The road up to the pass was kinder – more sand, less rocks and we enjoyed the numerous marmots popping in and out of their holes. More abounding mountain views. We stopped at the valley that Dave and I had walked up 25 years ago to the glaciated Chilung La and I reminisced about the indesicion as to which valley we needed to go up.
We reached the pass at lunchtime in anticipation of an afternoon marmot watching and relaxing amongst the high alpine scenery. Mid afternoon I took a short ride to look at the Darung Drung glacier on the down hill side of the pass and spied a more scenic and more sheltered campsite. There was some weather coming so we made the move just in time before the strong winds and rain hit. Luckily it was a short lived storm.
It was a stunning place to wake up in and the ride to the valley floor was spectacular. Despite being mostly downhill it was a slow journey down the valley, bouncing our way over the rocky surface. However each valley on our right hand side had glacier and mountain delights for us. There is many lifetimes of alpine adventures to be had here.
The wind was strong and fortunately on our backs most of the way to the large expanse where the Stod and Dodda rivers join to form the Zanskar river downstream from the town of Padum. In winter all rivers are frozen and the walk/ice skate up/down the Zanskar is one of the more unusual treks you can do in the world.
We had a blob out day and then a day exploring some of the close by attractions – the Kashe monastry and a nice waterfall. We spent time with 2 older cyclists, one at age 70 and the other his Belgium mate at 64 (and overcoming some serious health issues). Two inspirational and entertaining men!
At 1.30 am we got up for our shared taxi to Kargil – of course we didn’t start bouncing our way out of town till 3.30. The reason for the early start is to get across the snowfed side streams before they get too high. As it was our driver spent an hour helping a small car get through the worst one which was running high. The 12 hour journey was most unpleasant until we hit the paved road. We arrived in Kargil as large street marches were happening coninciding with the last Friday in Ramadam – generally anti Western sentiments were a feature of these marches.
