YouTube - ‪A nice water-crossing en route Barlacha la‬‏

Thanks buddy. Will be waiting for it

dude,

I am hooked on to your trip log...

the pics are really very beautiful...

Thanks a lot! Expect some good pictures of Zozila in next installment

WOW. Hooked on to this log. Please post next day's log.

Thank you Vishwas saheb. Will update it soon!
EDIT: Saheb, as per your request, from next day's log onwards the images will be of 800x600 size

Log bookmarked, wonderful i must say and more importantly inspiring for budding tourers like me, though i have just 2 tours up my belt, planning to increase them numbers soon.
Its great to know that the r15 completed such challenging routes successfully.
Oh boy, i'm in dreaming stage, this weekend i have done nothing but read travel logs after log here.
Back to topic, wonderful write up and superb pics !!
Do post the next days log soon !!
Cheers
Ride safe
Krishna

Thank you Krishna

I'll post next day's log in short while.

Day 7: Srinagar - Zozila - Drass

Hotel Peace Palace, Srinagar


Thank to Vishwas sir, we got to stay in a nice a hotel like Peace Palace. We had a nice sleep and woke up with fresh mind on Day 7 of our ride. Zozila was all over our minds as it was the main attraction or should I say the biggest obstacle of the day and the first high altitude pass of our life. Both the bikes were serviced and in good condition. We got ready and the anxiousness was increasing with every passing minute. We ordered breakfast - Omlet bread and tea, at Peace palace and went out to load the luggage on bikes. Food wasn't that great but tea was nice. We thanked the hotel owner for their hospitality and set out on our day's journey.

By then we were familiar with Srinagar roads and reached Dal gate without any trouble. Road towards Sonamarg goes parallel to the lake for quite some giving amazing views of early morning Dal lake. Different views from different angles as we kept moving towards Sonamarg. I couldn't resist myself from stopping and clicking a few pictures of Dal lake from various angles along the way.











Road along side the lake is excellent condition but avoid over speeding on it. Because, though it's in good condition and very straight for most of it's stretch, road dips down at plenty of places sending you airborne And when it happened with me for the first time, we so much luggage on my bike.. Well no need tell I had my heart in my mouth. Mandar was following me and he must have seen it - literally both the wheels were off the ground and the bike landed back on road. He immediately slowed down the pace and rode carefully for the rest of the stretch.

As we moved towards Sonamarg, roads became narrow and winding and we had to ride with utmost care while crossing villages as lot of kids were waiting for their school buses along the road. Local school buses used to stop without any warning or signal. Road widened after some time and we could cruise comfortably before stopping at a point for water break. I am not sure where exactly this place is but I guess it's somewhere near Kangan. clicked couple of pics before moving on.







I had never seen snow in my life before. I had been to Kashmir with my family when I was a kid but that was a trip to Jammu and even that time I could not see natural snow up close. And that's why I was waiting anxiously to see and touch the snow for the first time in my life By then we had seen snow but that was only on distant mountain tops. Even at Pahalgam we could not touch or enjoy snow. We were told we'll get to see snow in Patni top but it didn't happen. We were very close to Sonamarg and we saw this snow covered mountain across a water stream. This was for the first time I saw snow so closely Yeah, I couldn't touch it but even then it was something special for me and we stopped for a quick photograph. We never had problem in communicating with each other while riding, especially while stopping for photographs. Cause in most cases Mandar used to be quite far behind and I used to be ready with the camera in my hand waving at him to stop for a break. At times, it used to be very boring or frustrating to wait for him every time and to keep searching for him in the RVM as he used to ride quite slow. But I never forced hm to ride fast and keep up with me. In fact I always wanted him to ride in his own comfort zone and limit. Cause waiting for 15 minutes is anytime better than wasting 4-6 hours due a crash that happens when someone tries to cross his limits while riding just to keep up with the rider ahead. He never crossed his limits while riding as he was sure I'll definitely wait after every few kilometers just to check if he's ok or not.











A few minutes later we reached Sonamarg and what am amazingly beautiful place this is. Wow! We parked our bikes and spent some time enjoying the views around. Even our bikes got some rest as up ahead was the Zozila pass.





Before moving on I installed the camera mount to record videos while riding in Zozila. Few kilometers ahead, just at the base of Zozila we were stopped at a military check point. Military truck convoy was crossing Zozila and therefore the officer asked us to park our bikes and wait for some time. He asked us the same question - "Kause Unit se ho sir jee?" We politely told them we are civilians and not army officers. Slowly there was a long queue of tourist vehicles behind us as they too were stopped due to military convoy. We had a good chat with some of the tourists and army officers there. Everyone was surprised to see us coming all the way from Mumbai. One of the army officers was a south Indian - Tamil. I told him I had been to Ambur and Sriperumpudur for a couple of rides and he immediately recognized the places saying, "haan waha pe race track bhi hai."

4th from the left side is the officer from south India




View from the check point


Military convoy passed by in some time and we were given green signal to move on. I zoomed off towards Zozila leaving the tourist vehicle traffic far behind. Mandar followed me. We could create a good gap between the tourist vehicles and ourselves as the road for initial few kilometers was in good condition. But then there was a point where the road suddenly disappeared and we were riding on a just a dirt track which was full of sharp stones and gravel. It was quite rough and the speed dropped down. I didn't want to take any risk with tire punctures and hence I preferred slowing down. The tourist vehicles following us had no such problem of tire puncture or bike balancing and soon they soon started overtaking us one by one. It was a total shocker for us. Already the road was uneven and full of dust and the cars overtaking us sent huge clouds of dust in air and we had to ride through it. Within minutes we were covered with thick layer of dust and dirt. In fact everything was spoiled by dust, our bags, bikes, equipments..everything. It was total chaos and that made zozila look tougher than what it was. We could not understand what to do and what not to. We couldn't even stop to settle down as the road was quite narrow and there was constant traffic from behind us. Finally we stopped at this point which is known as Captain's curve. Mandar and I just looked at each others condition and laughed out loud. We literally looked like soldiers from world or 2 or something like that . Horrifying stuff!

The place where we took some rest - Vadhera memorial.



^ The particular turn is known as Captain's curve. For those who can not read the description in above pic - "Erected in the esteemed memory of late captain HC Vadhera of 13 field company (4 Engineer regiment) who faced the uphill task of constructing this very stretch of road in 1954. He took up the challenge and completed the task. On 27 July 1954 while negotiating this curve his Jeep went down hill and he expired. Since that very day this curve is remembered as Captain's curve. We Salute Him."

The Mighty Zozila




Few minutes later we resumed the ride with determination and kept proceeding towards Zozila top. Road was absolutely pathetic and very tiring. We crossed a few patches where land slides and snow was being cleared using JCBs and cranes. At one particular point huge snow blocks were tumbling down the hill and BRO had appointed a man to warn vehicles about it. That a$$hole failed to inform me in time and I was right in the path of a tumbling snow ball of the size of a football. Freak, that was shit scary Road seemed never ending and after some time our minds were so numb that we could not understand what to call it? There was a considerably big water crossing on our way and it was the first water crossing of our journey too. As usual, I was the first one to go for it and since I didn't know the correct technique of it I had to put my feet down in that freezing cold water . I stopped and changed the socks inside my boots. But except the road, everything else was JUST BEAUTIFUL! Out of this world. I had never even imagined such vistas. Breathtaking. Snow covered mountains were all around us and yes... finally I could see, touch and walk over the snow Man, that was some experience I was like a small kid in snow



This HUGE eagle was eating dead meat at some distance behind us. It's sheer size was....shocking! Pic is clicked at maximum zoom range - 20 X. When it flew away it's wing span was worth seeing. Majestic!











Zozila War memorial




In next half an hour we had successfully descended Zozila and the biggest obstacle of the day was over without any crash or unwanted incidence. Road slightly improved after Zozila and we cruised at moderate speeds. Just before Matiyan, road is in fantastic condition and I let out all the frustration of Zozila roads by opening the throttle. But the good road soon ended and I stopped for Mandar to catch up with me. I recommend to all the first timers, please please stop at Matiyan and enjoy the amazingly beautiful views that surround Matiyan. It is outstanding!













Ha Ha Ha..that's Mandar, thinking - Why? Why did I ever decide to come here? ()




Beautiful sky pattern


I won't say road from Matiyan to Drass was great but it was definitely better than Zozila See? Zozila had then become a standard for road condition measurement Riding for sometime through potholes roads of NH1D we reached the small town of Drass. Most people prefer staying at Kargil but we decided to stay in Drass for the night. We started looking for accommodation but could not find a good place. At some places rooms were not good and in others the rent was too high, they even charged hot water Rs. 40/50 per bucket . We had almost crossed the small village searching for accommodation and had made a half a mind of riding another 60 Km to stay at Kargil. But just then we stopped a local man and asked him if there's a good hotel to stay. He recommended Hotel Hill view which was at the other end of the village. We were surprised and thought how did we miss this hotel? We decided to give it a try and rode back to the hotel. I really thank that person who suggested us this hotel otherwise we would have missed this nice hotel. It's a bit off the road and hence couldn't be spotted easily. He had rooms ranging from Rs. 300/- to Rs. 600/- . We got a decent room for Rs. 400/- Hotel had it's own restaurant as well. So no need to search for food either. Most of the rooms were empty and therefore there was no chaos or hustle bustle of people. And the best part was he didn't even charge extra for hot water. We unloaded the luggage and took it to our room.

Mandar was so tired after riding in Zozila that he straight away crashed on the bed inside the warm blanket. Temperature was quite low and it was just impossible to touch the cold tap water. I asked the hotel owner for a bucket of hot water. While unloading the luggage I had a look at the bike's condition and it was full of dust, dirt and muck, especially the rear tire, chain-sprocket and rear suspension. I was worried about the chain and rear suspension. And that's why, though I was tired, I went out with a bucket of water and my bike cleaning cloth to clean the bike. I spent around 45 minutes and cleaned the chain, sprockets and rear suspension properly. I knew it won't last for long as most roads will be off the same type but then too I didn't want to take any chance with the chain. So I lubed it after cleaning.

Then I came back to the room and took a hot water bath. While cleaning the bike I realized it was cold inside the room and quite warm outside under sunlight. So I dressed up and went out to sit under sun shine. Soon I was joined by the hotel owner and he started telling me about the place, hotel and surrounding mountains. He showed me the historic Tiger Hill which could be seen from there. He told me some interesting stories. He said he was a kid when the Kargil war was fought. The entire village was evacuated. He said Pakistanis were bombarding the village. The hotel building is 35 years old and it was under direct Pakistani shelling during the war. One of the shells fell right on the hotel building but it didn't explode. Later, Indian army diffused the bomb and gave him the empty shell as a souvenir. It is still there at the hotel.

Oh by the way, for those who don't know - Drass is the second coldest inhabited place on earth and in winters temperatures plunge as low as -60 degrees. That made me ask the hotel owners about their life in winter and he told me how bad snow fall the place experiences every year. It's a testing time for everyone there, not just people but even the animals. They have to stock each everything in advance for those six or seven months as they can hardly get out of their houses. That was some interesting chat. After a good hour or two, Mandar woke up and came out and joined us. We had quite some time at hand as we had reached Drass when it was not even late evening. My boots were giving me some trouble and I wanted to repair them. So Mandar and I went outside the hotel and roamed around Drass village. Found a cobbler and got the boots repaired. Bought some biscuits and snacks from a store and returned to the hotel. We then sat in the restaurant watching TV and discussing Zozila ride We had nothing else to do till dinner. So we just sat and watched TV. We had dinner at 8.30-9.00 pm and went to bed.

Check out some photographs which I clicked at our Hotel:

The Hotel.


Our Hotel's restaurant. Zozila hangover was still there on Mandar Check his reaction Tiger Hill can be seen in the background.


The historic Tiger hill


Finally Mandar out of the hangover


The bomb that didn't explode during Kargil war.


The fantastic view from the Hotel entrance. May be that's why the name Hotel Hill View National Highway 1D can be seen as well.


That's all for Day 7.
Coming up Day 8 - Drass to Leh. an unexpected twist in tail

Hi Ketan,
So far your journey has been full of events. Very nicely written with apt pictures. Thanks for the log. Keep it up.
Henry

EK NUMBER !!!

why the photos look like this -- devoid of color & too much noise ( only in this update)

bomb che paise dile nastil mhanun nahi putla


nice triplog ketan bhau....pics are really awesome


sir I have one question for you, during this trip sir how many days you and mandar had taken a bath?

Beautiful brother enjoying reading it completely

Thank you!

Mahit nahi re. Baghava lagel what's the problem.

Thanks man!

Haha. That's a good question. I had heard a lot of stories that people didn't take bath for 15 days and some even more during their respective rides. But in our trip I took bath every day..yes every day except one day when we stayed at Pang, in a tent. We were at Pangong Tso before reaching Pang. There was not bathing facility at Lukung, Pangong Tso. And the situation was the same at Pang. Therefore that's the only day when we didn't take bath.

Thank you Shivanshu!