Pang to Leh

Day 4 - 7th July

In the morning I was feeling much better. My stomach was also stable by now. After breakfast, i checked the tyre pressure in my bike. Because of the nail, the pressure in front tyre was very low. We carried the tubeless puncture kit with us, but didn't have the foot pump. Actually, we had arranged a foot pump from our friends, but didn't carry it because of its size and weight. Anyways, we were lucky that a puncture mechanic was available there. He repaired the front tyre puncture and we were ready to leave Pang by 9.30 am.

First 40 km after Pang is Moore Plains. In Nikhil's words, it's like a thousand lanes highway where you make your own roads :) When we entered the plains there was no sign of roads. We started driving
wherever resistance was least. 40-50 min later we found ourselves in the middle of 7-8 inches high mud and it became impossible to drive in that.
Somehow we managed to cross that and drove towards left and found roads there. After Moore plains, we reached Tanglang La. Roads were very bad before and after the Tanglang La.
Roads started to improve after descending 15 km from the pass. We reached Rumtse and took rest for 30 min. Both of us had Maggi in our lunch there. After Rumtse to Upshi and till Karu, the scenery was terrific. Every mountain was of different shape and different colour. We enjoyed the ride and took many pictures.After Karu, it took only 50 min to reach Leh. We had a feeling of achievement when we reached Leh. The ride for the last 2 days had been very challenging and i was considering myself lucky to reach Leh in a single piece :) We checked in a hotel and took rest for a while. As it was already 4 pm, DC office was closed and we couldn't take permits for Pangong and Nubra that day.

Leh was looking a very peaceful city to me. We didn't roam much in Leh that day. I wanted the foot rest of my bike fixed first before anything else. So, we went to a mechanic straightaway. Welding the footrest and replacing the whole part didn't work out to be good solutions. Finally, a creative idea of the mechanic worked very well. See the picture below :) He drilled a hole and fixed a long nut-bolt in place of the foot rest.After bike repair we filled our tanks and directly went back to hotel. The day was over and Leh was conquered :)

Day summary: Pang - Tanglang La - Upshi - Karu - Leh, 6.5 hrs, 175 km

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Leh to Pangong Tso

Day 5 - 8th July

We were ready by 10 am and went to DC office for the permits. We had heard that easy way of obtaining permits is through an agent because it takes 4-5 hrs to get it done. It's not true. Office opened at 10 and we reached there at 10:20. It took only 40 min to obtain the permits and by 12:00 we left for Pangong.

We went back till Karu and from there started our ascent for Chang La. The route to Chang La was tough. It was perhaps the most difficult pass that we crossed during our whole trip. The scenery was good. Thikse village in the below picture was very beautiful.After crossing Chang La, we stopped at a place for lunch. It was a tent and the only place we found between Chang La and Tangtse. Road to Tangtse was good and one could easily spot horses grazing in greener areas.We reached Tangtse and submitted the permits. The person in-charge there warned us about a 'Nala' 5 km before the lake. He said don't cross the Nala if the flow is fast. We had already heard stories about this nala and were told not to cross it after 1 o'clock in the day, because snow melts and water flow increases. After hearing the same story many times, we were slightly concerned about this Nala.

We left Tangtse at 4 pm and headed for the lake. Enroute to lake we saw a lot of sand in the valley and a few times on the roads also.Finally, we reached the Nala and stopped there. The flow was not looking much but we were not sure about the depth and the size of stones beneath the water. Nikhil decided to get an estimate of the water bed. He removed his shoes and walked into the freezing water. I wouldn't have done that :) He gave the green signal and i started to cross it. It was my luck that the rear tyre got stuck in the middle of the stream. A big stone was present there. Nikhil had to come and push me. Nikhil followed a different path and crossed it easily.Just 2 km after this Nala, we saw the first view of the Pangong Lake. All the stress and pain was relieved from that spectacular view.We reached the lake at 5:30 and decided to stay near the lake in a hut. The colour of the water was dark blue in the evening. We saw some people, playing cricket near the lake. What a place to play cricket!After sunset i went for a walk around the lake. I met a Army person near the lake. He told me some facts about the lake. I couldn't believe that Pangong lake is 135 km long, 45 km in India and 90 km in China. The maximum width is 5 km and measurable depth is 700 m. In winters, the lake is completely frozen by 6-7 feet from the top. Surprisingly, it's not a fresh water lake. Pangong is a salt water lake.
Before going to sleep i took a shot of the lake in moonlight.Day summary: Leh - Chang La - Pangong Tso, 5.5 hrs, 150 km

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