What that means is that if anything happens to you between Pang and Baralacha La, there won’t be a lot of help available.
Bhpian Paulshekdex recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Pat 4 – Road Foo
Tssao Debbarma: Larying is also available.
So finally it’s time to say goodbye to the beautiful city of Leh and head back to the plains. But before going back, there is one more place which we had on our bucket list and that is Tso Moriri. It’s situated at an altitude of 4,522 m above sea level and is a little offbeat but an incredibly beautiful location.
The journey from Leh started early in the morning towards Tso Moriri. Now the plan here is from Tso Moriri we will take the exit via Leh-Manali Highway, which in itself is a big big challenge. As post Karu, there won’t be any petrol pumps till Keylong of Himachal, so we kept some petrol in reserves just in case. However, in our journey, we didn’t need it at all, as we were able to make it to Manali easily in 1 tank of petrol.
Some photoshoot on the way
The road till Upshi is the same as what we take for Pangong Tso lake. For Pangong Tso, we take the left road while for Tso Moriri and the Leh-Manali highway, we will take the right turn. The roads till Debring are in awesome condition and good speeds can be maintained. Post Debring, we took the turn towards Tso Kar and started the ascent. The roads become a little steep after that, but nothing Punch cannot manage. Also, an important thing to mention here, the road post Debring till Tso Moriri was having some construction works going on for widening the road. Also, the views are mesmerising and on the way, we saw Tso Kar and Puga hot springs. The temperature kept plummeting all the way till Tso Moriri.
Puga hot spring
Tso Don’t Lake
We reached Tso Moriri by 11 AM and started looking for somewhere to stay. Now here is the thing, near Tso Moriri lake, there is only one village called Korzok where there are some accommodations. As the number of accommodations is very less, so prices are expensive and amenities are very limited. Some places don’t even have water and electricity running 24 hrs. So what I’m trying to say is if you are visiting here, just have that mindset of not having a luxury stay. But the lake itself is amazing, and as it’s situated at some altitude, the temperature drops pretty low here. It is cold, chilly and very windy. But I think it’s one of those off-beat places which is a must-visit as well. Also, as this place is near the exit of the Leh-Manali highway, so if you are planning to take that, it’s a place which will anyways come on the way.
At the hair
Korzok Village
Leh-Manali Highway – Where adventure meets altitude
The next day, we started very early. Now, as I said before, the temperature at night here plummets a lot. So in the early morning, even inside the car, we were shivering (quite literally). Anyways, we came back towards Debring to take the Leh-Manali exit. Once on the highway, we encountered very broad and straight roads of Moray plains which were very encouraging. Little did we know what awaited ahead. Till Pang, everything was well and good and the roads were in good shape. Once in Pang, the roads started getting bad drastically. Post Pang, the roads were literally becoming non-existent at times with massive dust clouds and rocks all over the place. While going through this route, we will encounter quite a few ferocious passes namely – Lachung la, Nakheela, deadly Gata Loops & Baralacha la. These passes are notorious for bad roads, steep climbs, deadly drops and no mobile network. What that means is if anything happens to you between Pang and Baralachala, there won’t be a lot of help available. So the challenge was real.
Dusty near non-existent roads
Now let’s start with the road conditions. Lachung la & Nakheela pass are not so bad and you will cross them quickly. Starting from Gata loops thing gets very, very challenging as the roads are narrow and filled with trucks. Thing is, the roads are so narrow at times that 2 vehicles cannot cross parallel, let alone trucks, so you need to give way which definitely takes some good understanding about your car’s width, so that you won’t fall off a cliff.
Post Sarchu roads will improve for some time till Baralacha la. Sarchu is the first village in Himachal post Ladakh and you will find dhaba tent-type accommodation there as well. But we continued our journey. Roads in Baralacha la again become very challenging with some steep climbs and very bad roads full of rocks and ruts. There might be times when you stop on a slope to give a pass or something, it will be difficult to get moving again, the only way to do it is by either using the handbrake or putting rocks behind the rear wheel.
Just after coming down from Baralachala, you will see Suraj Tal on your left hand side which is very beautiful. Post crossing Zing Zing bar roads till Manali improved significantly. The road will have some small towns and lakes on the way like Deepak Tal, Darcha, Jispa, Keylong, Sissu, before making a turn for the Atal tunnel, finally reaching Manali.
So that brings us to the end of our long-awaited trip to Leh. This journey not only made me a better driver, but taught me a lot on how to drive in high altitudes, high passes and finally made me fulfil my dreams to conquer parts of the mighty Himalayas. Tata Punch performed flawlessly in every situation and I’m happy with its performance.
Thanks for reading this thread. As I know, this is not the end and a lot more trips will happen in future, probably towards Zanskar, but for now it’s time to end here. If you have any similar travel experience, feel free to share it in this thread.
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