Ladakh Adventure (Picture Gallery)

Ladakh tour - June 1-9, 2007. BEC Picture Gallery  -  Harish's Picture Gallery  -  Carol's Picture Gallery
Ladakh is a land in the Indian State of Jammu & Kashmir abounding in awesome physical features, set in an enormous and spectacular environment. Bounded by two of the world’s mightiest mountain ranges, the Karakoram in the north and the Great Himalaya in the south, it is traversed by two other parallel chains, the Ladakh Range and the Zanskar Range. Today a high-altitude sandy desert, sheltered from the rain-bearing clouds of the Indian monsoon by the barrier of the Great Himalaya, Ladakh was once covered by an extensive lake system (the Tethys Sea) which gave way to mountains when the Indian subcontinent (Gondwana) crashed into China/Tibet (Eurasia) about 70 million years ago (fairly recent when you consider how old the earth is). The evidence of sea life is abundant in the Himalayas as Ammonite fossils are embedded in them.

BEC members decided to make a visit to this beautiful region between June 1 – 9, 2007. Our overall experience was simply awesome as we were constantly breath taken by the sheer beauty of the region – the mountains, the valleys, the rivers and the flora/fauna that form the backdrop for an amazing contrast – that of the ubiquitous presence of the Ladakhi/Tibetan Buddhist settlements/monasteries and the Indian military camps all over that protect the Indian borders from its neighbors. We flew from Bangalore via Delhi to Leh which is at an altitude of 3500 meters and the capital city in Ladakh. Only specially trained pilots are allowed to fly into Leh as you have to make steep turns before you land. We were greeted by two Ladakhi drivers who would become our dear companions for the next 8 days. We learned the first few words in Ladakhi soon after we landed, Juley – which means how are you, and Thuk-jai-cha – which means thank you. We then spent a day in Leh acclimatizing to the high altitude where some of us got nicely addicted to Diamox (altitude pills).

We visited several monasteries (Gompas) in and around Leh in the first few days before starting out on our long distance trips to Nubra Valley (7 hr drive) and Pangong lake (6 hour drive). The drive to Nubra valley took us to the highest motorable road in the world – Khardungla Pass at 18,300 feet above sea level. We camped that night in tents in Nubra valley close to the border. We can’t thank the Indian Army enough for being so friendly with all of us and even offering us tea/biscuits etc wherever we met them during our sojourn. Many of them have left their families and children to be posted in very inhospitable conditions. We salute them in their noble attempt to keep this beautiful land as peaceful as possible. We also visited Pangong Lake a few days later, a 6 hour drive from Leh and close to the China border. The drive took us through the Changla pass at 17000 feet above sea level. Pangong Lake (or Pangong Tso) is an enormous salt water lake surrounded by sandy mountains. We found lots of marble deposits and garnett stones lying around in the hills adjoining the lake. In the end, we must have driven about 1200 kms in a week going through some back-breaking roads which our drivers navigated very well. We also saw some amazing two humped camels, some large yaks and lots of pashmina goats. Needless to say, some of the girls purchased some shawls, head gear, and other high-fashion clothing in Leh city prior to our return to Leh. Our flight trip back was exciting as we got to see a full view of K2 (the world second highest mountain) from our aircraft.