A ride in snow on Chang La

My earlier posts of Leh trip are here

Day 9 : A hard day on the wheels

Day 10, 11 : Around Leh

Day 12 : The Pangong Tso Lake

After enjoying Aloo parata for breakfast, we checked out of our room and headed back towards Chang La. The weather as predicted had worsened compared to the previous day. The ride was fast as long as there were good roads.

We stopped at a tea point and a huge troop who rode on their bikes from Maharashtra joined us. Back on the road now there were enough bikers for company but soon it started snowing as we reached the peak. Heavy snowfall on the peak has spread open a thick white blanket everywhere around. The place which was brown just a day before had turned completely white.   

Horrible roads almost broke my back. Few meters before the peak, I got off the bike and started walking. Pavan, seeing Raja coming alone on the bike got shocked thinking I had fallen off somewhere on the way :P. We made our way to a Army canteen which served free snacks for all and played some really good Hindi songs. That was too nice of them.

I badly needed some rest for my back. The weather dint appear to improve. We had to start before it got even horrible. We rode at almost 5kmph from here and the same circus of getting off at worst patches of road and walking for some distance. We took several pit stops in between & finally managed to reach Leh only by evening. Pavan had reached couple of hours before to us.

 

Back in the home stay, we were only 5 of us. We returned our bikes to stanzin, I was glad that the bike rides were over. We strolled around in the Leh market, picked up few antique items, some hippie clothes. Our hunger for Kashmiri shawls & strolls never leave us before getting a hole drilled in our pockets. The cab to go to Srinagar was booked for tomorrow. So quickly our journey in Leh was over and tomorrow we had to pack our bags and bid bye to this wonderful place.