In the network range – June 21

[Himyatra – 2018 This is part VII of the series. You can read the first part here.]

Plan for today was to reach Tso Moriri, come back to Sumdo, and then push towards Leh Manali highway via Tso Kar. Find a suitable place and stay the night there.

We woke up around 6.30. Tsoma offered to make us a breakfast of roti and omelette, which we very gladly accepted. This was also included in the rent. While Tsoma was making the breakfast, Jimmy kept bothering her, so Tsoma put her up in her playpen. Here is how Jimmy’s playpen looked.

Jimmy’s playpen

It was a big compound enclosed by metal net. You can see Jimmy in the playpen. She kept crying all the time, and was complaining to her canine friends. I did not understand the words, but her tone said it all. 🙂

[You can click on most photos to see an enlarged version of the photo. Also, if you have a choice, read the blog on a laptop or a tablet. The photos look much better on bigger screen real estate]

Nasgur La Altitude 16,117 ft

By 8.45, we were on our way. The day was quite overcast. Very soon, we passed the Nasgur La, a pass at the height of 16,117 feet. Most of the La’s in Ladakh are decorated by a chorten and colorful Ladakhi banners. And ahead of us was a small lake, Tso Kingar.

Tso Kingar

The road goes around Tso Kingar. On the banks of the Tso was some grass patches, and we spotted three different herds of goat grazing.

Around 9.15, we got our first glimpse of Tso Moriri.

Tso Moriri – First glimse

But the actual lake is a little further. It took around 20 more minutes to reach the bank of the lake. This entire area is a wild life reserve and we could actually spot a lot of birds swimming in the lake. Mostly Black necked cranes and Brahmini Ducks.

Birds swimming in Tso Moriri

The place we were heading for was Karzok. Most of the road was now just a dirt trail. And the lake was on our left.

And the mountain on the right looked as if someone had just stacked loose stones on a steep slope.

And soon we spotted Karzok in the distance.

Karzok has a big ITBP camp, and our papers were checked here. Girija with all the stickers adorning it, was always centre of the curiosity, wherever we were. The ITBP head at Karzok was also curious, and so we got talking to him. And soon, he had ordered tea for us. 🙂

Tso Moriri, or “Mountain Lake” is a much smaller lake than Pangong Tso, but is as beautiful. Is at an altitude of 4,522 m (14,836 ft). It is the largest of the high altitude lakes entirely within India and entirely within Ladakh in this Trans-Himalayan biogeographic region. It is about 16 miles (26 km) north to south in length and two to three miles (3 to 5 km) wide. The lake has no outlet at present and the water is brackish though not very perceptible to taste.

After the ITBP camp, you go along the lake and then start climbing a small hill towards the Karzok Gompa. And when you look back, the beauty of the lake really stuns you. By now, the day had cleared, so we could get some good photos.

Tso Moriri Panorama

The entire Mahindra Adventure gang was also in Korzak. Amit struck a conversation with one of them and found out about their adventure. They were on an adventure called Monastery Escape 2018. The adventure ready vehicles were provided by Mahindra, and the participants were driving them across Ladakh.

When we reached in front of the Gompa, Balya realized that he was getting full signal. Mind you, no internet, just the mobile signal. So, he called up Pune. The article had to reach Pune today. Our plan was that Balya would dictate the article, and the mobile device on which the article was being dictated would record the call. And then, someone in Pune could transcribe the call.

Alas, it was not to be that simple. Strangely, Balya could only reach land line phones in Pune, no mobile lines. And so, idea of recording the call was not going to work. So, for next two hours, Balya dictated the whole article on phone and Nirmal patiently typed it out. The connection was bad, the call kept dropping. It was a frustrating experience, but finally, the article was in Pune.

Balya dictating the article over phone

While Balya was dictating the article, I and Ajit kept Roaming around in Karzok. We climbed to the top of the hill and spent time photographing the lake, and generally having great time. Getting so much time from Ajit without any interruptions is really very rare. We talked about anything and everything.

Around 12.30, we started back from Tsomoriri.

The plan now was to have lunch at Sumdo Gongma  at Tsoma’s place and push for Tso Kar. On the way back, we saw some snow-clad peaks around the lake.

And as the day had cleared, Tso Kingar was looking much more beautiful.

As decided, we stopped at Sumdo Gongma for lunch. We were again worried about our diesel situation. We still had 40 liters in the back, but the tank was getting empty. Fortunately for us, Tsering had 40 liters, and he was willing to sell. We happily bought it. We left at 2 PM and were soon at the fork in Sumdo, where we had encountered the Mahindra Adventure team the earlier day. The landscape near the fork was a classic Ladakh.

Around 3 PM, we reached Polokonka La (Altitude 16,550 ft). In spite of the pass being so high, there was a lot of grass there.

The route started descending towards Tukje, which is the town nearest to Tso Kar.

On the way down, we saw a lot of Marmots. These are animals in the Rodent family. They are larger than the squirrels. We could spot them at a distance, in pairs or in groups of three or four. However, as we went nearby, they would quickly jump into their hideouts, under the rocks and then poke their mouths out, curiously looking at us. We made many an attempt to catch them on camera, but to no avail.

On most passes, there are cairns to mark the pass or the route. A cairn is a man-made pile of stones, made for this purpose. In Ladakh, the cairn is accompanied by strings of Ladakhi flags. This route had very typical cairns. Nowhere else did I notice a cairn like that. Here is one of them. On top of the cairn, you see a small space left between the stones.

And here is another.

As we came down from the pass, the road turned right. Tso Kar was on our left. This seems to be a marshy lake with a lot of dry patches. The dry patches looked bright white. Either there is lot of white sand, or salt due to the dried water.

We didn’t make any attempts to go very near the lake as it was getting late.

We saw a small tornado over the waters of Tso Kar. It looked so beautiful to the naked eye. However, it just wouldn’t show up in any photograph. Goes to show how much the technology still needs to catch up with the mother nature.

The map also showed a high mountain peak, Tukje. But we couldn’t spot the peak.

We stopped at Tukje for a quick meal of Maggi. The dhaba here was an all women affair.  After the late lunch, we pushed off towards Mangzul, where we would connect to the Leh Manali Highway.

In this trip, we did see wild asses (donkeys) in many places but were not close enough to photograph any. On the way to Mangzul, a solitary ass graced us by coming close enough to take photographs.

Around 5.15 we reached Mangzul and were on Leh Manali Highway. In this part, the road is in extremely good condition.

The skies were blue, the drive was smooth, and the views were fantastic.

And then we reached the Pang gorge. That view is unbelievable.

Pang Gorge Panorama

A deep gorge carved out by a river in the soft sandstone, where harder parts of the stone stood out like sentinels.

Snow capped peaks in the distance and clear blue skies with a scattering of snow white clouds! What a view!!!

We would love to spend a lot of time there, admiring the beauty. But it was already 5.45, and we had not yet decided where to spend the night. So, we pushed ahead and a few turns of the road, and we could see the Pang Army Transit camp ahead of us.

The board at the army camp proclaims “Worlds highest Army Transit Camp – Height 15,640 ft”.  This transit camp is used by the army probably for the acclimatizing the troops moving from lower altitudes to higher altitudes.

There are a couple of hotels/homestays here. We decided to spend the night here at Hotel Padma. Hotel Padma is run by two sisters, Padma and Tsering. We got ourselves two two-men tents for the night.

Girija standing outside our tents. The green and white enclosure had two two-men tents.

Pang army camp allows civilians to use their communication facility. After calling home from Chushul, Ajit and I had not connected with home. In this age of instance to instance connectivity, it was like 14 years of vanvas. So we used the facility and called home.

When we went to Padma Hotel for dinner, we met a strange crowd. These were participants of the third edition of the Hell Race. They were either running 5 marathons over 5 days going over 5 high Himalayan passes, or running entire 480 kilometres from Manali to Leh. I felt envious and humbled. Here we were, the older lot, driving in a 4-wheel drive car, and feeling challenged. And here were the people, challenging themselves and the elements! Hats off to them, and hats off to the human spirit.

Pondering about them, and mourning my lost spectacles (yes, I lost them in Pang, and couldn’t find them), I went to sleep.