Riding Along the Drang-Drung Glacier- Zanskar Series- Part 3

Drang Drung Glacier in Zanskar

The tent's footprint was wet and we put it over a rock for it to dry out, and in the meanwhile soaked in the warm sunny morning, with our freshly brewed cup of coffee and Poha for breakfast.

The re-packing bit, we did a little more smartly, putting together all the camp-related stuff in one bag and re-organising all our other luggage. About an hour of repacking later, we headed out towards Padum. The sun was already at its full shine by the time we finally started riding at 8 30.

The 150 km ride from Parcachik to Padum would take 5 hours as per google maps. We made our way through the stunning landscape with beautiful views of the Parcachik Glacier, Nun and Kun peaks. At every turn the landscape was jaw-dropping. But the ride was super sunny, and with hardly any places to take a break to relax.

By around noon, we crossed the Pensi La pass and we were at the most exciting part of the journey- the magnificent view of the Drang-Drung Glacier. The Drang-Drung Glacier is likely the largest glacier in India other than the Siachen Glacier. It is a long river of ice and snow and the fact that it is visible from different places across this stretch of the road is just so cool! Even if Zanskar wasn't as beautiful as it is, riding to Zanskar would still be worth every bit of it just to witness this stunning wonder! We ended up spending a lot of time clicking pictures and making videos from the different places where the glacier is visible.

Drang Drung glacier located in Zanskar Region

After having spent more than an hour, Drang-Drung was out of view. The roads had been a combination of dust and rubble right from Parcachik. Initially, it was still smooth to ride on, but around the Pensi La pass, it had started to get bumpier. Soon after crossing the glacier, there was road work in progress. This meant riding long hours on those small stones that are used in road construction.

Pensi La pass in Zanskar region

Now that we had already witnessed the glacier which was kind of a highlight of this stretch, and owing to there being absolutely no chai shops to stop for a bit and relax, we had started to get exhausted and hungry. While riding on this terrain isn't really dangerous or tough, just riding on that surface for hours without a break, with the sun beating down on us, we wanted to reach Padum, and soon.

We came across 3 other motorbikes on this stretch of road, and just a handful of taxis. It was super desolate. And since the road condition wasn't really great either, we were grateful for Isa who helped us in Kargil with getting the bikes completely fixed. Had we decided to come ahead with the problems we were facing, we were definitely very very far from getting any kind of help around here.

Slowly but steadily we trudged on and finally reached the village called Akshu. We had eaten a maggie each at Rangdum earlier. But thanks to all the vibration, it was probably digested in minutes. We were super hungry again and were hoping to find something soon. Just then we came across a small eatery and the friendly owner gave us hot chai and some steaming rice and rajma. The first few morsels of food went down, and finally, we felt alive again. It was 3 PM and we were about 50 km away from Padum. We relaxed for a long time here and met up with 2 of the bikers who we had passed earlier. One of them had a pillion. In that kind of terrain, my heart really went out to the brave-heart pillion. I couldn't imagine sitting pillion on these terrains, and what would happen to that butt really!

After the rice we had belted, we were now feeling sleepy. Hoping and praying for the roads to turn into stunning tarmac after lunch, we finally hit the road again. Nope. There is always an adventure awaiting us when we either least expect it, or when we least want it. The big, round, smooth white stones from the river bed had been put all across the road. The JCB was at work, flattening them out, but it wasn't there yet. Currently, it was just a whole lot of stones, covering the entire breadth of the road. 10 metres into it, and I was sliding. Satvik was way ahead of me, but I could see he was struggling too. The stones were just too damn smooth, rendering the grips on our tyres useless. 50 metres into it and stopped to stretch my arms. They were already hurting. And for as far as I could see, it was this ahead! Slowly, carefully, we made our way ahead. Thankfully no falls!

And to think we had hoped for smooth tarmac!

Once this was over, it was back to the bumpy off-road. My back was starting to ache to the point that when I stopped to stretch my back at the cafe earlier, it buckled a bit and I almost fell ahead. I had felt this kind of back pain on the Himalayan earlier too when I rode it in Arunachal. While I have felt the most comfortable riding the Himalayan on off-road sections and in challenging terrain, riding on the tarmac and this kind of rubble-roads, I would get this nagging back pain.

We passed little villages and about 20 km from Padum, there it was! Lovely winding smooth tarmac! Never in my life have I felt so excited on seeing tarmac! I almost decided to go kiss the road, but the back pain was real, so I let it be. Once we hit the tarmac, we were in Padum town in 15 minutes. It was 5 PM when we entered the quaint little town bustling with vendors, shops, travellers. We asked around for a hotel and after going to a few hotels that we didn't like, finally reached the homestay called 'Padma Ling'. It was off the main street, a pretty Zanskar-i house run by a local family. The board read 'Padma Ling homestay and camping'. We were in no mood to set camp today. We wanted a nice room with warm blankets, hot water and whatnot. We negotiated the rates a bit and rested for the day. The owner was a cook with the Indian Army. So we got ourselves some nice dal, rice, subzis and rotis for dinner, and called it a night early.

Next part of our Zanskar adventure- coming soon.

Cheers!

Shubra