Magical Colours of Tso Moriri | Ladakh – 2012

The Journey so far…

Day 4 (First Half) | Chumathang – Mahe – Sumdo – Tso Moriri

It was a tough cold night with least amount of sleep and loads of headache but there were no other symptoms of AMS and I was able to sleep about early morning for good couple of hours. When I woke up, there was bright sunshine and the sped of the wind had also gone down. Himanshu and Tejas decided to have a bath in hot spring water where as I opted for an hour’s more sleep. Rigzin came in with some tea and shared his uneasiness at night as well to accompany me… However, thanks to god that we both were fit and fine now :). About 7.30 AM, we were all ready to pack the bags and first go for the breakfast at the dhabha or restaurant of the owner of the guest house. Again the ladies there cooked aaloo + pyaaz mix paranthas for us and we happily gulped them with pickle. I always carry along lots of Toffees, Poppins and Chocolates etc. with me and some of them we distributed to 2-3 children present there who returned us back their beautiful smiles. Making payments and bidding adieus (but forgetting to take the contact number 🙁 ) at around 8.00 AM, we were off to Tso Moriri lake, about 70 KMs from Chumathang and takes about 2.5-3 Hrs to reach…

The plan was to visit Tso Moriri lake, spend sometime there and then head towards Hanle to sleep overnight. We continued along the main road, deep into the valley towards Mahe first where after submitting the permits we had to take right diversion across the famous Mahe bridge towards Sumdo – Tso Moriri (Korzok Village). The main road from Mahe leads you towards Nyoma – Loma – Tsaga – Chusul and ahead… As we moved along the Indus river we saw huge frozen parts still floating into the river and even the Indus was still frozen at many sections. It was treat for us though 🙂 … Finally, at about 8.50 AM we reached Mahe bridge, took couple of shots as Rigzin handed over the permits, distributed few chocolates to the 2 children waiting for some shared taxi/bus to go to Nyoma. We had to go towards Sumdo – Tso Moriri, so we crossed the bridge and entered the narrow valley. Taking picture of Mahe bridge and bridges ahead into the Changthang region is prohibited being sensitive area and one must take care of it. As we moved along a small river/tributary that meets into the Indus river, we saw huge amount of snow still present in the river or on the bed/shores around. Water was almost frozen in its majority of sections and we even came across ice on the roads. All this because this part of the region get hardly any sunlight. It was fun watching such vistas enroute and we soon reached Sumdo Village.

It is this Sumdo village only from where a path goes via Polakongka La (21 KMs) – Tso Kar (22 KMs) – Moore Plains (22 KMs)  that connects you at Manali – Leh Highway. Clicking the picture and we were back on track again, running alone all the way, making it altogether a different and awesome feeling… Remoteness at its best, Remoteness to remember for a long time!! We reached a Namashang La pass where we stopped for a while, had couple of shots and moved towards Kiagar Tso. It was COLD, VERY VERY COLD out of car… Even taking pictures was very tough. When we reached near Kiagar Tso, I went out to take pictures from different angles that took more time than usual exposing my bare skin to super bone chilling winds.. When I stepped back into the car, my hands started to get numb and the whole face especially the lips, nose and chin were having a pinching sensations 😯 … I immediately too out the hand gloves from the baggage and kept rubbing my face so as to get the pinching sensation go away. Then I kept my exposure to bone chilling winds to minimum. Kiagar Tso was completely frozen but was candy to watch, we took couple of pictures and back again…

Upto now the road conditions were fine but the tarred road ends at Kiagar Tso and after that all you have is a bumpy, dirt track leading you all the way to Tso Moriri… There comes a wide section on the road that almost look alike Moore plains with huge flat lands surrounded by beautiful multi colored mountains… Everything was frozen around, small water crossings, water in the small river running aside and we were praying that we see at least few colors in the beautiful Tso Moriri lake. Soon the eyes lit up as we had first views of Tso Moriri but it looked all frozen… Slowly and steadily on the bumpy road we by passed some temporary houses build by people of Changpa tribe, the nomads of Changthang. They had herd of sheep with them which produce the costly Pashmina shawls… As we approached near the banks of Tso Moriri, we were happy to see at least about 30% of it had melted, enough to let us see some beautiful blue colors of it.

As mentioned in the Travel Guide blog post, a little background of it as:

Tso Moriri Lake – Ladakh

Tso Moriri lake in Changthang region of Ladakh is one of the most beautiful, calm and sacred (for ladakhis) high altitude lakes in India. In fact, it is the largest high altitude lake in India that is entirely in Indian Territory. This beautiful blue pallet lake is about 7 KM wide at its broadest point and about 19 KM long. Being part of the wetland reserve under Ramsar site, it is actual known as Tsomoriri Wetland Conservation Reserve and one cannot pitch any tents or construct anything near the banks of the lake. It is the highest Ramsar site in the world. A large number of flora and fauna is found in the region. Since, it is very near to the Line of Actual Control, one need to get Inner Line Permit to visit Tso Moriri. You can get more details on Inner Line Permits here: Inner Line Permits for Leh – Ladakh

The beautiful multi shades of blue color offered by this lake along with a picturesque landscape around gives this place an extremely romantic feel and breath-taking feel. However, in actual reality the place is extremely harsh and difficult to survive especially in winters. There is only one cemented accommodation available around the lake and the facilities like electricity, medical aid, hot running water, western toilets etc. are rare to find. The lack of oxygen makes survival difficult if your body is not properly acclimatized to its high altitude and hence, one need to plan his/her journey extremely carefully to make it acute mountain sickness free vacation.

We reached Korzok Village running along side the frozen Tso Moriri where we first handed over the permits at the check post and then continued upto Koarok village monastery. The entire panoramic view from the top was just amazing and we could not hold us back from the feeling of joy. After spending sometime at the top, we started back to the point where the lake was frozen about 30% of the length at the start. There we had an amazing, fun-filled 45 minutes or so, photo session and playtime in the snow which was present all along the shores of Tso Moriri lake. We enjoyed every bit of it before starting back  to Hanle…

The Journey ahead…