Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Royal Mountain Travel Magazine Issue 3 | Page 14
Cycling in Ladakh: ludicrous or lovely?
4,800m Baralacha pass with an American couple. Since they
slept until sunrise, I was well on my way before they rose the next
morning. The dry plains in the rain shadow of the Himalayan
mountains were grazed by yaks and blue sheep. I made a 50
kilometer detour to Tshokar Tsho, a salt lake where I watched
black-necked cranes and a fox jumping across small creeks on
the salty lake bed. While returning to the main road in the early
morning I saw woolly hares and a group of kiangs, chestnut wild
asses in the plains. After crossing a 5,100m pass, there was a
long descent past several mountain-top monasteries to the laidback town of Leh, where tourists hang out before or after their
treks to far-out places such as Zanskar.
While relaxing and enjoying the good food of Leh I planned
a trip to Nubra valley. The tourist office told me there was no
place to stay between Leh and Diskit in Nubra valley, so I left
most of my luggage in Leh and started early to climb to the
reportedly 5,602m high Khardungla pass. The Border Roads
Organisation (BRO) division of the Indian Army used to regularly
break their records of exaggerated elevation estimates. Here,
they exaggerated by 250m. Still, it is a tough climb to the snow
covered pass but you are rewarded with great views when
reaching it. On the way down I passed a nice guest house
where I stayed on my return trip so I did not have to cycle 140
kilometers and get over Khardungla in one day again. In Nubra
valley I roamed around the monasteries and sand dunes, visited
the camels reputedly left behind by Silk Route traders and
spotted a wolf in a riverbed on my return trip. Then one week
later, I camped near the shore of the bright blue Pangong salt
lake across another high pass, where I fixed my flat tyres and
gazed at the Indian tourists that drive to a sandbar to have their
picture taken and then drive on to the next picture opportunity.
Eventually I left for the troubled city of Srinagar, and had more
flat tyres because the valve stems kept breaking. I had to file out
Cliff hacked road to R Peo Kinnaur. Photo: Piet van der Poel.
Tourists at Pagong Lake. Photo: Piet van der Poel.
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May 2014