Leh Adventure : 6/15

After a relaxing day in Srinagar, we decided to leave early round 7/8am. We ended up leaving at 9am as usual.

We got a tag from Varun and Amit as -"Lazy Riders" "24-Hour riders".As we used to ride through-out the day. Varun had to drive Bolero, so he was stressed too if we were driving at inappropriate time.

Today's journey was from Srinagar to Kargil. Kargil war was fought in 1999 where Indian Army announces complete eviction of Pakistani intruders. The journey was fascinating, we experience Snow, Cold, Rain and damaged roads. We stopped for brunch around 11:30am.

Rajesh S- Snow Slide

We came across Zero-point. Zero-point is the place with two mountains on either side capped with snow. The temperature would have been around 0-5C. Here I lost my Ray-Ban glass. The excitement of experiencing snow and losing Ray-Ban glass got me mixed feeling. But past is past, I should have been more careful.
I forgot about Ray-Ban and enjoyed the Snow.

We had tea here. Imagine Hot Tea at 5C :). You have to drink it fast to have it hot :P.

We had 5 SLR's and we enjoyed the photo-shoot for the first time snow experience.

Landslide in Zojila pass

We had to pass Zojila pass. The pass are nothing but the top of mountain. You have to climb the mountain and have to get down. These mountains are prone to landslide. ie stones might fall over vehicle anytime. We had encountered this and had to wait to get it pass. The transport will be two way and these are risky road. There are no boundaries, if the tire slips then there is no chance of getting back.

I had personally encountered such experience. I along with Nirmal were overtaking the still traffic. The vehicle had stopped due to landslide. We were trying to reach as top as possible. There was narrow way to pass with the vehicles parked due to avalanche. 

There were no place to keep my right foot, I had to go as slow as possible to pass it. I however did not realise the risk factor and passed it with double ride. Nirmal was however were frustrated about it. Yes, a small mistake could have cost us very badly. The slip would send us to very steep down the hill. After passing, we parked the bike can came to that spot as the landslide clearance was in progress and would require to take some time.

It was scary, the path was narrow. Even I felt that I was over confident to do this stunt and realized not to attempt such risky situations again. Let's wait, it is better to be Mr Late than to be Late Mr -> A sign board by BRO. BRO stands for Border Roads Organisation. The roads on these places have been constructed by this organisation.

We reached Drass around 6pm. Drass have a record of having Temperature of -70C. Just cannot imaging that. That will be during night, winter season. We had Tea here. Interacted with Tea shopkeeper, he had shown the Tiger Hill which Pakistan army had captured during Kargil war. He also mentioned that the Kargil war was fought at -50C.

Few of our friends visited War Memorial, Drass while other including me left for Kargil. 

The road from Drass to Kargil was awesome.

We waited for others in Kargil who had been to Memorial in Drass. We actually planned to put some tent nearby, but it was late to spent time to tie the tent. We ended up getting accommodation and good food in Kargil.

Next : Leh 7