War and Peace

9^th June, 2012

Paradise Lost. It’s really difficult to ride out, so I had a discussion with Ani, we can’t in good conscience ride to Kargil today. So, much to Ani’s dismay, we had to spend the day in Srinagar. Not a bad idea after all, it is after all paradise on earth. So we decided to check out Gulmarg.

I can’t stop writing this, but it is paradise on earth, over yonder I saw, for the first time in my life, snowcapped peaks, the lower altitudes being covered in pine forests, a glacier snaking its way to the foothill. I wonder if the water gurgling next to the road in the small aqueduct is coming from that glacier.

Climbing up to Gulmarg is a slow affair, being a tourist hotspot, but that leaves you with more time to ogle at the rolling green meadows speckled with the coniferous flora under a bright blue sky…. Stuff out of an artist’s imagination.

Gulmarg, I suppose I would have enjoyed a little more if I would have stayed there for a couple of days, just camp out, and roam around aimlessly in the meadows. It is, in fact, God’s garden, desecrated by mere mortals like us.

Back in Srinagar, we feasted on sumptuous Wazwan. A must have, I simply can’t describe the heavenly feeling of having succulent mutton with rice. This is what I call a vacation. We also bought some wollen gloves and other supplies for the next day.

A big regret that I have is not being able to spend a day in a shikara on the Dal lake, I have grander plans of doing that, some day with that special someone.

One truly interesting thing we did at Srinagar was hunting ‘Rosa Bal’. It is said that the remains of Jesus Christ are buried in a tomb there. But it is a very hush affair and people do not like anyone snooping around for that place for obvious reasons.

Nonetheless Ani’s curiosity led us on a treasure hunt in the back alleys of Srinagar. When we finally found the place, we were kind of scared, people REALLY don’t like strangers in that location and couple of guys walked up to us asking what we were doing, I tried to bluff my way out of it, but they were wise to the act. They let us go with a strong warning ;) Fun Times.

10^th June, 2012

7 a.m. The mountains beckon. We start out for Kargil. On the menu was a delicious ride through Sonmarg and a cold desert in the form of the first mountain pass on the way – the might Zoji La.

Leaving Srinagar, while I am circling the Dal lake en-route to NH1D, there is a building surge of anticipation and urgency that builds up inside. Today’s route will be the first foray into the Himalaya’s, Zoji La Pass and then a descent into Drass and finally Kargil, places of immense significance in our history.

Riding on the road to Sonmarg is both easy and difficult at the same time. The roads are in pristine condition but the beauty of the valley makes me stop and stare every 100 meters. There is not a single vista I want to miss out, wanting to capture every single landscape.

The road snakes through the valley, a white river gurgling by side. Beyond the river are the foothills of continuous chains of mountains towering high above everything else. On the other side are meadows that gradually turn into a continuous green wall of mountains.

The small hamlets that we passed filled me with envy; it is, truly, the stuff of dreams. No modern age distractions just nature. Small green aqueducts, flowing by the side of the road, carrying pristine water straight from the glaciers. A far cry from the water carrying tankers in Bangalore. And this is what aggravates the envy within me, people living, not people trying to make a living. They have a heritage of their own, songs of their own and what people do is for themselves and the society, unlike the life I lead, making money for someone else.

But enough of introspection, riding forward, I anxiously note the location of the last hamlet I passed, the last mechanic I saw, it’s part of riding, that ‘just in case’ element. Soon we reached Sonmarg and after a couple of minutes of swearing at the beauty of the place we halt for breakfast. The mountains around seem to be protecting the small valley, hugging it tight, protecting its beauty from the harsh mountains that lay beyond. Sonmarg has become commercial, but still enchants.

After Sonmarg, the Zoji La starts. And it does announce its presence majestically. We were still riding through green valleys when suddenly after a left turn we are greeted by a wall, white and gray mountains, the sun and greenery suddenly turn into ominous clouds, snow and slush filled trails passing for a road.

The fun begins then, we are greeted by a jam at a bottleneck turn, moving forward we found that there was some blasting work in progress to clear the roads and traffic will be allowed only post 3 pm, this was not good. Zoji La was in a bad mood, dark clouds were already announcing the pain ahead.

Luckliy the soldiers posted there came to aid, during a casual chit chat, they mentioned that there is a small trail that we could take that bypasses the blasting work and hence make good time. Thanking them, we started the trek and man o man, it was true offroading, there was no road, only boulders. Big and small, razor sharp rocks on the road, residues from blasting work which soon turned into heavy slush, ankle deep as soon as we ascended higher into the mountain pass. At one point the entire road was blocked and we literally had to remove rocks and make a path for ourselves.

The top of Zoji La was a nightmare come true, very low visibility thanks to the fog, the rain precipitating all around us and the thin mountain air, riding through ice cold water inside puddles on the road. 

                                      

 But it was beautiful too, there were white glaciers all around us, we were in the mountains! The Himalayas!

Somehow still holding to our senses, we descended from Zoji La, the weather didn’t ease up though so we halted at an army outpost, no warm tea, the head officer said, but we welcomed the opportunity to stay warm for a while and change our dripping socks and gloves. The army men also gave us the information that Drass had clear weather, we had to push through the bad weather then.

Heading out again was a failure, we had to stop at a small shop again just 2 kms from the outpost because of heavy rain. This stop was a life saver though. The owner, a jolly man named Muzzafar had us feast on piping hot maggi, tea and puri’s while telling his ordeal during the Kargil war.

Listening to men tell their war tales, that can’t be described, he told us how he and his family had to flee the village of which only a skeleton remained, to Sonmarg, how everything he had was lost and that when he returned, all he was given was a blanket and a stove to feed himself, and yet he endured, building himself a fine little shop, saving the lives of weary travelers. Heart wrenching. We thanked him profusely and then headed out towards Drass.

Day light was waning, so couldn’t really admire the landscape, but then there isint much to ogle at either, it was just endless mountains of myriad shapes, sizes, colors, playing with clouds, feeding rivers from their glaciers, but then we are going to be seeing this for the rest of the ride, so we powered through to Drass.

A small tea break here and we headed out to Kargil, our stop for the day. Much to our dismay, the road started to deteriorate and to add to our woes, all tourist cabs were scurrying to reach Kargil with no respect for the fact that they constantly trying to run is into the gorge running next to the road!

There was one particular cab that irked me a little too much, so I decided to irk him as well, always blocking the way, however much he honked ;) That was fun!

We reached Kargil around 8, and just crashed into the first hotel we saw, it had been a tough day of riding.

 Some vistas on the way..