Around 10am, we had descended the winding road from Deskit, and were in the plains.
The steed. All gleaming. Look at the tires. Sand roading makes tires shine
Khalsar is just 10kms away, and after Khalsar we will take the diversion
However there was a short break coming up. At the Deskit/Panamik road junction there is a small Dhaba, where we decided to eat maggi. We did not know when we will get food next, so a 15 minute break was needed.
Met a couple on Bicycles there. They were from Gernany, and they used to take lift from Taxis uphill, and would ride from the Passes downhill. They had ridden down from Khardungla, and had seen Nubra on the bikes.
Now they were at the junction, waiting for their Taxi to come, and take them back to Leh.
After a small chat, it was time for us to start on the journey.
After Khalsar diversion, I expect the roads to vanish, but thankfully that was not the case.
Sure there were bad rocky stretches where the road climbed up mountain sides, but in the river plains the road was actually quite decent
Don't be fooled though. This is no high speed track. There are enough wavy sections to launch you into kingdom come. Se speeds were restricted
From the rocks and stones around it seemed like a river bed. Now the road was also old. Normally if river flows roads vanish until rebuilt. But this was not the case here, except where the road winded up the slope. So indeed, this river had not run for years, maybe centuries. There was not a blade of grass on the rocks, and it lookied like the dead zone
Lack of river was also not the only cause of an intact road. I think lack of traffic was another region. We had been on the road for guess what, 30 minutes and had not passed a single vehicle. Nobody coming from Wari LA, and nobody going there either.
time was now 11:08am. We had been on this track for 45 minutes, and the scenery was unchanged.
Nobody had crossed us. No army truck, no civilian vehicle, no taxi. Not even a wild horse.
Twilight zone, anyone?
The White elephant was the only resident of this dead zone
15 minutes more passed as we drove along. And still NADA. Nobody. Is there anybody in there, sang a comfortably numb Floyd from the Alpine.
No sir nobody here, except us
The Road, same old road
In the distance was a big mountain, is that Wari La?
The Lone inhabitant
TO be frank I was getting a little worried if I had missed a diversion somewhere and instead of Wari La I was going to china.
But this cheered me up
"End of Tangyiar region". Now we had to reach this village on the way. So we were on the right track.
Soon the plains ended, and mountains started looming on both sides. The climb was about to start. There was a green plantation of forest dept on our left too
A lone prayer flag signified that there was somebody somewhere
Soon we came to a river with an iron bridge. From there the road forked into two. One went downriver, the other went upriver.
With no signboards anywhere, decided to take upriver, as we had to go up and not down.
With rivers comes life. with life come people.
And soon we spotted a Tata 207 3.0 DI. Some locals were loading farm produce into it. Our first vehicle in almost 2 hours!
Asked them about Wari La, and we were told we are on the right track.
Pics of the green belt
The road was still holding up
An Oasis in the middle of the dead zone
Prayer stones on the way, engraved long time ago
In the Past
The road curved, and it was time to cross the river over a concrete bridge.
Small problem : The bridge was broken, and only way through the river.
Thankfully water was not very deep, but the climb up was very very steep with sharp stones.
Time for 4x4 low. Slowly the white elephant crawled, and thanks to the german shoes the climb was done without a fuss
Soon we were at a big village. Tangyar I think
CONT......