Kargil

Day 18 – Sonamarg to Kargil – 11 Sep 2018

The green winding roads of Sonamarg and the surrounding scenes were really breathtaking. Little did we know that such greenery is not to be found anymore in the coming days until we reach Rohtang in Manali!

We stopped very often to click photos.  We were mentally getting prepared for the first high altitude pass that is going to come soon, The Zojila Pass which stands at a height of approx 11500ft. I have been reading about the passes, the problems that can occur on the way and everything about the roads to and from Leh for months now, and soon we are  going to make our first encounter. The road was great till 2 kms before Zojila, afterwards a bit bad, but not too harsh. However the stunning views around, coped up for the intermittent unpaved roads and the traffic jams caused by trucks here and there! 

Army convoys occupied the roads most of the times, and we could see soldiers staring at the KA registration board of our vehicle, and sometimes smiling at us. Two soldiers who were on their duty on the winding roads towards Kargil, waved at us and asked us to stop the car. We were really scared as they approached us, but it was heartwarming to see that they were overjoyed seeing a Karnataka registration vehicle, as both of them were Belgaum residents in Karnataka. They were so happy that they started talking to us in Kannada, and later on switched to Hindi when they realized that we are Keralites working in Bangalore.

We stopped at Zojila, the altitude difficulty was not really felt and we managed to capture some amazing clicks of our car with amazing mountains in the background.

I am sure September would be the best time to do a trip to Leh unless you are looking for some real adventure. The drive was so scenic with awesome panoramic views of mighty mountains, small streams of crystal clear water, blue skies, small bright yellow spots of flowers on the occasional green meadows, and nomadic shepherds with their flocks of sheep!

The Drass valley is the Himalayan gateway to Ladakh, and it starts from the Zojila pass. We slowly started experiencing the change in landscape and topography as green mountains paved way to mighty rocky mountains while we drove along the valley!

We stopped at the Kargil war memorial at Drass, which is built alongside the Highway, as an epitome of courage and sacrifice of the Indian Army in the Kargil War of 1999.  The memorial lies at the foothills of the Tololing hills in Drass, and holds as a war cemetery having tombstones with the names of all soldiers who lost their lives in the war.

The place also showcases several other details of the Kargil war, and reminds all of us about the true cost of freedom! As we were walking back to our car from the monument, with tricolour flag flying on both the sides of the long stretch, a very tough looking armed soldier standing at the entrance of the memorial gently smiled at Insha, and behind him we read the lines etched onto the Memorial Entrance Gate – “When you go home tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today”!! Words cannot describe the feelings we had standing there at that moment!

We had our lunch at Drass from a small restaurant, where we fortunately got to taste boiled rice again, along with dal and mutton sheek kebabs!

One thing to admire here is the BRO(Border Roads Organisation). Our trip was majorly on the border roads and the effort BRO puts to maintain them are remarkable. The roads from Srinagar to Kargil was so smooth at the time of our travel. You are not going to face any trouble as long as you are sensible and patient on the roads.

We spotted occasional oasis in the otherwise dry and barren landscape, surviving on the banks of the various tributaries of Indus river. The crystal clear water under the bright blue sky accompanied us on the lonely roads most of the times.

We reached Kargil around 4 in the evening. We had booked a tented accommodation – Kargil Tourist Camp. After the experiences with tents in Jaisalmer, such stays were not looking that exciting to us anymore.  However, this stay amidst the mountains and cool climate looked picturesque.

We had some tea and snacks at the stay, and then went out to the Kargil market and roamed around there for sometime. We shopped a quilt from the local market, and had an amazing time there chit-chatting with the shopkeeper! We soon came back to our tent house, and had the dinner provided at the stay. We resumed our long pending washing activities, as there was enough space outside the tent to dry the clothes. As we were on non-stop travel ever since we left Amritsar, and the weather was so cold in Kashmir so far, we couldn’t really spend any time for laundry! We finished the washing soon, and started to make our bed ready for sleep as it was getting colder outside and even inside the tent! We had to get an extra blanket from the hotel guys, as the weather was making it difficult for us to sleep inside the tent. We slept off soon but I was woken up by some sound on the ground, outside the tent, around midnight. I think it was a rat or something digging the ground, and it kept me awake for atleast an hour. Fasi who was already a light sleeper was scared all through the night thinking what if the rats were followed by snakes, and kept on looking at the tent door flap, out of fear! As we had a very long journey ahead next day, we tried to sleep somehow and finally slept off. 

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