Day 1 - 5th August
Wow Factor - 15/10
Scenery - beautiful, spectacular, breathtaking, stunning, amazing, awe-inspiring! The list could go on - I was gob smacked at every bend!
I am thankful that we now live in the days of the digital camera and do not have to pay for bulk loads of film to be developed.
Fear Factor - YES!!!!
- hair-raising, heart-stopping, seat gripping fear. But ........ I only closed my eyes once! The reasons are listed below.
Hazards -
Drivers in India like the invention of the horn and practise its use as much as possible (I'm passing, look out I'm on your side of the road, hello, get out of the way.....the list goes on). Sultana was no exception and had his own little flourish. Not just a blast but a tooted rhythm of ta, ta, ta-te, ta. It was a temptation to echo clap a response but I did resist the infants teacher in me.
Our journey took us back past the Kolahoi Glacier that we had attempted to see the day before. We were able to sip chai and contemplate its beauty for some time as Sonamarg was was our first wait. The road up to Zoji La Pass (3529m) was blocked for reasons not apparent or conflicting (never get a story straight if you can possibly avoid it!).
Once we had started to wind our way up to the pass the reason was visible enough. Mud! And an army convoy coming in the opposite direction that has priority over all other vehicles. This is the stretch of the road where I closed my eyes briefly.While waiting our turn to battle with the mud I noticed something in the distance down the bottom of a cliff....... yep - a truck that didn't make it. Holy cow!! Well make it we did and it was up over the pass.
The road up ahead. You can see where there have been landslides in the past.
Zoji La is the geographical split between Kashmir and Ladakh. Kashmir is lush and green and Ladakh barren and dry.
From there it was lunch at Drass which is reported to be the second coldest habitated place on earth. Thankfully, not that cold the day we were there, and, a nice vegie curry and rice for lunch so my opinion of the place was favourable.
Not far out of Drass, in the Tololing Ranges, we discovered that our driver had set out on this journey without a spare tyre. No I'm wrong - there was a spare but it was punctured. Soooo .... when one of the tyres in use developed a leak (luckily it was not a blow out) we had to stop and get both tyres fixed before we were on our way again. Incredible to think that anyone would have set out on THIS road without a useable spare!
Moving again we travelled very close to the the Pakistan border. The road ran parallel to the river, Pakistan on the other side.
About two hours out of Kargil we ground to another halt. A truck had gone over the side ahead of us and it was another wait while they winched it back onto the road in two separate sections - the truck cabin and the rear.
Finally, late in the afternoon we arrived in Kargil. Unfortunately the photos do not do justice to our doss house and doss house it was. The bathroom was basic and we ran out of water after filling the first bucket! Neil had to go out into the street to the local water pump to get more. No I didn't bathe! A pommie wash was good enough under the circumstances. The bed room was barely big enough to swing a cat in. The bed - had a dubious cover on it and equally dubious pillows but the handy sarongs doubled as a bottom sheet, a towel covered the pillows and our air-asia blankies finished the job! Kargil is an islamic town and it was ramadan so getting a feed was challenging but not impossible. Dinner was very tasty with veggie pakoras, custard desert and chai. Back at the inn we went to bed and waited for the creatures to visit. When I failed to itch after a couple of hours I breathed a heavy sigh of relief that there were no bed bugs and went off to dreamland!
Beginning our journey - a small village north of Srinagar where we stopped to stock up for the journey.
The one stop shop - where else would you go to get your brooms, a new saw and fresh chicken?
Beautiful Kashmiri scene - The Himalyas, small stream and tall pines.
Wow Factor - 15/10
Scenery - beautiful, spectacular, breathtaking, stunning, amazing, awe-inspiring! The list could go on - I was gob smacked at every bend!
I am thankful that we now live in the days of the digital camera and do not have to pay for bulk loads of film to be developed.
Fear Factor - YES!!!!
- hair-raising, heart-stopping, seat gripping fear. But ........ I only closed my eyes once! The reasons are listed below.
Hazards -
- The road - This road is open for 5 months of the year. It is reported to be a 2 day/12 hour trip. That calculation, however, must be in ideal conditions without rblocks, landslides or trucks going over the edge in front of you. Our trip was close on 17 hours! In places it is little more than a goat track and definitely single lane only. So if there is traffic coming the other way? You wait and ...... pray that you are on the cliff side when you do, not on the verge. The road is in the Himalayas so it is mountainous and there are countless hairpin bends and blind curves. In most places there is little to no tar so if not muddy (and there was really only a short distance of full on mud) it is rocky and the old bones get a good shaking and rattling!
- Mother Nature - on the Kashmir side of the range it had been raining so the higher we got the muddier it became. This road is used by long convoys of heavy army vehicles and trucks so the mud is well churned, deep and slippery in the muddy bits. When the rain comes the land slides. Luckily for us those events happened either before or after us. If before, you wait for the road crews to clear it. There are road crews all along the road, living at high altitude often in miserable conditions, for the 5 months the road is open. It is a continual job to keep it clear. On the Ladakh side the road is dry but landslides still occur as there is nooooooo vegetation to keep the mountains together.
- The driver - Sultana was a nice man, don't get me wrong, but for a road like this one you need to anticipate. Anticipate the dangers ahead and react appropriately so that the danger is met at the right speed. When we did have tar he drove like a bat out of hell and slammed the his foot on the brake at the last moment when going into hair-pin bends, broadsiding into the bends often face to face with an oncoming vehicle or very close to the verge. He also liked to argue with vehicles a lot bigger than us. In my mind if you are the bigger vehicle, with a vertical drop off the side, you have the right of way!! No arguments!
- Other Vehicles. Without other vehicles the road would have been a pussy-cat but an oncoming vehicle on a road barely wide enough for one adds a different dimension.
Drivers in India like the invention of the horn and practise its use as much as possible (I'm passing, look out I'm on your side of the road, hello, get out of the way.....the list goes on). Sultana was no exception and had his own little flourish. Not just a blast but a tooted rhythm of ta, ta, ta-te, ta. It was a temptation to echo clap a response but I did resist the infants teacher in me.
Our journey took us back past the Kolahoi Glacier that we had attempted to see the day before. We were able to sip chai and contemplate its beauty for some time as Sonamarg was was our first wait. The road up to Zoji La Pass (3529m) was blocked for reasons not apparent or conflicting (never get a story straight if you can possibly avoid it!).
Kolahoi Glacier
Downtown Sonamarg
Sign outside the army barracks in Sonamarg
Heading north east out of Sonamarg, heading up into the Himalayas. Ice still in the river even though it is summer.
Once we had started to wind our way up to the pass the reason was visible enough. Mud! And an army convoy coming in the opposite direction that has priority over all other vehicles. This is the stretch of the road where I closed my eyes briefly.While waiting our turn to battle with the mud I noticed something in the distance down the bottom of a cliff....... yep - a truck that didn't make it. Holy cow!! Well make it we did and it was up over the pass.
Going up, going up, going higher! A winding road and a line of traffic waiting to tackle the mud after the army passes in the opposite direction.
The road up ahead. You can see where there have been landslides in the past.
This photo was taken with digital zoom. From where we were, waiting to go to through the mud we were not sure what it was. We could just see the bright orange. Seeing the photo left us with no doubt. This one did not make it!
This photo shows the narrowness of the road. The bus is stationary just 30cm from the edge.
Heading into the mud.
The convoy is coming!
Just past Zoji La Pass - still green but we have left the trees behind.
Stunning scenery but it would be a harsh existen
Passport checkpoint.
Foreigner watching!
Checkpoint gate - all the trucks coming in the opposite direction are wating for their turn to move. The road over Roji La is strictly one way at a time unless you are the army.
And it was a long line waiting!
Road workers camp out in the middle of no-where. This was one of the bettr ones.
From there it was lunch at Drass which is reported to be the second coldest habitated place on earth. Thankfully, not that cold the day we were there, and, a nice vegie curry and rice for lunch so my opinion of the place was favourable.
Not far out of Drass, in the Tololing Ranges, we discovered that our driver had set out on this journey without a spare tyre. No I'm wrong - there was a spare but it was punctured. Soooo .... when one of the tyres in use developed a leak (luckily it was not a blow out) we had to stop and get both tyres fixed before we were on our way again. Incredible to think that anyone would have set out on THIS road without a useable spare!
Is Sultana pondering why he had two flat tyres? Note the stairs on the left- no safety rails here. The young lad pictured below came a cropper later when he fell down the stairs almost from the landing.
Fortunately there was a burst pipe - handy for testing for a leak in the tube!
The local secondary high school.
A double out house! May have been the school toilets. Not sure.
Village power.
Sheer Madness!
Moving again we travelled very close to the the Pakistan border. The road ran parallel to the river, Pakistan on the other side.
Pakistan across the river, just a stone's throw away.
Indian waters (front) meets Pakistani waters
Pakistan
About two hours out of Kargil we ground to another halt. A truck had gone over the side ahead of us and it was another wait while they winched it back onto the road in two separate sections - the truck cabin and the rear.
What do you do at a road block with a small creek handy? Wash the car of course and clean the interior!
Finally, late in the afternoon we arrived in Kargil. Unfortunately the photos do not do justice to our doss house and doss house it was. The bathroom was basic and we ran out of water after filling the first bucket! Neil had to go out into the street to the local water pump to get more. No I didn't bathe! A pommie wash was good enough under the circumstances. The bed room was barely big enough to swing a cat in. The bed - had a dubious cover on it and equally dubious pillows but the handy sarongs doubled as a bottom sheet, a towel covered the pillows and our air-asia blankies finished the job! Kargil is an islamic town and it was ramadan so getting a feed was challenging but not impossible. Dinner was very tasty with veggie pakoras, custard desert and chai. Back at the inn we went to bed and waited for the creatures to visit. When I failed to itch after a couple of hours I breathed a heavy sigh of relief that there were no bed bugs and went off to dreamland!
Crown Hotel, our luxury abode! Water pump on the left where Neil refilled our bucket.
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