Day 16 – The Road to Sarchu Camp (or, the Day I Froze)
With a big day ahead of us, we woke and departed early. Breakfast at 6 AM, departure at 7 AM. We said goodbye to the staff and owner of the fine guest house in Ley, and we took on another passenger. Apparently, he needed a ride down from Leh to Manali, as it was now the end of the tour season in Leh. In a couple weeks, Leh would lock down for the winter with all the roads closing. So, we added Raj (nicknamed James; James Bond) and departed Leh for the high passes of the Himalayas.
There was a wrinkle in our original plan, and Baru informed us that we'd have to travel for a few extra hours before reaching Sarchu. On the main road to Sarchu, there would be two main mountain passes: Tanglang-La and Lachulung-La. Apparently, Tanglang-La was temporarily closed and under repair. So, we would have to take a 90 km detour to Polo Kongka La pass. This detour looked like it would be much more scenic, as it stayed along the Indus river most of the way and then cut east to drive along the banks of the salt lake of Tso Kar. The upshot was that rather than driving for 10-12 hours, we'd be driving for 12-14. Hmm, this sounded to me like a good time to check out what audio-books were on my iPod.
Sleep Side-bar: Unfortunately for my picture tour, I promptly fell asleep in the back of the car. All my life I've had the gift of being able to sleep anywhere. When I was 15, I fell asleep at a Dio concert (death metal band in the 80's). I've even fallen asleep standing up a few times. Well, this one was a challenge. We were trying to cover ground quickly, but with a road that could only nominally be called "paved". Rocks, bumps, streams, half-paved pot-holed road was the norm. There were a few areas with wide open flats, but they were all rutted from vehicles driving through when it was muddy. So, with my head bobbing and bumping around, I stiffened my neck, padded the corner with a jacket and determinedly slept. Blessed hours passed by unnoticed.
Several hours into our drive, I woke from my nap and began to take pictures. The strange-looking structure made of string, stones and little swatches of fabric was the marker for the Polo Kongka La pass. It was adorned with layer after layer of prayer flags. These are multi-colored flags that say (in English or Sanskrit) "Om", "Mani", "Padma", "Hum", which roughly translates into a "Praise God" or a calling out to God in reverence and awareness. It's the same thing that's written on the prayer wheels throughout the area.
Not long after reaching the Polo Kongka La pass, we drove by the Tso Kar salt lake. In the distance, we saw a Himalayan wild ass. I can't remember the actual name of the animal. But, it had beautiful colors and form. It looked more like a kind of horse with a white underbelly and sandy-colored top. Unfortunately, my camera couldn't zoom close enough to see it, but my fellow traveler Andrew passed around his binoculars.
Several hours later, we passed over a valley containing a permanent encampment of the local military: Pang. Our tour leader Baru told us that twice, he has gotten stuck in this pass due to weather and had to stay in Pang. He said it was the coldest he's been in his life. The winds in the valley can be brutal in the Himalayas. We stopped at the Pang checkpoint to show passports and verify road conditions ahead.
Once free of Pang, we drove through some of the most beautiful sandstone mountain tops I've seen. It looked like something out of a movie set for The Mummy or some fantasy of lost civilizations buried in the sand. The peaks nearly looked man-made and weather worn. The sun was beginning to dip, and it was amazing to watch the sun go down over the hills.
We made it to Lachulung La pass as the sun was dropping behind the mountains, and started seeing mile markers counting down the kilometers until we reached Sarchu. Now 8 PM, we were very ready to get there.
For the last 2-3 hours of this drive, I began to slowly freeze. The windows were open in the car, and the air felt crisp. For some reason, I think I began to loose body heat. By the time we reached Sarchu, I was very, very cold. Yet, it was only about 18 C (57 F). I had a few layers on, including my new fleece from Leh.
Once at Sarchu, we pulled up in the dark to a camp with about 15 tents plus one large tent for a mess hall. This was nothing like I had envisioned. I was braced for "camping". As in, a small tent of thin fabric, a sleeping bag on the hard ground, and a Coleman stove on which to cook. Instead, we were camping in style. Each tent contained two beds and a chair. There was a flap in the back which opened to another tented compartment for fully plumbed toilet and sink. The tent fabric was very thick (perhaps 1 cm).
Apparently, the men attending the camp had given up on us. It was now about 9 PM, and they had expected us between 5 and 7 PM. Since cell phone service was not functional here for anyone, there was really no way to let them know we were running late. So, after an animated conversation in Hindi with Baru, they got to work preparing a meal for us. I don't remember much about it other than that it was Indian food and it was blessedly hot.
I lucked out. Since I was staying in a solo tent, I was able to take the covers from the extra bed and pile them onto mine. I slept like a baby and woke around 5 AM. Here are a couple pictures of our tents the next morning.
So, now we had traveled the 217 km from Leh to Sarchu, plus the 90 km detour to the Polo Kongha La pass. So, covering 307 km in 14 hours (with stops), we had averaged 22 km per hour. We'd cover another 110 km the next day, on our way to Jespa (only a 4-5 hour drive).
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