Our first target was Tso Moriri (Tso means lake in some language). It was described by people in town as somewhere between a 6 and 11 hour driver. Our driver - Tashi - despite his propensity to stop for tea at every opportunity seemed to think we could make it in 6. It ended up being 7 and a half "rough and tumble" hours in the back of the jeep. But the views were awesome and the lake and mountains were absolutely amazing.
We camped for a night at the lake which was really cool. It was also at 15,100 feet. Immediately after arriving and setting up the tent I set off to see how high I could climb in the surrounding mountains. Despite my mountain goat-like characterisitics, the answer was not very far. I was out of breath after every few steps. I did make it up to the top of a peak-let (is that a word?) that was over 16,000 feet for sure. Really amazing views. Night though was freezing and super windy, and I was definitely underprepared. And after my high altitude wanderings I kept waking up breathless and with a pounding headache. But even though I first checked my watch hoping it was morning at 910pm (8pm was bedtime) I made it through the night fine and the tent did not blow away.
On the next day we headed back on the scenic route past a big salt lake - Tso Kar. These roads were somehow worse than the day before. Lots of dirt, sand, rocks, everything else. At one point, the road we were on ended and Tashi looked around, confused, then asked me for help. My sense of direction in the Himalayas is not so good either but I did manage to spot where the road started up again and we darted through some scrubbrush to get there.
One section of the road was mostly sand, and after a few close calls, we naturally ground to a halt mid-morning, stuck in a dune in the middle of nowhere. Tashi announced "Sorry, sir" and we both got out to assess the situation.
We soon settled into a nice routine. First, we dug with our hands a little path forward for each tire. Then I got in the back to push, and Tashi started the car. We would go about 3 feet, and the car would stall out. Then, we would repeat. Finally, after about 30 minutes and a dozen repetitions of our car-pushing routine, the tires caught for good and we made it back to the road.
The rest of the drive was relatively smooth. We went over the second highest motorable pass in the world at 17,500 feet. We also stopped for lunch in a Tibetan familly's tent (noodles, hard boiled eggs and tea) which was a welcome change after 2 days of clifbars, fruit, and a few cheddar cheese sandwiches. We even found Tso Kar, though it turned out to be a scenic but smelly salt lake full of muck not too different from the Great Salt Lake. Finally, we made it back to Leh before nightfall.
Noteworthy animals spotted (in addition to the standard goats, donkeys, and cows in the streets):
- 1 yak
- 5 asian wild asses (seemed like a cross between zebra and antelope)
- Many Himalayan desert birds and lizards
- Countless marmots (These critters look like big meerkats or small beavers, or furry snipe. They outnumber humans 50 to 1 in Ladakh. They live in little holes all over, and as hard as I tried, I could not catch one)
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