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Published: December 24th 2006
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Solang Valley
Rather forlorn and desolate looking valley at the foot hill of Changla pass. They say it is lot more greener during the summer and monsoon season. We wanted to go to a lake called Pangong and that took us over the top the world and third highest motoring road on earth at 5300 meters - Changla Pass. Pangong is 60KM from there.
Our driver asked me if he could bring his two sisters with us as they have not seen Pangong lake. I said ok and those two girls were wonderful and innocent country girls added bit of fun. One of them developed travel sickness and kept vomiting every half hour. It was rather sad to see someone sick as a paratte.
The mountain road starts about 20 km away from Leh and passes above Solang valley. The weather looked fine and we were happy to go. However as we started to climb up the mountains there was a steady light snow fall which became more persistent as we climbed up and up.
We negotiated treacherous and snow covered narrow roads - one slip or a skid and you are down in to the abyss thundering along the sides of the mountains. It was really frightening and yet thrilling at the same time. I have never been so nervous in my life. Fortunately the
"Z "roads
Begining of the climb through the snow drenched and slippery road up. snows were crumbling type not the icing type. So we were able to drive through. Having a four wheel jeep gave us a good grip on the slippery road.
We were extremely lucky with the weather. All day long the dark and pregnant clouds heavy with rain was chasing us. Some how we were about 100 meters in front of the chasing drizzle and murkiness. The sky in front of us remained pristine blue and yet capricious, threatening to become nasty at any moment.
Forlorn Solang Valley The foot hill has a large valley known as Solang valley where the Solang village is located. As it was winter the land was all dried up, brown colored and had a parched frozen look to it. No greenery any where for miles on end. All the great mountains surrounding the valley had the hill tops covered with peppering of snow. The heavy snow fall will start in December in earnest. This peppering of snow with intervening bald patches on the mountains created a wonderful and spectacular sceneries which enthralled all of us for hours. The clouds hanging so low against the back drop of crystal clear blue sky made
it all mesmerisingly beautiful and memorable indeed.
As we very slowly and gingerly climbed up the mountains the snow fall became heavier and heavier making the roads slippery at different spots. The majestic rock boulders perched precariously above us on the road added more thrill and danger to our perilous journey. There was absolutely no traffic at all on the road and in fact we were the only one to have ventured into this snow-filled wilderness. We saw one local TATA bus and couple of Jeeps crawling towards us and passed us by in slow motion. They kind of looked surreal moving in a daze against the back drop of pure white snow.
Freezing Changla pass The world 3rd highest pass, Changla Pass at 17,800 feet high came up very slowly. The Jeep was constantly in 2 gear to climb the elevation. We stopped there briefly to take a tea break. The temperature was in the minus perhaps -10 degree C. The pass had a small stupa(a small Buddhist shrine) with lots of prayer flags tied to it. All the drivers passing-by stop there to pray for a safe journey ahead down the treacherous and slippery roads
in to Spiti valley.
The tea shop was a tiny ram-shackled tin hut with room for just a 3 or 4 people. It had a nice heating boiler in the middle radiating heat around. We had a lovely Chai(Indian spiced milk tea) to warm up our senses. After about 15 minutes we started again towards Pangong lake which is about 60 km from there.
Elusive Yuk The driver seemed confident at the start but lost it quickly as soon as the snow fall increased. So had to cancel the trip to the lake. It would have been frozen anyway. We went as far as a little village, 10 KM past the Changla pass. The reason was I asked the driver if he could show me the 'Yuk' - a cattle species like cow but with very long hairs reaching upto the floor. Its more common in Tibet and there they use its milt to make Yuk-butter. The same Yuk-butter is used to make Yuk-butter tea which is a mix of churned yuk-butter and hot tea served with bit of salt ! It is more like a hot soup than the tea we are used to in western
world.
We ended the trip after spotting the elusive Yuk . I was keen on finding one. There were only a few in Leh and finally we found it on this trip to the top of the world. They were grazing up on the mountain so I tried to get close but they kept moving up and up. At that altitude the air is so thin I simply could not breath at that height. So gave up the quirky chase dotted with long phases of heavy panting for air and took some photos instead using the zoom. Nevertheless I was satisfied with the find and decided to turn around.
Spectacular vistas The return journey was also beautiful with spectacular views. We slowly crawled back towards the foot hill and Leh. The clouds were hanging so low over the hills creating a magnificent vistas all around. They were a sight to behold indeed. We passed by some road workers busy with their lunch on the way.
Magnetic Hill ! When we returned we still had the whole afternoon so went to a road which passes in front of a great volcanic mountain. They call it 'magnetic
Abandoned !
Not a comforting sight to see a "First Aid" center abandoned in this snowy wilderness. hill' - if you park the car on the flat road it will be slowly pulled toward the mountain. I wasn't very convinced but it did look like the car was being pulled. Well, in the end we rather liked to believe it than not.
Then we returned back to Leh for the evening. Had a good trip indeed.
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WOW
Wow that is beautiful.