DAY 7 – Solo Drives & Julley! August 29th 8:30am
Location: Sonmarg
Destination: Leh
Route: Sonmarg – Zojila – Drass – Kargil – Mulbek – Namikla – Fotula – Khaltse – Nimmu - Leh
Woke up to another cold morning at around 7AM, tried to get some hot water going but apparently the hotel is under renovation for the next season and they have cut off the hot water supply to this section of the place. Well no worries, just complete the morning rituals and get ready to drive without a bath.
Today our destination was Kargil though some of us were saying we should go towards Leh. But before all that we had the mighty Zojila to conquer. Standing at 11200ft one could easily say that is not much of a height to climb so what’s the big thing about this pass. Well, all I can say is have a look at this picture.
Does it not remind you of the mountains from the Lord of the Rings triology
Yeah I know it is not the height that’s a problem but the route and how intimidating the entire ambience is especially for people like us coming from the south who think climbing Ooty is the highest motorable road. For me the only concern was the under body hit if any that the car might be subjected to, but I was prepared for that. What I was not prepared for was something else, which I will be revealing sometime later.
While these thoughts were going around in my head and others were getting ready, I took the camera from Venkat and tried to capture whatever Sonmarg I saw in and around the hotel room.
That is the Hotel Snowland that we stayed in That is the view you get once you step out of your room A closer look at the meadow and the snow in the mountain Nice place to have your cup of tea Low flying clouds
Not finding anything more interesting on the front side, I trudged to the back of the hotel. Each room has a balcony and it opens up to Nallah Sindh (The largest tributary for River Jhelum).
Some cottages very near to the river, same property Rolling hils There you can get a glimpse of the Nallah
It was already close to 8AM when everyone was ready, after yesterday’s skipping of lunch I did not want to skip breakfast, so we all went down to the restaurant for a bite. Seeing us go inside, everyone followed suite to fill up their tummies.
What a parking lot
Winding up breakfast for everyone it was almost 9AM when we started rolling. The initial drive up towards Zojila is on tarred roads. Checked at the police check gate about the conditions up there and got a nod that everything is cool and dry. Slowly, the climb starts, though still on completely tarred roads. There are a few anxious taxi fellows who honk their way forward, we liberally gave them way wherever it was possible. Slow but surely we gained good amount of height, you can only know you gained height when you look towards the valley.
Good roads to start with, the sign board on the right says Camping site, probably for next time Amazing views on our way up It only gets better as you progress, please excuse the dirty windshield, forgot to clean it that day. The impatient taxi’s doing their normal Srinagar Leh run Intermediate sections were broken Here on we start encountering Army convoy, this one was coming down Zojila Does it not remind you of the LOTR Tale of Two Kings Seeing this view makes you realize that you are gaining serious height
After a few switchbacks we were almost on level terms with the opposite mountains and that is the when the road also started to give away. First it was solid gravel and then it slowly started to become rocky with dips at a few portions. After one switchback were reached a junction where there were two roads, one going to our left up and the road we were in going straight ahead. There were a few army jawans there directly all upstream traffic through the left road. As soon as we hit the left road, the path became rocky and dusty. By mistake I was on a higher gear and suddenly I lost complete revvs from the engine and the car stalled. Restarted and tried to move ahead but the car did not want to budge and was losing traction and slipping back towards the Duster which was behind me. Quickly Venkat and Hari got out and directed the Duster to move a little back, then we placed a stone behind the Manza to stop the slide. Somehow the Duster turned and moved ahead of the Manza but just burnt its clutch up ahead at a sharp step kind of a stone. So out came the folks from the Duster, driver changed and it managed to climb and move ahead. With the way clear and using handbrake, I was able to move Manza ahead and park with the rest of the folks. Frankly it was a tension time for me as it was the first time the car refused to climb. In all this commotion, Venkat was brave enough to pick a big stone and put it inside the Manza to use it again if required.
A little word on what happened which I was able to guage sometime later. Mind you the car was loaded completely and since after the remap the peak torque comes at 1900 rpms, the car is not able to gather enough revs quick enough to move forward at that high altitude. Probably due to low oxygen the peak torque curve might also be effected and kicking in even later. All this deduction came after completing Chang’la but I am presenting here for everyone to read.
The road becoming less of a road and more of a path Check out the truck and the shear drop The army convoy climbing down A break after the little fiasco that we had on this short climb
After the small loo break, we started rolling again, this time I wanted to be ahead but somehow Duster managed to start before and proceed, so there I was following Duster now driven by Narsi. Though I did not mind following anyone but my driving style is that of maintaining momentum and proceeding in higher gear as much as possible so I was slightly uncomfortable for sometime and started looking for space to go ahead.
Giving way to a different kind of horse power
Finally, on one of the turns there some space and I went ahead. After finding a clear road, I was able to drive in my own style. Though the pace was not much as the road was pretty bad with deep ruts created by the trucks, which resulted in us keep one tire on the rut while the other was on the central mound. This was also coupled with some puddle and slush crossing but the car was behaving well now and maintaining the revs. Quite often we encountered sheep crossing, at one such crossing I had to stop at a small incline. So while starting back again used the handbrake and high revs. Finally, after almost probably 30mins of overtaking the Duster, we reached the top of Zojila, you will know who have arrived when the road turns from muddy to cobbled stones. But don’t look for any prayer flags here as you are still in Kashmir. Once it had sunk in that we crossed our first pass without any incident, there was a sense of elation and jubilation.
After getting ahead of the Duster, because of the pace I was maintaining was able to gain distance That is the other older route which as few who have used it will agree that it is more difficult Sheep crossing Lovely view from the window Manza at Zojila Can you spot the whale among the sheeps Sumo arrives after some 5 mins To be continued…