[Coooolcat21]

One last snap of the departing Tahr.


We kept moving passing through the high passes that we had covered on our way up to Leh. Since we had to cross the Moreh Plains, Sarchu and then on to Keylong with a very rough Idea as to how long it would take us to cover this distance, we just kept on.
Lachung La.


NakeeLa.


Prayer Flags


We were going to miss these desolate mountains and the deep blue skies..






Could those be Himalayan Tahr Paths ? Did not look likely that even a Mountain Gypsy could use those let alone pack animals.






Now you all know that the very first men worshiped Forces of Nature, these elements shaped their very lives, so they build temples to these forces and worshiped them seeking their guidance and blessings.
The Plastic Bottle seems to have achieved this same status. It is now a force of nature.. These were not offerings in bottles but just a pile of empty bottles.


Battley Baba Ka Mandir.




A water Pond on the way side with algae giving it a nice green - blue hue.




Signs of approaching Civilisation, a huge herd of sheep and shepherds in Himachali Caps.




The play of the Sun and the Clouds in the Sky continued to entice.




We reached Jispa and decided to stay there at this lovely Hotel across the Road from the River. We just checked in, freshened up, my brother ordered a Tandoori Chicken, had a couple of drinks and we hit the sack.
The Tourist was simply too excited to discover that TV's had not been eradicated from the Planet as he had previously thought and Doremon continued to speak in the parody of Chinese accent, as they had in our childhood in all those Karate Movies.
A view of the Road outside the Hotel from our Balcony as the Sun Set.


Tomorrow we would be crossing the fearful Rohtang Pass. Our Partners who had done the same almost a fortnight ago had called in to tell us about the horrors of it all, it had taken them almost 5 hours just to get over the top in almost zero visibility.

However I will be able to post the same only sometime later next week as we are traveling on some work and I shall not be able to log in. I have asked my brother to post an update on the general driving experience on the round trip from Bangalore through all these paths I have taken you in this T-log.
Cheers.

[fazalaliadil]

Coooolcat21,

Thank you for the salt explanation, but then that raises more questions in my mind than before.
Where and how did the salt form at the upper most levels?
What would be the source of salt at the place of origin at the very top before the melt down into the lakes?

"We were going to miss these desolate mountains and the deep blue skies"
What kind of flow could have carved the deep ravine by erosion, over millions of years?

"Could those be Himalayan Tahr Paths ? Did not look likely that even a Mountain Gypsy could use those let alone pack animals."
I feel these are man made tracks. Notice the zig zag trail
on the right of the frame? It is to minimize the steepness of the incline/ ascent by the most intelligent of living beings...We.

This is a frequently traversed one, all three frames show the easiest path taken.
Thanks and Regards,

[DKG]

Originally Posted by Coooolcat21

there should be a more concise and scientific explanation to this

Hundreds of millions of years ago due to the continental drift large areas which were once seas became inland seas and eventually as the Indian subcontinent pushed into the Asian Continent these seas dried up as the Himalayas rose. This is why the Himalayas are so rich in minerals and many lakes are salty.

Perhaps you noticed the Himalayas are a crumbling mountain range as they continue to rise and it makes every thing so unstable there. There were at least a dozen occasions where I heard sections crumble down all throughout our drive

[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Coooolcat21,

Thank you for the salt explanation, but then that raises more questions in my mind than before.
Where and how did the salt form at the upper most levels?
What would be the source of salt at the place of origin at the very top before the melt down into the lakes?

"We were going to miss these desolate mountains and the deep blue skies"
What kind of flow could have carved the deep ravine by erosion, over millions of years?

"Could those be Himalayan Tahr Paths ? Did not look likely that even a Mountain Gypsy could use those let alone pack animals."
I feel these are man made tracks. Notice the zig zag trail
on the right of the frame? It is to minimize the steepness of the incline/ ascent by the most intelligent of living beings...We.

This is a frequently traversed one, all three frames show the easiest path taken.
Thanks and Regards,

Fazal Sir, I think the 'Salt' is freely present in the earths upper soil, then also the pushing up of this land from beneath the sea may have made this land more rich in Minerals and salts (as stated by DKG Sir below). To this add the 'Crumbly' nature of the mountains that will expose newer and newer layers of soil to the environment and forces of nature such as wind, water and erosion, this should all add up to a higher concentration of Minerals / Salts in the waters that flow down the mountain sides when the snow melts.

In addition to the nature of the land there is also the extreme temperatures that the top soil is exposed to year after year, this must be a Geologists paradise.

Regarding the paths I think animals too by instinct choose the easiest way up or down a Mountain side, however you may be right as the pathways were too well defined and precise. However the men walking these paths must be related to the Spider Man. They looked scary from afar walking on them must be terrifying. Regards.

Originally Posted by DKG

Hundreds of millions of years ago due to the continental drift large areas which were once seas became inland seas and eventually as the Indian subcontinent pushed into the Asian Continent these seas dried up as the Himalayas rose. This is why the Himalayas are so rich in minerals and many lakes are salty.

Perhaps you noticed the Himalayas are a crumbling mountain range as they continue to rise and it makes every thing so unstable there. There were at least a dozen occasions where I heard sections crumble down all throughout our drive

Thank you DKG Sir for your explanatory post,
We did see the mountain sides, slowly sliding down, one stone at a time, at may places along the route and some of the overhangs on this road definitely made all road users appear suicidal. Th truth of the matter is that these roads are without a doubt very dangerous and if one has driven through them without any mishap its just a matter of chance, anything can happen here. Regards.

[Coooolcat21]

September 2nd 2011. Jispa to Manali:

We stayed at the Hotel Ibex, at Jispa. A lovely Hotel with all amenities and a view to die for, the only drawback that I could think of was that it is too close to the Manali Road. We had a good sleep and after a good Breakfast left towards Manali and Rohtang Pass.
View from the Balcony in the morning. River Bagha runs just a stones throw away across the road.


The Hotel is surrounded by Fields. The weather was overcast and the way we like it.
Chortens on the Road side.


Fields behind the Hotel.


The Mountains were green and seeped water from every nook and cranny. Jispa can be a destination in itself. It is a lovely little village.










Climbing towards Rohtang La.


First views of the Rohtang Mess.

[Coooolcat21]

Rohtang was bad. But not as bad as it had been for our mates in the Bolero. It had not rained for the last 24 hours so the slush was a little less slushy.The skies though had clouds, however the visibility at the road was excellent. There was little traffic and most of the trucks were parked on the road side though there were a few tourist vehicles and a couple of public transport buses. We crossed over slowly, there were waits where the traffic was jammed or the Dozers were clearing a minor landslide or packing the slush by depositing drier mud on these parts of the road.
We crossed over without any mishap into the waiting carnage of Day Tourists from Manali after Rohtang La and around Marhi.
The slow moving traffic and the mud roads at Rohtang.



That's Marhi and what I could identify as the PWD Guest House from the pictures posted here on the Forum by TSK and other pioneers


Looking at the roads the squiggly zig-zags on Google maps in this area make sudden sense.


The slush was only about 6" deep and quiet firm under that, even then we had the low slung vehicles such as Innova and a few DL Registered Sedans getting stuck regularly. The two wheel drive vehicles had to make it through on sheer momentum.
The Tourist in the window!


The mess on the roads contrasted with the beautiful surroundings.







This area has some of the most beautiful water falls. This one was unbelievably long.








We crossed the hordes of Tourists and stopped after a long time to get out of the vehicle and admire the surroundings.


Manali, view from our Hotel Balcony.


The day comes to an end


It was a chill evening and almost the end of our mountain ride.

[Coooolcat21]

After a really long and luxurious sleep we left Manali the next day to run the gauntlet of the traffic from the plains. I personally like Manali better than Simla. Its bigger and more spread out, the roads are comparatively less crowded once you leave the Bus Stand Area, there is more to explore and the area is greener. The drive down to Chandigarh was smooth but tiring due to heavy truck traffic.
This was the 4th of September. We checked into the same Hotel we had stayed in on our way up at Zirakpur just outside Chandigarh on NH 22. We liked this hotel it was clean, served good food and most importantly was on the Highway.
Despite our commitment to get up late and leave leisurely to Delhi, we were up at the crack of dawn and cleared the Hotel before 8am reaching Delhi by afternoon. Cutting across the mess of City roads we checked into another Hotel on MG Road as it was close to the Airport and NH 8 that my brother would be taking on his drive back home.
The next day we hired a Taxi and met up with my brother's friend in the City and after exchanging stories wound up on Grudwara Road and Roshan Di Kulfi for lunch. Though the plan was to visit Delhi Haat we ditched the same and came back to the Hotel to laze around and separate our lugguage. I would be flying out of Delhi with my son and my brother and his friend would drive back to the Bungled-ooru.
I flew out of Delhi on the 5th of September. My Brother left on the 6th morning and reached home on the evening of the 9th after halting for the nights at Chittorgarh, Vapi and Kolhapur.
We had completed this marathon drive safely and reached home.
This also brings this t-log to its finish.
My message to all you folks out there is that if you are planning on a similar journey, as we did for years before actually setting off, get out from front of your computers now and ride the monsoons to which ever dream destination you have on your mind. Its wonderful out there and dreams do come true!!

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by DKG

Hundreds of millions of years ago due to the continental drift large areas which were once seas became inland seas...

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Thank you for the salt explanation, but then that raises more questions in my mind than before.
Where and how did the salt form at the upper most levels?
What would be the source of salt at the place of origin at the very top before the melt down into the lakes?

Originally Posted by Coooolcat21

Fazal Sir, I think the 'Salt' is freely present in the earths upper soil, then also the pushing up of this land from beneath the sea may have made this land more rich in Minerals and salts...

Explains the source of the salt in the Himalayas... Tethys Ocean - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and http://www.portal.gsi.gov.in/gsiDoc/...sm_laddakh.pdf.

[Jignesh]

Originally Posted by Coooolcat21

We had completed this marathon drive safely and reached home.This also brings this t-log to its finish.
My message to all you folks out there is that if you are planning on a similar journey, as we did for years before actually setting off, get out from front of your computers now and ride the monsoons to which ever dream destination you have on your mind. Its wonderful out there and dreams do come true!!

Hello Coooolcat,

Thank you.

Firstly let me congratualate you on completing this marathon journey safely & you all made the most of it. Good to see that your 5 year old kid too enjoyed these holidays. It was indeed nice to follow this travelogue since last couple of weeks & the photographs are absolutely brilliant. Leh / Ladakh travelogues here on T-BHP will definitely increase traffic to these places in next couple of years.

Yes. What you said is really true, it is important to stop planning for years & start small journeys right now so that one is mentally prepared for a long journey like this.

Thanks you once again for these wondeful write-up & beautiful pictures.

Regards,

[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Explains the source of the salt in the Himalayas... Tethys Ocean - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and http://www.portal.gsi.gov.in/gsiDoc/...sm_laddakh.pdf.

Thank you Sir, that was very informative.
Coincidentally there was a programme on BBC Entertainment, just yesterday evening, 'How the Earth Made us' I think, that showed the piling up of Salt layers near shallow seas that dry and fill up over the millennia these layers are kilometers in thickness and there is even a active 'Glacier' made of Salt in Iran, it flows in the middle of a scorching desert. Incredible!!
Regards.

Originally Posted by Jignesh

Hello Coooolcat,

Thank you.

Firstly let me congratualate you on completing this marathon journey safely & you all made the most of it. Good to see that your 5 year old kid too enjoyed these holidays. It was indeed nice to follow this travelogue since last couple of weeks & the photographs are absolutely brilliant. Leh / Ladakh travelogues here on T-BHP will definitely increase traffic to these places in next couple of years.

Yes. What you said is really true, it is important to stop planning for years & start small journeys right now so that one is mentally prepared for a long journey like this.

Thanks you once again for these wondeful write-up & beautiful pictures.

Regards,

Thank you Jignesh, Thank you very much indeed. Yes my son enjoyed the trip immensely, however the price we had to pay was to listen to his favourite songs over and over and over all the time. . and believe me his taste in music sucks.

Happy that you enjoyed the T-log.
Regards.

[supertinu]

Thanks for sharing your entire experience in such details Cooolcat. I had started following your travelogue when you had started writing but then dropped along the way as I was reading faster than being posted. Last week while reading Columbus's trip I recalled and started back on yours and what an experience it has been. Took me almost a week to go through the entire log and what a journey it has been. My dream of driving to Leh and beyond continues and I hope they dont start putting more travel and permit restrictions in the area as it already seems to have started.

The wilderness experience and being alone must have been really unique, something which we really dont get living in places like Bangalore where getting out of city on a long wkend itself is a challenge with the queues at toll booths.

[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by supertinu

Thanks for sharing your entire experience in such details Cooolcat. I had started following your travelogue when you had started writing but then dropped along the way as I was reading faster than being posted. Last week while reading Columbus's trip I recalled and started back on yours and what an experience it has been. Took me almost a week to go through the entire log and what a journey it has been. My dream of driving to Leh and beyond continues and I hope they dont start putting more travel and permit restrictions in the area as it already seems to have started.

The wilderness experience and being alone must have been really unique, something which we really dont get living in places like Bangalore where getting out of city on a long wkend itself is a challenge with the queues at toll booths.

You are welcome Supertinu, I am sure that you need not worry about travel restrictions as it appears the policy of the Government now is to open up these areas to Tourism and Development. If there is any restrictions they may be only for a short while. And yes after the superb vistas all around the second most novel thing about travelling in Ladakh and HP is the visual lack of humans and their activity or their mark on the surrounding environment. It remains wild, raw and unfettered. That's the Adventure!!
Regards.