NUBRA VALLEY TO PANGONG LAKE: DAY 4

Hello all, welcome to yet another blog post from my Ladakh Dairies. The agenda for the day was to drive from Nubra Valley to Pangong Lake. We started our day rather early. It was around 5.30 AM – 6 AM when we had hit the road. Although we had left Nubra early in the morning as per our plan, just as we were entering the pass, we encountered heavy traffic as the glacier had already begun melting causing the roadblock.

We were told that it gets really impossible to move forward as the day passes because the intensity of the water flow gets increasingly high and the road remains closed until the water stops flowing on the roads. So, instead of waiting till night, our driver decided to take a different yet lengthier route where we had to drive back to Leh and then to Pangong via Manali highway. This kinda made me happy as I was running out of memory and I felt this was a good sign for me to get a memory card for myself at Leh. 🙂

NUBRA VALLEY -> KARDUNG LA -> LEH

We continued our journey to Leh and on the way, at around 8 AM, we stopped at one of the beautiful locations I have had breakfast at so far. I ordered masala omelets and ginger honey lemon tea for myself. The location was beyond beautiful and to top that, there was a public toilet like an oasis amidst the cold desert with a spectacular view! 😛

We walked down to the gushing river amidst the mountain valley and laid down on the big rocks until our breakfast was ready. We then had our breakfast, chilled by someone else’s tent, took a million pictures and left to Leh.

We stopped at Kardung La for a quick break and continued towards Leh. We reached Leh after a good 5-hour drive. On reaching Leh, we had the network to make some calls and messages. We all got on to do that using our driver’s phone since none of us had carried a BSNL Postpaid Simcard. And upon reaching the main market, I also bought a new memory card and my heart was full.

LEH -> LEH – MANALI HIGHWAY -> CHANGLA PASS -> PANGONG LAKE

We then had our lunch in Leh and continued our drive on the Leh- Manali highway. The drive was quite scenic with mustard farms, snow-capped mountain peaks, high mountain passes, tiny hamlets and just everything beautiful. We took a pit stop at one of the beautiful mustard farms we came across and continued our journey towards Pangong Lake. Later, we also stopped at Chang La pass which again is one of the highest mountain passes in the world with an elevation of 17,590 ft. All these high mountain regions were extremely cold giving us traces of AMS now and then.

HIMALAYAN MARMOTS, SANDSTORM AND YAKS:

We were casually driving and as we approached Pangong Lake, a Himalayan marmot made a surreal appearance just off the road. We all got super excited and stopped to take a closer look. As we started moving closer to the cute little furball that we spotted from a distance, many of them came out of their burrow. They were super friendly and adorable. We saw at least 10 of them and we all spent a good time just watching them and taking pictures. And they really seemed to have loved the limelight. : P

As we continued our journey towards Pangong, we also encountered a mini sandstorm. There were hundreds of yaks grazing on either side of the road that caught our attention too apart from the mesmerizing views. We also took several pitstops at the surreal locations to soak in the beauty of the place.

PANGONG LAKE:

We reached Pangong Lake at about tea time. The first glance of the deep blue lake against the backdrop of barren grey mountains of mighty Himalayas was unbelievable. We all ran to the lake with so much excitement and sat on the shore soaking in the most mesmerizing view. After spending a good amount of time, we then walked along the shores, took pictures and headed towards a series of hotels and cafes to grab some quick bite as we were all hungry.

EVENING AT PANGONG LAKE:

I ordered my super favorite ginger lemon honey tea and the momos. We chilled for a bit at the cafe and left to the campsite which was located just above Pangong with a lake view.  Upon reaching the campsite, we all got freshened up. As soon as the clock hit 7 PM, we barged to the common area where we could charge our gadgets. Everywhere here you get power only from 7 PM to 10 PM. So, we made sure to make the most of the little power we got. 🙂

After dinner, we sat there chit-chatting with the kitchen staff listening to their stories. And those were the sweetest bunch of people we had met. We all kept talking and sharing stories until the (cocky :P) owner of the campsite arrived and warned them to switch off the power and sleep. The lights were off in no time. We wished them a pleasant night and left for our respective hut.

NIGHT AT PANGONG:

The night was chilly and quiet. We covered ourselves from head to toe and settled ourselves warm on the chairs outside the hut. We began our skywatching session with the binoculars that one of the travelers had carried. The one side of the sky was pitch dark with piercingly bright stars. And, on the other side, the moon was up painting the world silver, making the moment seem so much more alive. Few of us sat there staring at the sky and the Pangong lake at a distance until the moonlight disappeared down the hills. We went back to sleeping really late at night feeling super blessed yet again to live that moment.

I really hope you enjoyed this blog post. Let me know if this made you travel to Ladakh right away! Comment down below. Also, I will be more than happy to help you with any queries that you have. Keep exploring this space for the next blog post in a few days which is about my favorite place, Hanle. Toodles! 😀

Click below to read the previous blog posts from my Ladakh Dairies:

DAY 1 IN LEH, LADAKH

DAY 2 IN LEH, LADAKH

LEH TO NUBRA VALLEY: DAY 3