Day 7. The waiting prolongs but we manage to get away!

TOYOTA Leh Jayenge
Day 7.
The pain of waiting……..again. And the rough ride to Leh.
21st May 2010, Friday
Place : Leh

The excruciating pain of waiting was now getting to us and while we did our best to be cheerful seeing the bright sunny morning, we went through the motions of tea, breakfast and packing up, said our thank you’s to the CRPF incharge and as per schedule lined up outside the Poilce Post in Sonamarg.

It was an amazing sight around the entire little one street township. There were hundreds of buses lined up, taxis with anxious passengers, the restaurants were jammed with tourists trying to grab a quick bite and a frenzy of activity was visible, since the news of the roads opening finally seemed to be a reality. There was some movement in the hundreds of trucks who had been waiting for the last five days which was a positive sign. However ironically, the SHO was missing again. We waited patiently outside his office hoping there would be some communication but that wasn’t to be. The wait continued.

We then saw a convoy of official cars whiz past and the SHO was accompanying them. Apparently some minister who had woken up to the woes of the stranded thousands of tourists was going to inspect the road ahead before traffic could be released.

The wind had picked up speed by now and we had no choice but to breathe in all the diesel fumes and the dust being raised by vehicles preparing to depart. It was noon and we were feeling hungry. There was no news whatsoever yet and we got through to some friends in the Government who in turn informed us that the likely time for being allowed to go ahead was 2 pm.

We decided to have a quick bite in a Punjabi Dhaba, comprising of some chola and roti and continued our patient wait outside the police post. We got through to the SHO who was unreachable till now, and he confirmed that the likely time would be 2 pm and we should stay put since he was returning with the minister. Having little choice we just waited in the car, waiting for something to happen.

The Drive from Sonamarg to Leh, via Kargil:

All of a sudden at around 2 pm, there was a rush of vehicles driving out of Sonamarg apparently based on info that the road was open to pass through.

A tip here. If roads are blocked and you want accurate information about the road conditions, a local Taxi driver is your best bet. They have their own network of Taxi drivers giving them updated info on road conditions. In case you are driving at night on these unpredictable and treacherous tracks, keep behind a Taxi driver and you will arrive in good time and safe.

Another tip. Since you will be climbing up several hundred meters in quick time, you need to take diuretics an hour before you start the drive. Or even a few hours before. Diamox is the commonly used tablet you can have everyday if you’re going to spend time at heights in the vicinity of 4000 meters and above. For traveling on the mountainous roads with repetitive bends, and to avoid travel sickness thereof, one can take 2 or 3 Avomines a day, depending on the terrain you cover. As you ascend, you do acclimatize gradually but the heavy headedness can occur. The degree of the same could vary from person to person. The same is recommended for those who also fly into places like Leh at heights in excess of 4000 meters.


Leg 1. Sonamarg to Kargil, a destination of around 130 km. Shekhar at the wheel:

We departed at 2.10 and crawled at a snails pace with the roads hardly existent. What we went through was slushy, freshly cleared of landslide rubble roads, severely undulating. It took us an hour to traverse 10 odd kilometers on a single track road in a convoy of several hundred vehicles, who had just left Sonamarg. We were informed that traffic from Kargil usually, under normal conditions is released everyday at 4 am and from Sonamarg to Kargil at 8 am. Friday usually is the closed day for maintenance. However in our case, since the roads were closed for 5 days, this Friday we were allowed to pass through.

We passed stretches of road that were cut through glaciers of ice and a vista of white snow and grey slate, peppered with black patches of rock. The sights were mesmerizing to say the least. Temperatures were around 9 deg Celcius at 4 pm in the afternoon. The height around 3500 meters for a fair stretch till Matiyan at around 3300 meters.

38 kms from Sonamarg and about 2 kms before a little village called Matiyan, we ran into a massive traffic jam caused by unruly merging of incoming traffic from Kargil. A result of the 5 days of stalling at both ends. While stalled, we were informed by a kind following driver that we had a flat. Fortunately we veered off the road on to a soft clearance and with team effort managed to replace the huge Dunlop tyre in 10 minutes. Despite having to remove the bags over the tool storage area. A recommendation to Toyota. We need better quality tyres on a an SUV like the Fortuner. It may be matter of chance but none of the other brands of MPV’s, SUV’s Maruti low end models etc, seemed to be stranded en route. Another recommendation is for the quality of headlights. The light though adequate belies the USP of the car.

Leg 1. Matityan to Kargil via Drass. 22 km.
V.S at the Wheel. Time 6.00 pm

We drove on past Matiyan on to another treacherous and undulated stretch of road to Drass which took us an hour an thirty minutes. Drove alongside the Drass river. Kargil was next, about 57 Km ahead. Its dark now so I quit taking up the arduous task of being thrown around in the backseat with the laptop in the undulating road conditions. Will update the rest tomorrow.

Am back again!

The traffic was still heavy on the route to Drass with Vijay at the wheel and the sun started to set. Drass is a small village which had a lot of end of the day activity as we passed it. Shekhar and me thought we saw some boiled eggs but the narrowness of the main street would not allow us to stop and look. So on we went. We crossed some rural outskirts of Drass and road quality was good. Whatever little we did get to see was breathtaking and different from what we had viewed earlier. However as it turned close to dark we could only got a faint idea about the surrounding terrain and the road ahead. But the half moon helped a bit by showering its moonbeams on the Drass river and the glistening effect was romantic and dreamy, to say the least. With the usual ‘relief’ breaks more on account of Nisheeth, and music changing genres we saw the Drass river streaming and gushing along. We also passed the sign which said that we were in view of Pakistani outposts and towers and should not stop at any time. So we pegged along. We truly missed the beauty of the landscape along this route and as it turned dark, we felt deprived of it due to our rescheduled late departure from Sonamarg. In fact we had traveled alongside the Jhelum, The Tawi, the Sind, the Drass and the Indus rivers and each terrain was distinctively different yet breathtaking. We hoped to reach Kargil just before 9 pm so at the first opportunity of getting the BSNL signal, the only that worked amongst us, called the Kargil agent to book us rooms for the night as there was no way we could reach Leh in good time as the distance from Kargil to Leh was around 235 Km and the estimated travel time 8 hours if driving conditions were anywhere near decent. We continued to pass and be passed by familiar cars who were all coming from Sonamarg after being stranded.

We reached Kargil at around 8.45 and tanked up at the pump on the outskirts on the Kargil Leh route. Just reaching this gas station, about a kilometer out of Kargil city center was an experience as the road was dug up completely for repairs, loose mud and stones on the surface with clouds of dust being raised behind each passing vehicle. Just across was a Tyre repair shop which surprisingly was open at that time. Fortunately though not surprisingly, he was well equipped to handle a tubeless tyre repair job although Toyota had provided us with a complete repair kit as well as trained us to do the job. However in the interest of saving time and since it was getting cold, we got the repair shop to do a quick and good job for just Rs 50/-.

Just then the bombshell. With the exodus out of Sonamarg, the Hotels in Kargil were sold out and the agent called to say there was nothing he could do. It was just after 9 pm we had two options.
Either to spend the night in the car or take the road ahead to Leh, all of the 235 Km. 8 hours of night driving. We put that to vote and we agreed that there was hardly anything to choose from and agreed to drive on. And we were famished.

We asked the tyre repair shop how the road ahead was and he told us that quite a bit of it was like the run down ramshackle tack we had just come on! We just looked at each other, smiled and got into the car, headed for Leh. Nisheeth was at the wheel and would do so for the next 55 km.


Leg 2: Kargil to Leh.

First 55 Km, Nisheeth at the Wheel.

It was around 9.15 pm and we were on our way. We were told that a Dhaba was on the route, just outside Kargil so we thought we would stop for a bite and just go on, non stop.

The road was in a bad shape, as informed and Nisheeth was helping us build up an appetite with a ‘rocking’ time finding potholes with diligent consistency. However that was not to be. We were famished. We had traveled awful roads and a wretched track in the first hour, without finding any useful place to eat. The road was climbing and with unpredictable twists and turns. At some points we were unable to figure out where really the road was. At 10.50 we spotted a dhaba with some traffic and stopped immediately. The restaurant was busy but almost closing. All he had was rajma and rice and some dal. We could have eaten anything at that time so asked for it, pronto. The owner told us that electricity here went of at 11 pm sharp so we had precisely 5 minutes to eat. How on earth did he expect that when he hadn’t yet even served the food! Food was served though in a record 5 minutes, looked inviting and before we had two bites, the lights were out. Our torch was the savior and with a 10 minute torchlight dinner break, and we were on our way again.

The route we had chosen was the usual NH1A to Leh but it was everything but a highway. We stopped an hour later and I took the wheel. It was around midnight. The traffic was intermittent but still there. Perhaps as a result of all the anxious tourists wanting to get to Leh like all of us. Also because Kargil was not ‘accommodating’ enough. The landscape and surroundings had paled into insignificance as one of the most treacherous parts of this leg had me glued to the road following the headlights and looking for the non existent road. The precipice on the side was perhaps thousands of meters. The embankments were missing except on the curves and the road very very winding. We crossed village after village in pitch darkness and the temperature touched 0 degrees as we climbed to almost 5000 meters. The only blessing was that since the eerie height was disguised by the darkness, we were not affected by the same. Moreover the thin traffic at that hour most of it unidirectional was a big help in maintaining a reasonable speed. While Shekhar and Nisheeth tried to catch a nap in the back seat, Vijay who was next to me, also followed the headlights with his heart in his mouth.

After almost 3 hours of crazy driving we descended downhill onto some flat land and stopped at a Tourist check post. Once in Ladakh, it is a must to carry your personal ID and Drivers license.

I handed over the wheel to Shekhar with about 120 kms to go. We were pleasantly surprised by the sporadic 4 lane highway stretches and sudden vanishing of the road, which was affected by either repair work or had been affected by landslides. An hour and a half after Shekhar took over, we stopped to relieve ourselves in freezing conditions. Vijay took over the wheel on the last stretch and we had made very good time. About half an hour later, about 30 kms from Leh, we saw dawn breaking. Amidst the glorious mountains with fascinating paint brush streaks and snow capped mountains all blending together to make a dreamy horizon we all broke the silence that had been prevailing since the dinner break as our destination was almost there and the rising sun evoking the natural oohs and aaahs! We stopped to take some pictures and hit the by now fairly motorable four lane well metalled highway touching speeds of 130 km/hr.

At 5am we drove into the Grand Dragon, Leh and headed for our respective rooms but not before we surprised our spouses with our unscheduled arrival. It was already the 22nd May and as per a pre-fixed schedule had to leave for Changla and Pangong Tso later in the day. So we just crashed out, travel weary but spirits high, looking forward to what looked like another fascinating part of our trip.