Zojila Pass & Life Over Dal Lake | Zanskar 2012

The Journey so far…

Day 6 | Kargil – Drass – Zojila Pass – Sonamarg – Dal Lake (Srinagar)

We decided to leave early from Kargil so as to reach in time at Srinagar but managed to wake up at 7.00 AM 🙂 … Somehow, managed to get out by 7.40 and we were cruising the Srinagar – Leh Highway initially. The first stop was at a point from where the Batra Top was clearly visible and there was this lush green beautiful village, the name I forgot, on the other side of the river. Spent some time and off again towards Drass In between, we bought some fresh dry apricots too as Firoz had someone known in a market near by, and frankly speaking they tasted great in the end. Plan was to stop at Drass first and then hike a little towards this place called Bheempeeth (Bheem’s Back, one of the Pandavas brother in epic Mahabharata) just ahead of Drass.

At Drass, we got down at the same dhabha just in front of Tourist Rest House, where we had again those delicious Rajma Rice and few cups of tea. It was a lovely experience as sun was shining and breeze was blowing in the the streets. We bought some waffers and frootis too for the rest of the journey. After about 15-20 minutes from Drass, we were at this place Bheempeeth which is known for the fact that bheem had slept there and a big rock lies there now which is assumed to be mark of bheem’s back. The walk/hike is easy, about 20 minutes from the road, if you know the route to it. Well, had some fun up there with various kinds of jumps and especially loved the walk there.

The journey started back towards Zojila Pass now through those ever beautiful meadows of Minamarg It was as beautiful as it was earlier as the road winded up to top of Zojila Pass where slight drizzle had begun here and there. This time we stopped aside the road mark aside for Zojila Pass which boasted an altitude of 3530 Mtrs, had couple of pictures near the paved roads and off towards Sonamarg The journey down was dusty as this time we took the upper old road to descend Zojila Pass which gets into full of slush at the time of rains. We continued passing through Sonamarg and then decided to stop aside river for some rest and try with silky water shots as it was a bit dark due to slight drizzle. Well, trying after a long time, the results were not that bad 🙂 … Then it was a long boring run to Srinagar with a tea stop in between at some village on the Srinagar – Leh Highway

We asked Firoz to get us to Dal Lake where we can stay in some houseboat and enjoy the life over Dal Lake which is a must have experience and vital element of Kashmir Tourism. He dropped us at Dal Lake and ask the local there to get us a taxi for Airport tomorrow in the morning for sure. We were ascertain because there was again some strike the very next day in Srinagar as well. But, the houseboat guy assured us about the taxi even at 6.30 AM in the morning. We were a bit excited to float in a Shikara and reach the houseboat we selected for the stay. It was very nice and comfortable but beds produced a lot of creaking noises at night 😉 … We immediately booked a Shikara ride for full tour of Dal lake including the floating Meena Bazaar for Rs 750 as he was charging Rs 500 for one hour. We were least bothered of the places he explained us but rather enjoyed the ride in those colourful Shikaras floating out there…

Shikara ride, indeed was great fun. Then we went back to house boat and ordered the dinner which cost about 1.5K 😯 … It was the costliest food we had on our entire trip but taste was good and familiar. We chatted and remembered the past six days and how things went good to bad to good 🙂 … Overall, it was a nice trip to which everyone agreed. We also spotted a marriage party floating at the Dal Lake too with lots of lights surrounding it. the only drawback I felt staying at houseboat was you will have to refuse so many vendors who keep coming in to sell their goods but rest it was something to be experienced for sure. We went to sleep finally and it was a very peaceful one dreaming about sweet home.

Next day the flight was at 10:30 AM but we did not want to take any chances with the bandh/strike, so opted to reach Airport as early as 7 AM. We waited there for 3 hours. The security checks were very thorough and why they shouldn’t be. First time I was asked to take out all my camera lenses and get them validated with camera. Well, we were the first one to reach Airport but ironically got the last row seats which were super uncomfortable. The posture was so bad at those last row seats and leg space too less that it produced cramps in my stomach. Thankfully, the flight was only for 90 odd minutes and I got a sigh of relief as we landed. We saw each other off (well Punit was seen off at Srinagar Airport only as he had his Flight Tickets booked for Mumbai) hoping for some other trip together in future, may be I may not trouble them in that trip with my health 😉 …

But, all of them – Sudhir, Gaurav, Punit made the trip a memorable one and it was super joy to Travel with them. I hope you loved this Travel Tale to Zanskar Valley Feel free to get in touch for any suggestions or queries for planning a trip to Zanskar Valley or Suru Valley…