After a relatively relaxed day we started our next ride in early morning (i.e 8 am :) )Our host was kind enough to offer a box of green apples to us! it was really nice of her. I always noticed people living in hills are well behaved and courteous. Our destination is a beautiful lake spread across 140 kms of land at 13900 ft altitude. Two thirds of the length of this lake lies in China. The lake is 5 km (3 mi) wide at its broadest point. In winter, the lake surface freezes completely despite being salt water.You need a special permit to enter this place. The route itself is a welcome change with daffodils and patches of green enroute compared to mostly sandy terrains we travelled so far.
The road from Leh to Pangong Tso crosses the villages of Shey and Gya and then the military installation of Kharu. From Kharu the roads leads up to the another mountain pass called Chang-La (Third Highest Motorable pass). Indian Armed forces maintain the roads in this region and have done commendable job to upkeeping these roads. The climb to Chang-la is tough and upon reaching the top, you are greeted with a Sign that says "You have reached the Mighty ChangLa". The road Down from Chang-La is very good and passes though Tangste and other smaller villages. While descending from Chang La we witnessed a mild sandstorm , the sand started covering most of the road. Well un expected adventures in every turn of this trip!
The final hurdle on this road is called Pagal Naala or "The Crazy Stream". Its known for wiping away truck and other bigger vehicles in its flow. Crossing it is at times difficult. Once your cross the Stream you are welcomed by the first View of Pangong Tso. A Army camp welcomed us at entry. we started looking for our accomodation , there is a small settlement few kms (5 max) from the army camp where you can find bunch of govt run cottages (don't be fooled by its term , these are no luxury accomodation . It is mostly primitive) and private run tents. The cottages were full so we settled down to a basic accomadation near by lake with a great view!
The lake changes its colour during the day , you can see all shades of blue. The beauty is mesmerizing. It was almost dusk , we parked our bikes near by the lake and watched the sun losing himslef in her embrace. It all turned red for a second and slowly dusk started settling in..
We had a fantastic dinner (roti and omlette) and came out of room to watch the night sky. Wow it is rangoli of stars! It is almost like watching stars in space. I never knew so many stars exist in sky! you could see entire milky way and every thing you learned in your school.The lake glittering in moon's light, A eternal silence that we neve experienced! I could see every one of us were lost in this eternal beauty , no one spoke a word for few minutes! bunch of us started tweaking their camera to capture this miracle . I am pretty sure most of us can never remove this night from our memory for very long!
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