Since I decided to tag along with the bangalore couple, and they were going to get late, I had some time to spare in the morning. Plus, it was not going to be a long riding day, so I took it easy. That enabled me to spend time in the morning in Zaltac itself - found a friendly dog and a cat.
Also had a heartfelt conversation over Kahwa with the property manager, Santosh. I was baffled at his journey - the man at such a young age, had shown tremendous character, maturity and had assumed family responsibilities. It was very inspiring!
The property itself was superb - the garden being very passionately developed and maintained. There was just one more guy from Andhra in the dorm. The common bath and toilets were extremely clean.
After crossing through some beautiful snow capped mountains, finally reached Khardung la!
Started the descent towards Diskit and Hunder. The plan was to visit Diskit Gompa monastery and stay at Hunder. The descent was full of gravel, so had to be very careful. Stopped at a place for brunch, had some momos and paratha. I was enjoying the ride so far, the weather was kind, the vistas very different. Around 8 kms before Diskit, I noticed my rear tyre sliding around, acting almost dead. Pulled over immediately and my worst fear had come true, it was a rear tyre puncture!
There was hardly anybody around. A bike or a car passing thru once in a while. But no trucks or similar vehicles that could carry the bike. The nearest town was Diskit, at 8 kms. I tried refilling air using the portable tyre inflator, but as expected, it did not work - since the tyre/ tube was not holding even 1 PSi of air. I weighed in my options, and decided to ride the bike extremely slowly to Diskit and hope for a tyre puncture repair mechanic there. I was running the risk of damaging/ cutting the tyre itself and worse - the rim, if I am not careful enough, but that's the best I could have done then.
I started riding the bike literally at 6 - 8 kmph. My heart would skip a beat every time I had to cross a pothole/ section of bad roads for fear of damaging the tyre/ rim.
After what felt like an eternity, I reached Diskit. Contrary to expectations, Diskit looked like a ghost town, with nobody around whatsoever. Found a house which also looked like a restaurant. Went inside to find a lady there. Explained the situation to her - she said there is a puncture repair guy in the Diskit market - which was another 2 to 3 kms. Finally made it to the 'market' which really was a group 4 to 5 shops - all with their shutters closed. This was at around 4 PM. Found a place with a bunch of tyres, and as expected, was shut down. Luckily, the mechanic's phone number was mentioned therein, but I did not have mobile network! Parked the bike there, and started walking ahead hoping for network, since it was intermittent in the area. After walking for some 500 odd meters, I got some network and dialed the number. The call was answered instantly, and I was told it would take 3 to 4 hours for him to come back. With no other choice, I told him I would wait for him there. He called me back in the next minute, saying he would first fix my tyre and then proceed for his work. What a nice gesture!
Within a few minutes of me reaching the bike back, I see a Ford Ecosport approaching, and it was the mechanic! That was impressive and a pleasant surprise.
The culprit -
Fortunately, the tube was intact and was not cut thru, since the mechanic did not have any spare tube; and I was carrying a spare only for the front. A patch did the job. I noticed slight cracks in the side wall where the characters are embossed, but the mechanic quickly dismissed my fears of not being able to continue on this tyre - he said the tyre and tube together would certainly hold.
Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, and thanking the almighty since I was able to get out of this fairly easy, I trudged along. This also was a reality check for me - a glimpse of how things could go wrong and what it would take to tackle them solo. What if something similar or worse happened on one of those days where I was not going to be having any network whatsoever? Well, one day at a time. Next in sight for me was to reach Hunder, find a place to spend the night, and visit the sand dunes.
Reached Hunder and I started looking for places to stay. Although I had planned for it, I was in no mood to stay in a tent for the night. My search for a room landed me at Poga guest house. Negotiated a good deal, and offloaded my luggage. Went for a much needed warm water shower, and headed for the sand dunes. I had read about ATV rides on the dunes and that had me pretty excited.
The sand dunes were indeed very beautiful, unique and very different to the sights so far. Spent quite some time at the dunes just observing the different vistas and the people around. A unique highlight of this place is rides offered on bactrian camels - double humped camels. I was not very keen on this myself so I passed, but saw many groups of people having a lot of fun on these camel rides. Sadly I did not notice any ATV rides being offered. Bummer! As I started my walk back to the parking lot, I asked a local person about the ATV rides, and he pointed me to a location which I had clearly missed. It had started to get dark, so was in two minds if I should go for it. Went for it anyway; and I am so glad I did! It was great fun riding the ATV on those dunes by yourself and sliding it around! Here are a few pictures I managed to take here:
I had requested for a slightly early dinner at Poga guest house, and I was looking forward to it. Had a hearty, homemade meal of potato subji, daal chawal, some green salad and papad. Could not have asked for a better meal at this point! As I struck a conversation with the hotel manager, I got to know that it had snowed heavily on the mountains 3 days back. Most of the snow melted off the next day though. Damn, so close! Although it is a spectacular sight, it is a nightmare for locals when this happens, since getting water becomes a challenge due to frozen water pipes.
Back to my room, researched a bit on the next stop. Tomorrow was going to be start of the real off road journey, thru the Shyok river bed on to Pangong lake. And it was going to get much colder. Identified a village called Merak which is about 30kms ahead from Pangong, on the way to Hanle which was my subsequent destination. With only 2 - 3 guest houses in Merak, I could only get in touch with one of them, and booked a room. It was slightly more expensive than my stays so far and my daily budget, but my mobile network connectivity for tomorrow was going to be intermittent, so went for it anyway.
Closed my eyes to a much needed rest and peaceful sleep on a cozy bed. Little did I know that I was going to be devoid of this luxury for days to come!
Distance: 150 kms
Route: Leh - Khardungla - Khalsar - Diskit - Hunder
Total time: 7 hours (including the time spent on puncture repair)
Elevation: 3,000M (9,900 ft), - 500M (1,640 ft). Highest reached - 5,359M (18,380 ft)
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