It is time to head to the mountains. I have never been north of Delhi yet, and it will be my first trip to Himachal and Ladakh. Needless to say, I am excited. I will be in Shimla and Manali briefly, before we start our slow and easy four day trip from Manali to Leh. Before we start, we also intend to camp for a night at Chandratal. It normally takes 36 hours but we are planning to spend a good hundred hours on the road. Here is a rough itinerary I have planned, which can change freely with circumstances or new ideas. If you are going to be anywhere in these ares during these days and if our paths are likely to intersect, I will be delighted to meet up on the way..
June 3 – Fly to Delhi
June 3/4 – Travel to angling camp near Shimla
June 5 – Shimla
June 6 – Travel to Manali
June 7 – inquiries etc in Manali for further journeys.
June 8 – Head to Chandratal and camp for the night
June 9 – Return to Manali
June 10 – Manali – Rohtang – Keylong and stay for the night(115km)
June 11 – Keylong to Sarchu and stay for the night(224km)
June 12 – Sarchu to Pang and stay for the night(303km). Check if there are any places to stay a little ahead.
June 13 – Arrive at Leh(475km)
June 14 – Around Leh
June 15 – Around Leh
— consider reworking this to a more sensible itinerary!
June 16th – Fly yo Srinagar
June 16th to 18th – Srinagar and/or Pahalgam and/or Gulmarg
June 19th – Bus to Delhi for 24 hours!
June 20th or 21st – Leave Delhi
I usually do not update my blog on the road, so updates here will be infrequent, if at all till I get back.
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
+Go to the beginning of the series
1. Travelling from Eaglenest to Tawang – I
2. Travelling from Eaglenest to Tawang – II
3. At Tawang Monastery
4. PTSO – Snow and the lakes beyond Tawang
5. About Tawang
6. Returning from Tawang
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
+Previous: Tawang Monastery
+Next: In and around Tawang
+Go to the beginning of the series
When we headed towards the region above Tawang towards the country’s border, we were not sure what we are up to seeing. The road went up steep and within no time we had gone really high from Tawang. We had to pass several military barricades on the way, and we noticed that army had cut down a large number of alpine trees all over the slope. After 30 minutes of drive we started seeing snow which was melting fast, and plenty of water flowing down from each snow pile.
A little later, the road was getting flat again and the slopes had mellowed down. Thats when we saw our first surprise. I shouted when I looked at the beautiful lake amidst the snow – ‘look there..!’. We got down for a few photographs of the pretty lake and walked all around it. What I did not know was that there are many more to come. As we moved forward, we kept seeing lake after lake, each one surrounded by thick snow, and each one prettier than the previous. It all looked heavenly. I never imagined seeing so many beautiful water bodies in such a short distance.
There was no one around to tell, but from whatever I gathered from the signs, I think the region is called PTSO, whatever it stands for. We kept driving and stopping at short distances. We would hop into the jeep for a few minutes and then someone would shout a ‘look, one more..!’ and we would stop again and walk around another lake. It was evening when we headed back. On the slopes, the waterways created on the snow melting through the day had made some beautiful scaly patterns.
It was an incredible and short lived experience high in the mountains. The beautiful region was access controlled by the army and we have little freedom of movement. It depressed me to think of the neighbors that we have, who have forced our warriors to live in the harsh environs like this to protect our lands, be it in Siachin, Arunachal or Sikkim. It depressed me to think that such beautiful regions have to be restricted from us who worship the beauty that these mountains are. And C’est la vie is all I could say about it.