Travel Trendz Trilogy Update: Day 24, Oct 12

The local top brass of the Indian Army was going through a change and the old Commander was handing over to the new Commander. And both of them, along with a horde of other officers and men were headed up to Marsimik La, from where our effort was due to start. Hmmm, that kind of put a spanner in the works as far as our timing was concerned. I decided to delay the departure from Tangtse by a couple of hours so that by the time we reached Marsimik La, the Army contingent would have moved to their next port of call … or rather pass of call. We had a leisurely breakfast and by the time we left Tangtse it was around nine. I knew we would spend some time at the gorgeous Pangong Tso lake and then move on to Marsimik La, so we were all right in terms of unnecessary interaction with the Army boys doing their job.

Pangong Tso was as gorgeous as ever. It was very cloudy, what with the weather turning for the worse, and the changing colours of the lake were not as spectacular as I had expected. But it was gorgeous nevertheless. Fortunately, there is a bridge now over Pagal Nallah, which meant that we would not have to make a mad dash to cross the Nallah in spate. Lots of pictures later, we headed on to Marsimik La, which, wonder of wonders, had been freshly laid with a spanking tarmac. It was a far cry from what I remembered from a decade ago and it was sheer pleasure driving down this road. The road is still being constructed and once done, I suspect Marsimik La will become the world’s highest motorable road.

We reached our start point and commenced on the expedition at a little after two in the afternoon. This was a good time to start and now we could end the FIVE PASSES effort at Khardung La, the world’s highest motorable road. We sped on, down from Marsimik La and on towards Chang La. For a large part the weather did us a favour, but as we started climbing towards Chang La, it started getting worse. We crossed 15,000 feet and the snow line. The road was layered with ice and the mountains were packed with snow. The sun was barely visible and the wind picked up making things very cold. Chang La itself had a lot of overnight snow, something we had seen the start of last night on our way to Tangtse. A brief stop over at Chang La, a tribute to Chang La Baba at the temple and off we went for the next pass – Wari La. Again, as we went below the snow line, things were better, but as we started climbing again, the snow started. By this time it was pitch dark and there was absolutely no traffic on the road. And even in the best of times, this road has virtually no traffic. Wari La is a relatively unknown pass from a tourist’s point of view, who head on towards Chang La and Pangong Tso, but the road beyond Wari La is a military road leading up to the Nubra Valley, and closed to civilians. And it was late in the day and it was snowing. No traffic at all. But we did get to see a lot of rabbits on the road. Confused by the headlights, they just kept running in front of the vehicle, least realising that escape was down the hill.

It was almost midnight by the time we reached Karu and we needed to head towards Tanglang La. The sky was dark and no stars were visible over the mountains around Tanglang La. It would be cold and if it was windy, then life would become very uncomfortable. And Tanglang La can be very windy and cold.

We were also quite tired and decided to catch some shut eye for a couple of hours. We parked the vehicle at the small of Lato, just before the climb to Tanglang La started and curled up uncomfortably to rest and let the body recuperate. It was lower down in altitude, so it was not so cold, at least inside the vehicle. And soon, we worked up a cacophony of sounds, emanating from deep down our throats, escaping in different pitches through our nostrils. But no one noticed and we were sleeping like babies.