Day 9 - Destination Kargil

14th July 2008

We woke up at 6.45 am and packed all our stuff. We were to go towards Kargil today from Leh. We packed all our stuff and got Amit to go ahead to repair the tank get the hole drilled and tank up fuel for the rest of the journey.

We went down with our luggage and packed it onto our bikes and started our bikes and let them idle for a few minutes to get them warm. Purvesh’s bike refused to start after numerous attempts. Hell!

The road being a slope purvesh rode on it to find a mechanic on the main road but couldn’t. Finally Nikhil and Shailesh found a mechanic some 500m away so we went there with Purvesh half riding half pushing his bike. Once there we found out the reason, water in the petrol tank!! Damn, but the water was removed quickly and we resumed.

Now here too I did a stupidity I took out my petrol lock key and put it in my pocket and when everyone started I too started blissfully unaware that the key was in my pocket. Some distance ahead the bike sputtered to a stop and I found that the key wasn’t there. So remembering the first day in Leh I trudged back leaving the bike on the road to the mechanics place thinking it must have fallen there some 200m away only to stupidly put my hand inside my pocket and find the key still there. Hehehe...i couldn’t stop laughing at myself.

Went to the bike and rode on to the petrol pump where everyone had assembled and was tanking up for the onward journey.

We then started onto the road towards Kargil our destination for the day. It was 10am now and the sky was getting overcast, we only prayed that the weather ahead should be good.

The road from Leh to Kargil went via the Leh airport and ahead on the smooth NH-1 D highway. Roads were great throughout upto some kms ahead where we were near magnetic hill. It said that you need to place your vehicle on a box marked on the road and shut it down and it will move automatically upward the slope. Nothing like that sort happened and we moved ahead.

In a short while we had the Indus for company, it was flowing just near the road and we chanced upon a road coming in from Darcha to Padum – we Jhad heard about this road fit only for mountain goats and trekkers

We went via small and large villages on the way and then the bad roads started. The going was anyway smooth. We had decided to stop at Lamayaru some 65km from Leh for lunch and for sightseeing as it was famous for its monasteries.

The road ahead had a bifurcation one towards Batalik near the PoK and one towards Lamayaru and Kargil. Took the road to Kargil and went ahead. Here the rugged terrain started and the road was via the mountains and it wasn’t good but the views around were fantastic. Finally after around 20km we reached Lamayaru and waited for others to join in. Other joined in and we went down into Lamayaru town (so called) and went into a Hotel to have lunch.

Had a nice lunch at the hotel, especially the kanda bhajjis which we couldn’t find anywhere on our trip! Paid the bill and came out. It was roughly 2.30pm and we had to cover Kargil by the end of the day around 60km ahead via difficult roads. Deepak and Saurabh went inside the monastery to take photos and the others started ahead towards Kargil and the going was good now but the roads were bad now.

Finally I was alone now and Amit was ahead of me and we passed the Fotu La pass the highest on the Leh – Srinagar road at 13560ft. Going ahead via the scenic village of Mulbek I went ahead and decided to take a butt break and found Amit standing there. We took a 5 min break and went ahead with Amit leading the way ahead. Some distance ahead we got good tarmac around 20km before Kargil and we ripped ahead at around 65-70 kmph.

After around 15km we stopped besides the river for another break coz the ride was taking a toll on us. We then started again and finally entered the road overlooking Kargil and went down towards Kargil and crossed a bridge ahead into Kargil town and immediately went for searching a hotel. After much searching we settled for Hotel Siachen in the main market and taking the keys went back to get the others who hadn’t arrived yet. Fortunately Shailesh was searching for us and we shouted to him and he told that the others were waiting at the point near the bridge. Once there Saurabh told that Deepak and Purvesh had gone searching for us in the opp direction.

I went ahead but couldn’t find them and came back, in the meanwhile they too came back and we got a firing as to why we had gone ahead and left the others with us explaining that we had got a hotel for everyone. So finally we went into the hotel and put our bags.

We had a great dinner at the hotel which was a fixed menu and out of which many items were not available that time but anyways we did have our fill and went back to sleep. Everybody was tired after a day’s ordeal and went to sleep. Tomorrow we start for Srinagar!