Motorcycle Diaries. Road to Ladakh (Bidding adieu to Leh)

Day 11: July 3, 2012; Hunder to Leh: The night at Hunder was pretty comfortable. Tents were of good quality and housed a clean washroom. Luckily, the weather didn’t turn as chilly as it were in Sarchu, so we all slept well.

The weather continued to be good the next day too, and we started our ride for the day at about 8am. The return ride, as always, was eventless, save the fact that the sand dunes appeared even prettier a sight in the sunrays!

A word of caution here; it is advisable to tank up at Leh itself and carry additional fuel, if needed, to see you through this round trip of about 260kms, since only Diskit has a petrol pump. This petrol pump is an interesting one though; it still runs on a hand-operated mechanism and shuts down at 4pm every day. It is worth observing the mechanism – you’d get only 5l or 10l of fuel at a time!

En route, what saved the journey from being a real bore was a huge Army trucks’ convoy. It took us about 30 minutes to negotiate the route, passing one-truck at a time patiently. We reached North Pullu well in time and again stopped at the same Dhabas for food. Here, we met a group of foreigners, who too were riding REs. For the love of biking, the world goes around…

Back at Khardung La in no time, it was surprising to note the reality of the human nature! All excitement of ‘riding atop The Khardung La’ was history in less than 24 hours! No one showed ecstasy anymore; in fact, many didn’t even stop! What an irony; albeit so realistic it is!

I was amongst the first ones to reach back Leh. Reason being; I wanted to utlize the time left during the day to drive about 50kms on NH1 towards the point of confluence of the Rivers Sindhu and Zanskar. I had seen this marvelous spectacle during my Ladakh-visit last year and was itching to go back.

Sindhu, or the Indus River, locally known as the ‘Singhe Khababs’ (out of Lion’s mouth), flows in from Tibet and passes through Ladakh and flows into Pakistan. As you’d drive towards the outskirts of Leh town on NH1, you’d view this river.

The Zanskar River is in fact a tributary of the River Indus only. Flowing northwards, it meets River Sindhu at the village Nimmu, located at about 50kms from Leh town.

Last year when visited this place, I was amazed to observe splendid serenity all around. There were just no sounds; save the sound of gushing water of the two rivers. I have witnessed the Panch Prayags from close corners and the confluence of the five rivers en route to Badrinath as well as the Sangam at Allahabad; however, this confluence stands apart.

You’d cross Gurudwara Pathar Sahib, the famous Magnetic Hill and amazing scenery around you to reach this marvel of the nature!

See for yourself why I was so keen to visit this place! To make it appear clearer for the viewers, I am also publishing a image taken last year in broad daylight. Some view, it is!

For the rafting-enthusiasts, this is heaven. There are several travel agents around the Fort Road/Leh market offering white water rafting on the Rivers Indus and Zanskar.

While returning from this point, I took a brief stop at the Magnetic Hill. This has always been a site of amusement for me. This hill is located on NH1, at around 45kms from Leh, at a height of 11,000 feet above sea level. Rumour has it that this hill has magnetic properties! In fact, BRO has put a signboard too, which lends considerable credibility to this rumor, at least for the first timers! There is also a square box-area painted on the road where the signboard requests drivers to park the four-wheelers in the neutral gear. According to the prevalent myth, the magnetic properties of the hill are strong enough to pull cars uphill! In reality, the effect is at best an optical illusion and there is no magnetic property in the area. I have experience this twice now. Yet this place is a crowd-puller and is now a popular stop for travelers to Leh. I am publishing an image I took last year!

After the amusement at the so called Magnetic Hill, I rode towards the town of Leh. By now, the view had turned really beautiful. I couldn’t resist clicking several pics, of course with True being featured in all of them!

Once back in Leh, we went shopping. T-shirts and other memorabilia bought in plenty, Aman and I visited the famous German Bakery for dinner and it didn’t disappoint us – the quality of food was pretty good.

This completed our journey to the magical Ladakh. Herein onwards, our return ride would commence – back to Delhi.

Little did we riders knew, what a frightful evening awaited us at Debring the next day…

To be continued in the next blog…