HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh)

[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Hunder - Turtuk

Erosion


The third bridge in the route




On the bridge


Turtuk is 10Km away


Seeing some Pak places in the milestone


Distances the other way


The road ahead






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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Hunder - Turtuk

We reached boulder land


Swift maneouvering the boulder stretch






The Second Swift on the obstacle




Baby Alto clearing the stretch




HVK running to the scorpio


A make shift bridge


A small stream


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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

We reach Turtuk by 17:00 hours




Turtuk is at only 9220feet, that's only half of the height of Khardung La


We reached our tents by 17:15 hours


What a beautiful place


KP is immediately on the job


After seeing the place, I was happy and sad. Happy for its beauty and sad that it is getting dark and we will leave this place early the next morning, before even sunrise. That just gives us one hour to roam around the place and that's it. My research says you can spent atleast two full days here and the nearby places. This is in my list - Turtuk I'll be back in leisure one day!

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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

The garden will challenge even our Brindavan gardens.

Beautiful flowers from the garden





























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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

They even grow their own vegetables.

The vegetable garden



















I love this picture


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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

AP claims his tent


With a view to the garden


TS trying to take the pictures of the kids


Kids of the family who owns the tent






They also sell apricot juice


Our cars in the lovely parking lot amidst the flowers


By 18:00 hours we went on a small trek to the village

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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

The team trekking on


It's Pakistan beyond those mountains




Team continues with the trek




A lone tourist likes the attention he suddenly got


TS looking tired and amazed


NJ in style




The team trying to figure out the Pakistani look outs


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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

The beautiful valley




On to Turtuk village


Its green all around




Beautiful


We trekked on


Green Green Green




I'd love to stay here


Machinery for harvesting too


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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

Beautiful Kids of Turtuk




























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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

Friendly people we met in Turtuk












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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

We walked through narrow paths








NJ enjoying the beauty


Soon it became dark


We traced our route slowly


We reached a bridge






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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

We reached an old Mosque





We lost our way and ended up in a house. The ladies were very happy to be photographed.








This great boy showed us the way back


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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

Memorials










Nathulla Bus stand


This is the last point for civilians as I was told. We ended the trek and returned back to our tents.

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[laluks]

Day 16
27th August 2011
Turtuk

By 19:45 we reached our tents.

Cozy tent


Fresh Apricots were waiting for us


Munched on some apricots and relaxed for a while. By 21:00 hours dinner was served. Hogged on to hot food like nobody's business and came back to the tent by 22:00 hours and crashed.

When sleep took over me I have no idea.

[hvkumar]

HVK Scorpio
Aug 12, Bombay-Behror, 1402 kms
Aug 13, Behror-Rampur, 692 kms
Aug 14, Rampur-Chitkul, 144 kms
Aug 15, Chitkul-Pooh, 207 kms
Aug 16, Pooh-Kaza, 178 kms
Aug 17-19, Kaza, 291 kms
Aug 20, Kaza-Jispa, 236 kms
Aug 21, Jispa-Leh, 374 kms
Aug 22, Leh-Kargil, 343 kms
Aug 23, Kargil-Padum, 248 kms
Aug 24, Padum-Kargil, 275 kms
Aug 25, Kargil-Leh, 259 kms
Aug 26, Leh, 148 kms

Aug 27, 2011, Leh-Turtuk, 241 kms

Destination for the day was Turtuk, and I was in a hurry to leave Hunder so that we could reach Turtuk before it got too dark.
2 reasons:
1. None of us were familiar with this road, and
2. We wanted to do a village tour of Turtuk in broad daylight.

Till last year, the road beyond Hunder was not permitted to civilians and Turtuk was first opened up for tourists only in the year 2010. The first year itself, apart from the Leh cloudburst, Turtuk itself faced another cloudburst which wrecked its promising tourism plans. I had researched the route in advance based on first-hand experiences of some of my friends who had already driven there. Very few go to Turtuk.

At 130 pm, we set off from Hunder and got to the Partapur police check post (the first one is a military TCP which is not for us) where we have to show our permits. On this route, you have to show your permits at one more place en route. Next to the Partapur chck post, we saw a small tea shop - the only one we saw on the entire route - and we walked in and the luckier ones amongst us got chowmeins and momos - there was a mad scramble for these ones! - and the rest of us settled down to a meal of Maggi (as usual!).

Roads were great but they passed through some forbidding terrain of high mountains surrounding us all over broken only by the path of the River Shayok whose bank we were on throughout.

Photo: TD

15 kms away from Hunder, the Thoise Airfield (Transit Halt Of Indian Soldiers Enroute) - that is what it stands for - is one of the most forward airfields of the IAF, a very strategic location being the closest to the POK border hardly a few seconds of flying time away, and also the main base camp for choppers dropping supplies to the jawans at Sachen Glacier. The locale looked like one of those James Bond movie sets the way the airfield appeared suddenly out of nowhere - it is incredible how there is a small flat valley for 4-5 kms, just enough to build a runway.

The road was becoming very exciting now - completely rugged terrian, very few inhabitations and in some places suspension bridges crossing the River Shayok with roads disappearing to mysterious border outposts with names like Udumaroo, Waris & Gulab. Needless to say, out of bounds for us.

Somewhere en route, a huge sand storm started to form along the banks of the river, but we were lucky that it subsided before we reached the spot. Weather was quite warm since we were now in the 8-9000 feet - and believe me, this road is open even during winter all the way from Leh - and we were driving at good speeds with some pauses for photo sessions.

Photo: TD

After Skuru, Largiap Bridge, Changmar, Nathru Bridge, we registered ourselves at the police check post and crossed the Bodang Village. This is the first of the Balti Villages which dot this region. The children were very aggressive, I did not find them friendly since they started hitting against the car and almost came in front of it with not-so-friendly looks. Definitely I would not like to stay at the PWD Rest House here.

We were following the VEER MARATHA regiment Army Gypsy which was also slowly negotaiting some bad roads ahead of Bodang village where the road was on water's edge with steep overhanging cliffs sprinkling stones and boulders from time to time.

9 kms after Bodang and 3 kms before Chalunka you come to another large suspension bridge, the 3rd of the ones we crossed the River Shayok. This is a very significant point. Beyond the bridge, the area was under Pakistan till India captured it in the '71 War. The village of Turtuk where we are headed was once in POK but now in India. The army jawan glowers at us as we reach the bridge and enquire about our destination. We follow the principle of ONE VEHICLE AT A TIME scrupulously everywhere, including at this bridge.

After the Bridge, we see this sign board which has been captured by lalu's lens. I am sure that this is a pre-'71 sign board from the Paki days, which is why you see destinations like Skardu in POK. Very exciting territories those - now part of the Karakoram Highway. Turtuk is just 10 kms away and 15 kms further ahead is the Gorkha Ridge which is the India-POK border. After our brief skirmish at Batalik, this is the next occasion we are driving so close to the border.

Don't be fooled by this boulder-strewn stretch - one of the Swifts almost burnt its clutch plate tryng to scarmble up this slope, it needed an "operation" to see the small cars up this one!

I heave a sigh of relief as we drive into Turtuk town at 505 pm. This is surely an oasis in the desert, so green are the valleys and so blue are the waters of the River Shayok..........

All photos are by members of the Team