Nubra Valley – An odyssey

My earlier posts of Leh trip are here

Day 1 : Julley Leh journey begins

Day 2 : Manali, day to wallow in nature

Day 3, 4 : Riding on curves

Day 5, 6 : It was time to say JulLeh!

Standing in a long queue in the only fuel station of Leh, we filled fuel to our bikes and to the extra cans we were carrying. It was a long journey and there are no fuel station anywhere in the route. The plan was to reach Turtuk as early as possible before it gets dark. And start back the next day to Leh. It was extremely ambitious with the fact that the distance from Leh to Turtuk is just 205 kms, covering this distance on roads built cutting the mountains are extremely tiring. Roads curve at every 100 or 200mts which needs to slow down to check the opposite traffic and then pick up some speed. With night’s dark covering up the skies it gets even dangerous and risky as there is hardly any human inhabitation anywhere after Hunder till Turtuk. Seldom army trucks pass by once it gets dark. Getting any help is too bleak on these roads.

We had breakfast at a hotel in Leh and started towards Khardung La, the highest motorable road in the world. The road was smooth for a quite a distance. At almost 16000 feet the road was under repair with huge JCBs working on it and we were held up for close to 2 hours which further strained our plan. It was early noon when we reached the 18,379 ft elevation to reach Khardung La, it was very cold and windy at the top but all of us seemed to be in good shape. It was crowded at the top and I dint feel anything great to celebrate being there. We spent 5-10 mins and started our journey on the other side of the Pass. The road continues to be bad for another 20kms till we reach North Pullu where we stopped to get some warmth with a cup of tea and Maggie. After this you are on the best roads in whole of India.

For most part of the journey towards your left is the mountain and on your right is the beautiful valley. We followed each other on our bikes and when we encountered deviations we would wait for the rest of the group to join, open the map and take decisions or by then we would find an army truck passing by who would stop and guide us ahead. An extremely pleasant weather today helped us keep moving in spite of the lag in time. The curvy roads of course added to the delay but was more fun. The valley was deep and board on our right. Far on the other end of the valley there were villages with very few houses. We often wondered how one can reach those isolated villages and how do they survive such extreme weather conditions. With all that it looked so stunningly beautiful.

The road to Deskit is “the” thing which enters my mind when we talk of Nubra Valley. It’s mind blowing. Several stretches are like a straight line drawn across a white sheet of paper. You can blindly trust your guts and let your bike race with the wind. I am more than sure bikers enjoyed this part the most. As we take a sharp left almost nearing Deskit you will see at a far distance a structure resembling a face of Buddha. Peeping above the mountains as though he is watching the bikers race.  As you get close to this mountain we realize it is the tall structure of Maitreya Buddha of Deskit Gompa. 

It was early evening when we reached this beautiful village in Nubra Valley. This was the best village I have been so far. It gave an out of the world feeling as we rode our bikes on those narrow roads covered with tall bushes on both sides. We stopped for tea at a road side hotel. A gang of people were lazing here with friends. It was a nice big group seemed like they dint have anything else to do. I was naturally jealous of their lifestyle.

We ordered Maggie while we discussed whether to continue to Turtuk or to stay back for the night and reach there the next day morning. The zeal in the group was quite high and all of us agreed to continue further 77kms inspite of knowing the fact that it will get dark almost anytime now and also we dint have permit to this place (toufiq had missed to mention this place in our permits). It  was a huge chance we were taking.  

From here on the bikes picked up good speed as the roads were straight for long stretches. Hunder the very next village 7kms from Deskit. A place which is famous for its Sand dunes is filled with shifting sand endlessly. It makes one imagine stories on the existence of this high altitude desert. A cold desert on Karakoram range which back in history was the silk route from central asia to china. The Bactrian double humped camels which once carried people across continents even today exist here offering rides to travelers visiting Nubra Valley.

We planned to visit the sand dunes on our way back and for now stuck our butt to the seats. For most of us this ride was not just the best but truly a life time experience. Great roads throughout and you are gifted with the best sights as you ride between those tall mountains. River Shyok gushes with force as if she carries all the anger within her to the country which she flows into. After a while there are sand structures formed in valley far your right which resembles the coast line in Peru. As the sun went down behind the mountains towards Pakistan leaving the mountains opposite to it painted with orange red.

The beauty of the mountain seemed so violently beautiful with the moonlight spread over them and our eyes assumed several shapes coated with colors of dark green, mud red, few in silver and brown. The bliss you feel to just watch the nature at the calm of night with light of close-to- full moon thrown around liberally was breath-taking. We stared at those weird looking structures on the mountains as we continued to ride on this eternal path. It was only us and the river Shyok enjoying this ride over those bridges, curvy roads, and slippery sand. The noise she made sometimes gave us a feeling that we are dead close to her and would strain our eyes in that direction a little more to check her movements.

It was quiet troublesome to keep sync between riders during night. I constantly checked for the 3 lights behind our bike while the rider kept an eye on the 2 red break lights of the bikers ahead of us. While our senses enjoyed watching the view offered outside the body ached at every turn not being able to sit anymore. We could not afford breaks and had to reach before the city shuts for the day. The journey seemed endless with the dark setting in and nothing visible around. We finally reached the army post almost near Turtuk. The security personnel checked our permits and seemed not ok to continue without permits. We had to tell him long stories to convince while few of us relaxed our cramping joints. Another army post from here dint bother to stop us and we finally reached the last village in India accessible to public.

We stopped at a homestay to check the rooms availability. My body was so badly bent up that I threw myself on the ground till they came back to say the homestay was closed. A fellow strolling around showed us way to a nearby hotel where we happily checked in. They quickly prepared dinner for us and the discussions on tomorrow’s plan led to ask one of them if he could takes us around and Faizal Khan was more than happy to be our guide. This fellow is as interesting as the very place he belongs to.

We were in Turtuk :)