Tso-Moriri : Joyous Drive

After returning from the strenuous trek of Stok Kangri, I decided to explore Tso-Moriri, a lake in Ladakh, comparatively lesser known. Me along with Chaitanya and Sayantan, started from the hotel, the next day morning of our arrival from the trek, at around 11-30 am. We had booked a Mahindra Scorpio for a comfortable ride as initially we four of us were planned, but Manoj dropped out at the last minute. We have to get the prior permission to visit the places of our interest in the entire Ladakh region at the Leh DC office. We being lazy guys, outsourced this job to the hotel guy by paying him 300 INR.



Hanging bridge

3 idiots bridge!

We started our journey, enjoying the landscape of beautiful Ladakh on the sunny day, with bright landscape all around. Reached Upshi in an hour drive after hurdling out the traffic at Leh. We had our lunch of parathas which was too good, the best lunch/parathas i ever had in the last 10 days. Gobbled a couple of them and started our journey deviating from the Leh-Manali high way, following the river Indus upstream. The river was muddy with heavy current at many occasions eating up the road. The sign of havoc created by her is still remaining at many places even after the continuous road work done by BRO. It is a good sight for us but keeps BRO busy (Border Road Organization) through out the year (Of course only when it is opened for 6 months). As the road was leading to couple of army camps ahead, the traffic was mainly of army trucks, with a few of them toppled on the road side. Silently passed all the army camps just gazing them from the vehicle. Kiari camp was pretty big, the major army backward post (may be). Felt proud about them for their dedicated effort due to which we are enjoying here. Hats off! I can not imagine the life here during winter, the nature being very harsh, temperature dropping to around -40 degree Cecilius. I could not even sustain the -5 degrees for 2 days, but they will stay here for the entire year. Esteem !! At around 4-30 pm, we reached Chumathang, a famous spot for hot water springs. There were around 2 springs at a distance of few meters with one spring dancing for every 2 minutes and a silent period of 2 minutes after. It was amazing to experience such things happening in front of your eyes with out any external forces (man made). Amazing phenomenon too, which boils the water, the icy water of the river Indus. After inhaling sulphur for a couple of minutes, we started moving..



Chumathang activity

From here on, it was a gradual ascent with mighty peaks on either side of the road with fresh snow cap on it. We have to gain around 3500 feet altitude to reach Tso-Moriri from Leh. Deviation before Mahe will lead to Kargiz, the village on the banks of Tso-Moriri. An hour drive from Chumathang, took us in front of Kyagar-Tso, which was looking beautiful with dusk reflecting over her with the clouds at the far end. Even though the road was pathetic, the scenery all along was refreshing. The weather was becoming cooler, forcing us to wear the gloves and caps. In a few minutes, i was awed with the glance of the biggest lake i had ever seen in my life, Tso-Moriri.

Moriri is a high altitude lake in the Ladakh region having a circumference of 36 km at an altitude of 15000 feet MSL. This is one of the highest altitude lake in India, even higher than the famous Pangong-Tso. The village Karzok is on the banks of the lake enjoying  the pristine nature with huge mountains surrounding it each peaking around ~20000 feet, fully covered in snow. We were surprised to see the amount of snow in those areas, as we never thought of the height of those mountains! We had to agree with Chaithany's conclusions about the altitude of Tso-Moriri being same as Leh and the mountains surrounding the lake are not taller than Stok Kangri (I would have argued him had i been at the lower altitude). Chamser Kangri is the tallest among them peaking 22000 feet. The lake was colorful with different tone at different parts of the lake. Since the weather started windy, we had to search for an accommodation. We booked a room at Lake View, pretty descent hotel for that area. Luckily we could get the lake view hotel even though there was a Buddhist function to be held the following days which was attracting a lot of Ladakhi's over there. We had our dinner after gossiping for some time.

 

Tso-Moriri

Crystal clear icy water

Tanglangla pass

The plan to wake up early at 5-00 am did not materialize due to heavy clouds dithering the sunrise. We woke up at 6-30 am and finished our morning rituals as early as possible, went out to explore around the lake. Took our vehicle on the shores for the amazing view of the Karzok village.Though it is remote & deprived of many modern amenities, it is very rich in terms of nature's vision. If you have the eyes to capture, its the best place to be on earth for quite a long time. The Karzok looks like an extension of the lake at a slightly elevated platform looking like a guard to safeguard the pristine lake (though the exact opposite is happening which is the sad part) After spending a couple of hours, we decided to leave back to Leh in a different route. In an hour drive from Tso-Moriri, we took a deviation in the village (Kargiz). We saw a huge hot water spring at the far distance erupting like volcanoes. We could not stay there for long due to the very bad smell of sulphur abundance in those mountains. The gut wrenching ride on the mountains road, that too after a trek to Stok Kangri is really daunting, yet the view of the nature is awesome, its worth the effort sitting inside SUV's on such muddy, boulders road. Further in an hour we reached, Tso-Kar which is comparably smaller, but huge white rocks in the middle of the lake. Later i came to know that, they are the salt stones formed due to excess loss of water due to sunlight. The path leading us took to the Leh-Manali highway. The road was no better than the village roads which we had just completed, in fact at many places it was worst. The scenic was at its best as usual. We started our climb to Tanglangla, the second highest motor able pass. Just before the Tanglangla, there was road widening work going on stopping us for around half an hour. Monstrous machines were at work helping the tourists for a safe journey. The Tanglangla has a Krishna temple and a tea shop just to have the pride of having tea at that altitude. Its pretty cold mainly due to wind chill. The road ahead descending into a big valley was invited us for an amazing drive. It took around an hour to descend and soon we reached Upshi to have our late lunch at 4-30 pm. Filled our body bag with the delicious paratha's and started moving on back to hotel Snow Lion.

(Thanks to Chaithanya for the photos)