Diskit - Nubra Valley

 Post for 5th October, started on the 7th of October.

As I said, had a hearty breakfast with the group from Singapore. Good fun guys and girls. Mixed age. Some six bikes and two cars.

Left after breakfast.

And in a while realised that I was doing what tourists in Ladakh normally do not.

That is, travel Pangong to Nubra.

The normal route is Leh to Nubra to Pangong to Leh. Plus, very few genuine tourists depart at 0745.

Net result, I had no traffic going my way.

But, past half way point, I was hit by a deluge of vehicles.

There was one place where I had to give way to a stream of vans and cars for over 30 minutes.

But, lovely scenic run. Let the pictures talk.

Still along the lake. It just goes on and on and on. The water looked iced in the morning. No way I stopped to check.

Then you leave the lake behind and move on.

Continued 9th October.

Problem with late continuation is that minor details get forgotten. Age related, I guess, before so many of my well wishers jump up and say it.

Every time you approached a village, there was green. Agriculture was the basic to survival. Once the snow came, all that would stop.

 A majority of the roads ran by the side of rivers and streams. That was where it was easier to make roads. The climb started and the road top disappeared.

 Road widening is in progress all along the area. 

They, run from Pangong to the Nubra Valley is basically flat. Very few real gradient runs. There are two rivers that come down the mountains into the valley. The River Nubra joins the River Shyok and continues to flow as the River Shyok. My geography is nowhere good enough to know more than that.

And then I got stuck at the bottom of this slope for what felt like an hour. Was actually 10 minutes. There was no view around the corner. Tried making my way up twice, but had to reverse because of oncoming traffic - cars, vans. 

Walked up the slope to the curve and watched the vehicles dust me by.

Till one van driver said he was the last.

Got back to my vehicle and went up the slope, hoping that the driver had been correct. He had.

Got clean away. 

Then was hit by another flood of vehicles. Went past them to find myself joining a long procession.

The turn off from Khardung La lets out vehicles, which either head towards Pangong ( the direction I came in from ) or towards Nubra ( the direction I was going ).

Reached my destination at Diskit, Hotel Real Siachen.

The road to the hotel was blocked by a earth mover. Walked up to the driver, requested him to raise his long arm to let me thru. Which he did, as soon as I said where I wanted to go.

Realised why when I reached the hotel. The road workers were being fed at the hotel.