The Barren Beauty
Don’t we all always believe that a fertile land with sprouting pearls of beautiful greens is serene. I agree too! But, what if I tell you that I found a pristine Barren Beauty.
I will prove it with pictures. I am talking about none other than the mysterious Himalayan Mountains in Leh-Ladakh region. Many of you must be planning to take this road trip from Manali to Leh. And in my opinion, you must.
I will give a a complete guide to this enjoyable trip. If you have a knack for an exhilarating adventure trip where you can feel fresh air right from Himalayas filling your lungs, long endless roads, snow-capped peaks, then, this is the trip you should take.
This trip can be taken from End April to October but the best time to travel would be in June or July. You can of course fly to Leh, but I would say, there is no comparison to an ecstatic road-trip. You can hire an Enfield and take a bike trip but I went by car. Its best to take a 4*4 to venture the bumpy roads. Anyways, we went in an Innova. And started from Manali to reach Jispa on the first day. We stopped at Rohtang pass on the way. In peak season, there are a lot of snow sports that can be taken in Rohtang.
I was mesmerized by the beauty of nature and wanted to salute the Border Road Organisation who work so hard to make this area accessible.
Then, we reached this small town named Jispa. I can only try to put the beauty of this small valley in words. But, the words fall short. A stream of water was passing on our right side and this long road had a few guest houses on the left side. I could see we were surrounded by mountains and these were steep peaks, the ones I had never seen before. They were of different colors in the panorama. We camped at the river at night and had a playful night. The water was ice cold and the guys loved it. You know why? They used it to chill their beers. And that too real fast! In just 5 minutes! Wow, it was such a lovely night.
Next day we began our journey to Sarchu. We cruised through almost 12 feet tall walls made of snow when passing through the BaraLacha pass. We could have stopped at tented accomodations in Pang, but preferred to cover a good distance and take a halt at Sarchu instead. Oh, it was my first time in a tent! And we used those temporary mud toilets also. It was once in a lifetime experience. But, I should warn you that due to altitude, here you could feel some altitude sickness. One of our friends fell sick and it was a low point of the trip. The services provided were good and he recovered very fast. So, we again started with a new excitement.
The roads were mostly good but in some places the waterfalls passed right through the roads and there you had to be cautious. I remember we used to get down and the driver used to pass that area and we ran to go inside again. Ofcourse, it was freezing.
So, we reached Leh. It’s bigger than expected. We visited Panja Sahib Gurudwara, the Magnetic Hill, the Local Monesteries, Museums and ate at the local eateries. I had my first Thukpa there.
I loved each and every moment of this trip. And I am going to share that through my pictures. You can barely see any vegetation but when you go there, you will fall in love with this Barren Beauty.
