The Touring Diary

Disclaimer: All the photos posted for this day have been captured by Sunil sir and Chethan. I have watermarked the pictures just to save piracy and not take away credits from them So from today we were a little eased out less worried about the bikes because as stated in earlier posts that this leg of the trip we would be covering on the scorpio. We started our journey towards Hanle via Chumathang valley. The route to Hanle is from Karu from Leh. We had to cover around 250kms for the day. We had planned to stay in Hanle for the night since we already had got the permits for the same from Bangalore. And the next day was allocated to Chumur and if possible Tso Moriri. The route was a mix of good and bad roads with the Indus river flowing besides the road. As we were heading towards Chumathang Valley, we noticed the change in flora and fona of the place. We saw big green trees unlike the other places where apart fromo grass and small bushes almost nothing else one can spot as greenery. May

Day 10 Leh - Khardungla (very short day for us, read on to know why) 10th day and by now we had already lost approximately 3 days of planned trip due to unforeseen events, some due to negligence (bikes not getting delivered on time) and some due nature's strength (inundated streams). By this time we should have visited Hanle, Chumur and come back to leh and visit the Nubra valley, crossing Khardungla on the way. And we had to come back to Leh without covering Hanle and Chumur due to problem in permits ( Read this ). We all were very disappointed due to this. Anyways We decided next day we would visit Khardung la and continue towards Nubra Valley and make a stay in Diskit and visiting near by places. We started towards Khardung la/K-top (Alt: 18380ft) which 42 kms from Leh. This was kind of a regulation spot that everybody covers We were pretty eased up as by now we had got acclimatized with the higher altitudes and some of the most treacherous routes. While climbing we stopped for