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Day 16, 5 July, Leh to Pangong Tso..

Today, we started off at 8 am from Leh . Soon, we passed by Shay and Thiksey Gonpas . We reached Karu at around 9.15 am. Karu is 40 Kms ...

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Day 16, 5 July, Leh to Pangong Tso..


Today, we started off at 8 am from Leh. Soon, we passed by Shay and Thiksey Gonpas.
We reached Karu at around 9.15 am. Karu is 40 Kms away from Leh. Road was in pretty good condition. From Karu, one has to take left turn towards Pangong Tso.
Before moving to Pangong, we had a small breakfast.

Soon, we reached Sakti village. From Sakti starts the ascent of Chang La. As usual, the road is curvious and as you approach towards the pass road conditions start getting deteriorated. Captions laid along the road side make the journey wonderful. Between, we were lucky to spot some Himalayan Blue Ships on our way.

Around 11.30 am, we were at Chang La top. It is the second highest motorable pass at height of 17,800ft.
The place was pretty cold. However, the hospitality by army was very warm to keep us away from the coldness. We had some tea and biscuits and after a small break of photo session, we headed towards our destination.

As we passed by Chang La, there was noticeable difference in terrain. We could see some greenery along the water streams. Also, the oxygen level was decreased making us feel dizzy.
Around 2 pm, we touched Tangstey. Here, we submitted our permits and we proceeded towards Pangong Lake.
Lukung is 32 Kms away from Tangstey where one gets the first glimpse of the lake. The journey was quite good with the beautiful scenery alongside. We could see wild horses and asses grazing around. Although, it was tough at some places to drive the bike through the sand formed by erosion of rocks. Also, there was a small portion of road difficult to ride because of relatively big stream followed by steep ascent and road similar to a dirt track.

After all this, we could get the first glimpse of Pangong Tso around 3 pm. Pangong is a high altitude lake, located at around 14000+ ft.
There is a small restaurant run by army. We had our much needed lunch. The food was not that good. At this place, one can do boating if you are relative of army person or have any recommendation.
Later, we headed towards Spangmik which is 10 Kms further. Road was not so good from Lukung.
Spanmik is located at the shore of lake. One can get beautiful views of blue water with the barren mountains in the background. They were really astonishing that the camera won't stop clicking ..
After reaching at Spangmik, we could easily find a guesthouse for 250 Rs. We took some rest and went for a walk along the lake. As we were walking around, we could feel it inside our minds. The views were breathtaking although we were shivering because of the cool wind.
It was one of the best days, we spent in Ladakh.
We walked around for one hour or so and returned back to the room. At night, the owner of the GH served us food and then, we went for sleep. At night, weather was really cold and windy.
Snaps on Picasa
http://picasaweb.google.com/patilsushant001/LadakhExpedition2009#

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