly composed and we know waiting at such height is like calling someone to stroke your beat :lol:. We were asked mistakenly by two different tourists to move that car from the spot :D… thank god none of them used any helping verbs. We used it differently though :)., so thanks to him.

Catching the Colors of Khardung La… My Friend Deepak…

Catching the Colors of Khardung La… It’s me now…

Catching the Colors of Khardung La… Om Namah Shivay…

We had two cups of tomato soup at the Cafe at the top which was worth and felt special too at such height. Moreover it provided much relief from the headache which was less mild this time as compared to the first time. We offered short prayer at the temple and started to climb down. Soon at South Pullu post Tsewang delivered the package which was handed to us at North Pullu post. We also clicked few picture on the Khardung La frog 🙂 which we missed on ascend.

Dheeraj Sharma

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Under the Dark Clouds…

Khardung La Frog…

Khardung La Frog… Another view…

Yet Another Road of Heaven….

As we approached Leh we felt that we didn’t have any accommodation and started calling some guest houses from where we got negatives on the availability of the rooms. We asked Tsewang to take us to Changspa road where we searched almost all hotels. Finally after strolling till the Shanti Stupa road we found Shanti Guest House where a room for four was available although it was not in good condition but since it was getting too late we took it at Rs 800. We asked Tsewang to reach at 5 AM in the morning but he called one of his mate as his Scorpio was having some radiator trouble and fixed us the time. We handed him Rs 5000 and told that will be giving the rest of the amount tomorrow after we come back from Pangong Tso trip.

There was no body to entertain us at Shanti Guest house as all were busy in the TV set. When we asked too much one aunty came up who told us that Nimmu village is hit with the cloud burst with many died and the “RIMPOCHE” of the region have declared this week to be deadliest of all time, specially the coming two days. She was scared as the faith of her holy “RIMPOCHE” was written all over her face but we had no lines of trouble on our forehead and took it as routine in the hills. Deep inside of my heart I was recalling the word Nimmu and after some trouble I finally recalled that it’s not more than 30-40 KM from Leh :shock:… This thought scared me to the core and I thanked god for saving us. Soon we went to Changspa for the dinner with some anxiety, butt seeing the chicks we enrolled into the mood and came back around 10.30 to have a sound sleep, unaware of fact what was in the store for us that night and next day by mother nature ;)…

The unimaginable story of my life begins…