31st October 2011, 16:53
| #781 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil Sat there for over an hour, enjoying the calm and peaceful atmosphere. It was almost 07:30AM and decided to get back to the guest house. Snow capped mountains  Through the fence of the stupa  Almost destroyed Mud Stupa  Leh Palace - Clouds giving some shadows!  By the time I walked down, the gompa was open. I peeped inside to find this statue. Buddha Statue inside the gompa   Beautiful flowers from the garden    continued... |
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31st October 2011, 17:49
| #782 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil Looks like an army place  Leh is green  The steep steps which leads to Shanti Stupa   Reached the Guest House by 08:00AM  Met HVK near the Scorpio. HVK told me that our two team mates DB and SS have decided to stay back at Leh till we come back from Kargil. He also asked me to keep the luggages at their room so that we can travel light to Kargil and back. Mumbai Roadsters were planning to unload luggages from one Swift and keep it in the other and take one Swifty to Kargil. HVK suggested them to join HVK Scorpio, since we have enough space with absolutely no luggage. So both the Swifts were parked near the Guest House, and HVK scorpio had all four Mumbai Roadsters and us. That seemed like a very practical decision and we were all quite happy about it. Having decided that way, we all went ahead for breakfast. Some pictures from the Guest House     By 09:00AM we were all done and we took HVK Scorpio and Discovery Bolero to the service station. Baby Alto had gone ahead early and the guys were at work when we reached there. By 11:30AM all the required works and checks were carried out in the vehicles. Baby Alto was not very happy to leave the car at the service station, even though they agreed to keep it. So on a sudden spurt, Baby Alto also decided to drive till Kargil and park the car at Kargil and join BolBolero as decided. So by 11:50AM we start from Leh, our drive towards Kargil. HVK scorpio and Baby Alto via Dah and Batalik, and Discovery Bolero direct to Kargil continued... |
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31st October 2011, 18:20
| #783 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil Spituk Monastery Over looking the airport  169 Kms to Batalik  Never seen so many tankers together  Leh - Nimmu road  Gurudwara  Colourful  Magnetic Hill, we did not stop here this time  We reached Nimmu by 12:30PM continued... |
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31st October 2011, 18:23
| #784 | |
| BHPian Join Date: May 2009 Location: India
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Quote:
Here you go....  For a fraction of second, I thought that I have received a mail from Mr. Tyagi.   Anyways, wonderful snaps with great writeup ! A great team effort in writing this travelogue too!  Cheers! Irish Last edited by Irish : 31st October 2011 at 18:25. | |
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31st October 2011, 18:29
| #785 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil Nimmu - The confluence of Zanskar and Indus.  The blue and green color of these rivers are a great sight to see. This time the water were muddy thanks to all those snow melts. August is definitely not the month to be in Leh! Why did they build this building here??   Some more views of the confluence.     In 2009 when we were standing here, I had noticed a road going along the banks fo Zanskar. Me and HVK had chatted about it before too. We both looked at each other and smiled. Yes, we are going to check that road!  continued... Last edited by laluks : 31st October 2011 at 18:31. |
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31st October 2011, 18:40
| #786 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil Zanskar river gives some good rapids. Evident from the number of rafters we saw. River Rafting in Zanskar      Some views enroute Nimmu to Chilling    A sandy beach with some natural caves  Road construction going on in the opposite mountains  continued... Last edited by laluks : 31st October 2011 at 18:41. |
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31st October 2011, 18:48
| #787 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil Some more views from the route to Chilling         What mineral gives this colour ??   continued... |
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31st October 2011, 19:00
| #788 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil Soon we reached the end of the road. The road further is being built. Once completed this would be the road to Padhum.    HVK scorpio at the end of the road  We turned back and found Baby Alto coming  Baby Alto  The return journey   We reached Chilling  Altitude of Chilling  continued... |
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31st October 2011, 19:24
| #789 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil Which mineral gives these colour? Greenish!!   Which mineral gives this purplish colour?   Bridge across Zanskar  Road to Nimmu  Sandy Beach  Zanskar  The rafters    We reached Nimmu  We reached back Nimmu by 15:00hrs. We are still 200+ Kms to Kargil. We have to take the Batalik route, nearer to the border, and it was almost evident that we are looking for a late night arrival in Kargil, and most of the new segment in darkness... continued... |
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31st October 2011, 21:17
| #790 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil Though very much delayed we were still enthusiastic about the drive forward. I always wanted to do that route, and finally it was going to happen. Some pictures enroute Nimmu to Khaltse     Due to the flash floods last year many a places roads have been washed away and the bridges collapsed. At such places we ended up having some traffic congestion and by the time we ended up in Khaltse it was 16:30PM. Baby Alto got into some serious traffic congestion and was trailing behind. We decided to quickly have some thing to eat and pack up for Baby Alto. By 17:30hrs, Baby Alto reached Khaltse and we moved on. We saw this signboard and took the right  Some car guys shouted at us to stop. By that time we had already zoomed a lot into that road. HVK was worried - where is the checkpost to show the permits? Mumbai Roadsters from behind echoed, "you just passed a Check post, but that was on the other Kargil route". By that time Baby Alto was also behind us without stopping at the checkpost. We were a bit scared that we might end up in some trouble with the checkposts ahead. But we braved a decision to go ahead. It was already late evening, in another hour there will be darkness and we will not see anything in this route. But whatever be it let us go forward in a road that we had never driven before!! Indus flowing by our side, it was beautiful. Some pictures from Khaltse to Batalik road     continued... |
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31st October 2011, 21:34
| #791 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil Some more pictures from this route            By 19:15hrs we were 26Kms from Batalik  It was already 19:30hrs and dark, so we did not try to reach Dha this time  We moved on towards Batalik in a hurry, as it was dark and we wanted to get to Kargil fast. In that hurry we missed a sharp U turn and we got into an army road. We saw well dressed officers walking towards the mess, none of them had the slightest inclination to stop two civilian cars zooming past them. After a few Kilometers, atleast 5Kms away from the LOC, we reached a dead end ,and we were shooed away by the army guys back. On returning at the U turn the army guys stopped us and with the explanation we gave and our scary faces, they let us go. We continued on towards Kargil. By now it was already 20:30hrs continued... |
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31st October 2011, 21:51
| #792 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 11 22nd August 2011 Leh - Kargil We continued on through some twisty roads passing through some deserted areas and a few villages. We were very scared and conscious about not getting lost again. We were also worried at the exit checkpost if they will create any issues for not reporting at the entry Check post. All these thoughts kept us occupied and we never knew that we had already reached the Leh Kargil Road. Thankfully there was no checkposts and we zoomed on towards Kargil. In hindsight what an adventure it was. Probably no civilian could have ever reached that much nearer to LOC ever. Probably our neighbouring army was watching the 4 headlamps and getting ready for action! But it has scared us to the hilts and what a relief it was to reach the Leh Kargil road. We should have gotten into that road atleast by 12:00PM, to finish it in day light with some sight seeing too. By 22:30hrs we reached Petrol Pump at Kargil and filled our cars and extra cans for our drive to Padhum the next day. Oops - can you fill this much diesel in your tank??  Altitude of Kargil  By the time we reached the hotel at Kargil it was already 23:00 hrs and BolBolero and Jeep Captain welcomed us. The other members of the team were at the restaurant stretching their dinner so that the restaurant don't close down and we can have ours. What a team! Thank you guys for making sure that we had our dinner after our most adventerous drive ever!! By 01:00AM I hit the bed and quickly fell asleep. Tomorrow is again an early start, but that was kind of the norm these days. |
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1st November 2011, 02:57
| #793 |
| Senior - BHPian  | Re: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Fantastic! will be a less description! read from page 1 -20 in one go! If I had prepared like this for my board exams I guess I would have got into IIT or IISC  This place is indeed so harsh and this adds value to the men and women in uniform (Capt. Gouri including  ) that they work here day in and out and fight to keep us safe down. You guys were there on independence day, must have been a delight to see the men in uniform. Probably Capt. was trying to giving you guys some "special" treatment, especially to her darling. So its just the Leh now! I guess by the time this travelogue ends, I am sure, this will become a protocol and Standard operating procedure for the rest who are planning to scale the himalayas.Good to be a part of such a wonderful forum and such wonderful people around. |
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1st November 2011, 12:28
| #794 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Mumbai
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| HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day6: Sonmarg to Kargil 22nd. August 2011 Yeah the day we were finally entering Ladakh! The icing on the cake was to be meeting up with the rest of the IPHE gang! Woke up to a very chilly morning in Sonamarg around 4:00 am. to begin our journey towards Kargil. Were served some delicious 'KAHWAA' by the hotel cook at that unearthly hour. Were at the Sonamarg check post by 5:00 am. with not a soul in sight. Was surprised not to see any other cars or trucks lined up at the barrier to cross ZoziLa! While I was taking a stroll and peering into various small huts to find out if we could pass through, someone appeared from the J & K Police checkpost hut and after a few cursory questions allowed us to proceed after lifting the barrier! Crossed Baltal at around 5:25 am. Roads towards Zozila      The Valley Below!   to be continued... |
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1st November 2011, 17:03
| #795 |
| BHPian Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Mumbai
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| HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) Day 6: Sonamarg to Kargil 22nd. August 2011 Captain Vadhera Memorial near Zozila  The Valley below  JeepCaptain at Vadhera Memorial  In Memorium  SSj at Vadhera Memorial  AR at Vadhera Memorial  BolBolero wondering!  SSj trying to gauge the depth!  JeepCaptain and BolBolero  The Bolero  to be continued.. Last edited by BolBolero : 1st November 2011 at 17:23. |
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