Camping in the shadow of Nun-Kun Mountains- Zanskar Series- Part 2

The next morning, we were geared & saddled up by 8 45 AM. We came out of our rooms to realise that the busy street where the hotel was located was unusually silent this morning. None of the shops were open. We were then told by the hotel owner that it was a bandh in the whole town and that absolutely nothing would be open. The taxi drivers' union had called for a bandh due to a dispute over rights to driving around Ladakh, where they are currently not allowed to ply. We roamed up and down the town, asking cops, passersby, anyone riding Royal Enfields on the streets if they knew any mechanic shop that would be open. In minutes, we realised the town took the bandh very seriously. The town was still. I couldn't help but think back to the hotel owner who had assured us that everything would be open the next morning at 9 PM. The bandh wouldn't have been called for suddenly. He knew we would be stuck for another day in his hotel. He even told us that a big group with a mechanic checked in to the hotel late the previous night, and their mechanic could definitely have helped us with our brakes. But they had left for Leh early in the morning. I tried my best to suppress my irritation with him and went into the hustle mode.

It looked to us like the pump on the Himalayan's back brakes had failed. If this was indeed the issue, we would only find a new one in Srinagar, or in Leh. We immediately called up Ali, from who we had rented the bikes, and asked him to send a pump with some vehicle leaving Srinagar for Leh. After about 2 hours of hustling, finding friendly folks who made frantic calls to the mechanics they knew in town for help, we finally surrendered to the thought of having to stay in Kargil this day, awaiting a pump from Srinagar to arrive, only to find a mechanic the next day. When we spoke to Ali, he asked us to try to find a mechanic by the name Isa, the best in Kargil he said. Kargil is a small town, and it turned everyone knew the 'bike-bananewala' Isa.

We inquired more about him, and finally got directions to his house in front of All India Radio tower in Kargil. Many calls had already been made to him by the different locals who were trying to help, but they all had gone unanswered by Isa. Isa wasn't home either but his wife was around. He hadn't answered her calls either and she didn't know of his whereabouts. Just then, Ali called us back from Srinagar. He had the pump ready but wanted Isa to just take a look at the bike and let us know if any other parts also needed to be sent from Srinagar. Ali was a thoughtful, resourceful guy after all. He had lived up to his promise of getting us a good bike on the second day in Srinagar, and now here he was hustling for us, sitting in Srinagar. Isa had finally answered Ali's call and asked us to meet him near Suru Hotel. We waited there 10 mins, and there he arrived. I haven't looked forward to meeting anyone my whole life, as much as I awaited Isa! With a friend sitting pillion, he arrived on a stylishly done-up Bullet, made a very stylish U-turn and got straight to the point. He was a man of few words, but I couldn't not acknowledge how handsome he really was. There was a swag I haven't seen in any of the coolest mechanics I have known. One minute into checking, he said 'Dus minute me ho jayega'. Since his shop was closed too, he had to keep pulling strings, making calls to friends to get all the tools that were needed. It wasn't an issue with the pump after all. Nothing was needed from Srinagar.

There was a small air bubble that had gotten trapped, rendering the pump useless. The whole ordeal wasn't exactly over in 10 mins, but by 1 PM, we were ready to go! His friend Asgar who worked with the Animal husbandry department spoke passionately about the Kargil War, proudly about not having insurgency issues in their area, and sadly about the difficulties of the people of Kargil after Ladakh became a UT. They gave us interesting inputs on where we could camp once we headed out to the heart of Suru Valley and further to Zanskar. We thanked them profusely and left. After lunch at the same hotel where we had stayed the previous night, we started out towards Zanskar. The ride had finally begun. We were on our own now. The remoteness I felt minutes after Kargil was a stark reminder that we were definitely on our own. Whatever comes our way here on, we deal with it as best as we can.

Suru Vally which starts at Kargil is a stunning valley famous for its pristine beauty. It is drained by the Suru river.

The gateway road to Suru Valley

Despite its stunning beauty, tourism hasn't picked up much in this region, with most visitors rushing towards its neighbouring and more famous Zanskar Valley. We were pressed for time and could only spend one day in Suru. But next time we are here, we would like to take 4-5 days to do the stretch from Kargil to Padum which we covered in 2 days on this trip.

The roads were empty and the tarmac was nice. Suru river kept us great company too! It was 3 PM by the time we finally headed out of Kargil. While it was sunny, there was still that chilliness in the air. It felt like our adventure had finally begun! We were finally entering the Zanskar region! Since we were very sure of wanting to set camp today, we did not want to ride too long. We wanted enough time to camp & cook. Mind you, this would be the first time we would be setting up camp and cooking in our lives! Within minutes after leaving Kargil, we already knew that Suru Valley would offer some stunning places for us to camp at and that it did!

Suru river cascading between the mighty mountains

The first views of the mighty Himalayan ranges clothed in snow

Our initial plan was to ride to Sankoo which is the largest town of Suru. However, since we were in Sankoo almost as soon as we started from Kargil, we decided to head further to Parcachik famous for its glacier. This region doesn't really have a lot of options for stay. The J&K Tourism has created facilities called 'Alpine Huts' in various small villages along the way for travellers and trekkers. We came across one such facility at Panikhar but decided anyway to push further in the hope of camping with a view of the glacier!

The entire region is so remote that if you come across an intersection and are wondering which road to take, you would probably have to wait 10-15 minutes, and if you are lucky someone might pass by in that time. When we reached Parcachik village, there was a road turning to the left which said 'Alpine Tents - 1 km'. The village and the main road towards Padum turned right. By this point, the tarmac had vanished. It was still nice and smooth roads but mostly gravel. We took the turn towards the Alpine Huts. After a bumpy ride which was well over 2 km, we finally reached the place. We inquired with the young boy if we could set up our camp outside the building and he happily agreed.

The stream's water had been routed through a pipe that was right there. The building had a few private rooms with attached bathrooms and the caretaker asked us to use those washrooms. It was 6 PM and it was a windy day. It even looked like it could rain. The caretaker looked up and said 'Aaj mausam kharab lag raha hai. Bahut hawa hai' (The weather is looking bad today. It's very windy).

We quickly got down to setting up the tent. In minutes, we realised we hadn't packed in the most optimal fashion. We did not have all the tent-related stuff in one place. They were just stuffed everywhere in both our duffel bags instead. So here we were, opening up all of our luggage to get out the required things to set camp! Then there was the cooking stuff. All the food was packed together, but the stove had been slid into some corner of some bag earlier in Kargil. Now here we were in these windy and getting-super-cold conditions, opening up all the stuff on the lawn! The first lesson learnt- as easy as it may feel to just pack stuff wherever we want to, coz back home when we are packing it all feels like not-a-big-deal- when in the real situation every small bit matters. Lesson learnt and noted for next time!

We had a stunning view of the Kun mountain peak and we set up our tent facing that, despite the wind blowing in the same direction! Hey, it would make for a great photo-op, the very instagramable kinds! Soon, we would learn our second lesson- about not looking for photo-ops and doing stupid things like this, but to stick to setting up the tent such that the doors are not in the direction of the wind. With us going in and out of the tent a zillion times since everything was just all over, we ended up allowing all that cold air to blow right into the tent, making it uncomfortably cold by the time the sunset!

Anyway, I will come back to that a little later. The evening was really stunning. We made ourselves a coffee, sat by the building watching the clouds move. Then, once it started getting cold, we made ourselves soups and sat there again watching the mountains and the village below. The temperature was already beginning to plummet down by the time we made our dinner- 3 packs of hot and nice maggie!

Our camp with the view of the majestic Kun Mountain. Could not have asked for a better place for 1st time camping experience.

By 9 pm, it was pitch dark. We had the moon for company, but it was a cloudy, windy night, so there were no stars. But what a beautiful night it was! Stunning silhouettes of the towering mountains & the sound of the stream nearby! We retired into our tents soon after. Got our jackets on, wore headgear to cover the ears, in fact, I even wore my thermals and socks. We kept tossing about, trying to figure out a comfortable position to sleep in, but sleep was elusive this night. I could see Satvik was struggling too. Even after twenty minutes inside the sleeping bag, everything still felt stone-cold! I think I wanted this camping bit to work out perfectly, and so kept saying I was fine. We got up in the middle of the night, went out, flattened out the rainfly, and then finally it got a little better. Sometime in the night, I remember thinking to myself that I would never camp in the mountains again and that I had not got any sleep at all the entire night. But the truth was that we had slept pretty well, but it was surely broken sleep. Every time we woke up, 2 hours would have passed. Somehow finally it was morning!

But when we woke up, we weren't groggy or drowsy. There was a freshness in the cold air, and we felt like we were very energised! Hmm, maybe we slept well after all! We talked that maybe because it was our first time camping, and thanks to all the cold air we had let in earlier, and our sleeping bag meant only for 15 degrees, we decided that it was a nice first-time after all and that we would definitely camp more often and figure out what else we have done wrong.

Click here to read the next part of our Zanskar adventure.

Cheers!

Shubra