Ladakh - Part 4 - The journey to the large water bodies

Continued From ...

Day 9  (16 Aug 2014)  - Leh - Pangong - Leh

We had a lazy start this morning as well. Still we were bit stiff due to the altitude and took our time to get ready to start for Pangong. This is an amazing water body that we had seen it in "3 Idiots" movie. Our plan was to go to the location spend some time and come back. Actually we wanted to stay in there. But somehow that was not fitting in our plans. 

In morning we once again met Arnold who was 1 day ahead of us in this tour and had visited Pangong a day before. We had a discussion on his next plans. We decided to see if we can have the other destination called Hanle in our plans and can we do it together. This was originally not chalked out as it needed some permits. But now we are 1 day ahead of the schedule and this was a perfect opportunity for us to add this. Arnold's earlier plan was to go to Tso Moriri and thereafter start the return journey on this day. But post our discussions he decided to stay back and do the further journey with us. On this day, we gave him the required documentation for doing Hanle permits and we decide to leave for Pangong.

As we started the journey, the weather was overcast. There were no rains but the clear blue skies that we had witnessed earlier were unseen today. But that was the other angle to the landscape photography. Today we were just hoping that it should not rain and ruin our plans due to land slides or traffic jams. 

We took breakfast at the hotel started our journey to the world's most beautiful lake. Even with cloud cover I got some good shots to begin with.

Overcast

As we took the same road, we took for Shey Palace and Thicksay gompa, we got similar photos from the hill tops but in different climates.

Landscapes

Some Agriculture

Some Greenery

Masterpiece of BRO

I got some lovely snaps with variety of patters!! Some patters in the sky, some on the mountains, and some man made.
 

Patterns

Village on the Way

We had to cross one more high pass called Chang-La. This is at 17688 Ft and it was pretty cold that day. Last night there was fresh snowfall in this region. We took one break here to take couple of stops and witnessed one more peak point on this route.

Chang La

चांगला केदार

Fresh Snowfall

On the way, we saw some nomadic folks with lot of yaks and other cattle.

Yak Fields

Cold Deserted hills

Some Vegetation

Clouds and Shadows

Habitat for Marmots

Sand and Water

One more time on the way, we got to see the Himalayan Marmots. This time we were on plain region and we could park our vehicle and were able to take some photos. Even being mentioned by the forest department, people still want to feed these lovely creatures. I do not know how to educate these people. They have made their next generation unhealthy by feeding them chips, now they are feeding the wild life. God bless them!!!

Himalayan Marmot

For God sake, don't feed them

When I saw these beautiful marmots, I tried to take their close ups. But they ran and i tried to follow them. As they go away from me, I saw their residence!! They made these lovely burrows in the cold desert.

The burrows of Himalayan Marmot

Snowy Peaks

Some more

Also seen the Chukar birds once again on this route!

Chukar couple

Very soon we were at Pangong lake. The high lying flag of India made this lake even more beautiful.

Reached Pangong

Pangong Lake is 40 miles in length and nearly 2 to 4 miles in width at a height of 4267m above the sea level. One third of the lake is in India and the rest comes under China. The color of the water is the most striking feature of this lake that catches the first glance of one’s eyes, especially towards evening, when it is of rich deep blue, over the whole expanse which turns completely light blue at morning time. The water of the Lake is not that salty as sea water but it’s as cold as ice.

We did not witnessed Evening here, but spent couple of hours here. Took some photos, had Tea and decided to say good bye to this place.

Here, I would have loved to have the clear skies and less wind. We did not get the reflection photos that most of the people get here..

Pangong

Nilesh keeping watch on Chinese border

Pangong Beauty

3 Idiots

Some more colors

Took a round along the borders and seen the beauty of the lake. The crystal clear water and those lovely horizons were indeed worth going to this region one more time!! I had never ever seen this color to the water in our country.

Never seen this color in India

Crystal Clear

As I sat down and started taking the deeper look into the waters with my bigger lens. I saw some birds in their own habitat. Its not that I had not seen those before. But watching the birds in their own region is a different feeling. I though I might get to see flocks of birds in their breeding. But that was not the case.

Saw many brown headed gulls. I had seen them in Pune, Jamnagar and many other places where they migrate in winter. But swimming in its own lake was wonderful feeling.

Brown Headed Gull

Great Crested Grebe is another lovely species that I had seen in Jamnagar. It was awesome sight that time also as its pretty rare to find them. Their numbers are pretty less. I had just a record shot of this bird in my winter birding trip to Jamnagar. But here in Pangong I see the couple with the chick.

Great Crested Grebe

Post having lot of photographs in here, we decided to return. We were again threatened by the overcast weather and the passes like Chang La to cross for one more time. Still thinking, just one day in here is not sufficient. Next time, I will stay here for one more day!!

While returning we saw a unique sand storm of this region.

Dust Storm

As we were about to cross Chang La, we saw an accident. The Military truck was toppled. Got to talk to the driver and the staff who was on the truck. The brave driver understood that the breaks of the truck are not working as he was climbing down. The driver with 15+ years of experience, steered the vehicle towards the hill so as to reduce the impact and save lives. But due to the heavy truck tyres that the truck was carrying, it toppled. No one injured and no casualties!! It was great to hear and witness these brave stories. The driver was so calm as if its a routine for them. That was amazing to hear and watch..

Due to this accident, there was a traffic jam on the road. BRO folks were immediately reached on site. They immediately broke one of the railings of the road and make the road for the convoy behind this truck. Soon when the downwards traffic reduced, we started climbing towards Chang la and then back to Leh by evening time.

Break Fail Accident

After reaching back in Leh, we talked to Arnold again. This gentelman has taken all the required permits for us to travel Hanle. And now were were in convoy from tomorrow morning till we hit the plains.

 

Day 10  (17 Aug 2014)  - Leh - Hanle

Early morning we got up and made ourselves ready for the trip where we did not need to gain much altitude. Had Tea in the morning and checked out of the hotel. Leh was our base for last few days. Hotel owner became good friend of us during that time and we had lot of fun together. Before starting from here, we took the photograph with the hotel owner in the premise of the hotel. With heavy hearts we said good bye to Leh. Our return journey was from Tso Moriri, so we were not to come back to Leh in this trip.

Now in Convoy

Started our journey towards Hanle. This road goes in parallel to the Indus river. This is again a wonderful journey beside the fast flowing Sindhu river. Most of the area was dry except the river. There was hardly any vegetation round..

3 Idiot Point

As we moved along, we witnessed many beautiful mountains. The colors of the mountains were very dramatic. Saw some purple, blue, brown, yellow and so many shades of mountains on this road

Purple Mountains

फूल और काटे

And some beautiful

Water Bodies

One thing I observed in and around that area was that, we as a tourists are creating nuisance to the region. Due to the increase in tourism in this region, the pollution in this area is increasing. I would like people to do their bit to keep this beautiful place beautiful for ever. Many of the folks have this bad habit of throwing all the packets and bottles when they finish it. I would request everyone to bring back their garbage home. Please don't spoil this beautiful region. Few days later these same people will say that there is lot of garbage in there, no point in visiting.

If you throw garbage in this area, cleaning it is almost impossible. If the car falls down the hill, there is no business reasons for bringing it back. The cost of getting it back on its wheels cost more than the new vehicle. So I request you folks, please let your children and grand children see this area as cleaner as it can be !!

Drink, Eat whatever you want, but keep it to yourself

The journey of no return

BRO too tries to send this message across

Please Help

We took a break at Chumatthang. In here there are hot water springs. You could smell sulfur and see red muddy places as you enter this region. The hot water springs are not that great to see. But there is some bird life in the area. Before having breakfast took some bird clicks.

Red rumped Swallow Male

Red rumped Swallow Female

Id?

And when there are no birds, there are insects :)

Id?

On the way ahead, we also saw a pair of common black-necked cranes. Those are bigger beauties of the region. It is whitish-gray, with a black head, red crown patch, black upper neck and legs, and white patch to the rear of the eye. It has black primaries and secondaries. Both sexes are similar. Some populations are known to make seasonal movements. It is revered in Buddhist traditions and culturally protected across much of its range. A festival in Bhutan celebrates the bird while the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir considers it as the state bird. The estimated population of the black-necked crane is between 8800 and 11000 individuals. These birds are legally protected in China, India and Bhutan. However habitat modification, drying of lakes and agriculture are threats to the populations. In many areas, dogs belonging to herders are a major threat to young birds.

This is another specie which is not commonly seen on the plains. It was great to see these in there!!

Black Necked Cranes

Black Necked Cranes

Minimal

As we moved along we could see some greenery and water bodies near the foothill of these colorful mountains

More Colours from moving car

Green Patches

Fence

One more thing that we saw on the way was a big animal running though the water. Could not guess what it is. But when I clicked couple of snaps, got to know that this is the famous Tibetan wild ass. It was too far to take good shot of. But something which was seen by the eyes. This fellow ran in water and as it touched the land many shepherd dogs attacked it. It was fearless and allowed them to follow him for some distance. After sometime, dogs decided to let go the ass. But as we were too far, none of these incidences were captured properly. Some record shots as below

Tibetan wild ass crossing water

Closer Look

Also saw Ruddy shelducks on the way. These are the regular winter visitors to Pune. It was great to see them in their own region. This bird is also referred as Brahmini Duck or चक्रवाक. The name came due to the noise it makes. Its like the sound the wooden wheel of cart makes.

Ruddy Shelduck resting

Tibetan wild ass

We reached Hanle by noon. It was awesome place with large green plateau with some grass and smaller water bodies. The horizon was too big. You could see the unlimited sky from here. Also there were not a single cloud in the sky. Miles away from us in all directions there were the mountain ranges compounding the plateau. What a lovely creation of God!!

This place is uniquely popular for the observatory in here. Some facts from Wikipedia -


The Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO), located near Leh in Ladakh, India, has one of the world's highest sites for optical, infrared and gamma-ray telescopes. It is operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. It is currently the second highest optical telescope in the world, situated at an elevation of 4,500 meters (14,764 ft).

The Hanle site is deemed to be excellent for visible, infrared and submillimeter observations throughout the year. Specifically the observation conditions yield about 255 spectroscopic nights per year, approximately 190 photometric nights per year and an annual rain plus snow precipitation of less than 10 cm. In addition, there are low ambient temperatures, low humidity, low concentration of atmospheric aerosols, low atmospheric water vapour, dark nights and low pollution.

The Observatory has two active telescopes. These are the 2.01 meter optical-infrared Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) and a High Altitude Gamma Ray Telescope (HAGAR). The HCT is remotely operated from Bangalore from the Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST) using a dedicated satellite link.

IAO-Hanle-high energy gamma ray telescope

Indian Astronomical Observatory

We got to see this observatory when we reached there. This is amazing place and you feel proud to see and read out the facts about this place.

As we reached our hotel in Hanle could not resist ourselves to share some chocolates with the beautiful kids of Hanle.

Chocolate Time

As the sky was clear and moon was yet to rise, it was perfect time to catch some of the milky ways in the camera. The sky was full of the heavenly bodies and it was just like a dust in the sky. I did first ever time photography of the stars. The only thing which prevented me to do more experiments was the chilly weather and the winds.

But this was a wonderful sight and will never forget this view!!

Milky ways

Day 11  (18 Aug 2014)  - Hanle - Tso Moriri

We had wonderful stay at Hanle. I liked this place very much. It had a unique landscape. We had a good night sleep. In the morning we woke up to visit the final Ladakh destination of our trip. Its Tso Moriri. Its another big lake of the region. Many people skip Hanle and Tso Moriri from their plan. But we wanted to make utmost use of the available vacation and wanted to visit all these locations!

Landscapes were pretty much similar to the ones we witnessed yesterday. Still camera can't go off. We found some unique patterns showing the markings of melting snow markings on the baron mountains.

Watermarks

White, brown and green

Daylight Moon

Snow

Indian Pyramids

Electric Poles and Cables making lovely pattern breaker

More Purple

Cricket Ground and Stadium

Village

On the way to Tso Moriri, we saw another beautiful lake called Tso Kiagar. 

Tso Kiagar

The Tsomoriri Lake is a beautiful mountain bounded expanse of water, around 240 Kms. from Leh in Rupsho Valley. The Lake is located at 14,000 ft. near a small village of Korzok. One can also visit the Korzok Monastery of 19th century that houses Shakyamuni Buddha and other statues. The Nomadic people are most outstanding feature of this Lake area, which graze herd of goats and yaks. About 76 kms from Tsomoriri is located another beautiful Lake, Tsokar (the salt lake) in this area.

With no clouds it was like dream coming true. Perfect weather to reach here. The wind which was making small waves in the water was preventing me to take reflection photos. But the blue water in there was equally photogenic.

Blue

As we reached there, bar headed geese welcomed us there. Seeing this bird in its home was such a great experience. This awesome bird travels to Pune in winter. At Tso Moriri they breed and lays eggs. I was very lucky to see this beautiful bird with its chick.

The bar-headed goose is one of the world's highest-flying birds, having been heard flying across Mount Makalu – the fifth highest mountain on earth at 8,481 m (27,825 ft) – and apparently seen over Mount Everest – 8,848 m (29,029 ft) – although this is a second-hand report with no verification. Even Jumbo jet pilots have seen these birds at their flying heights.

Bar Headed Goose

Baby in the middle

While taking photos of this lovely bird, I saw some movement on the ground and found this master piece of camouflage in there.

Reptile, Id?

Tso Moriri

Crystal Clear

Our car at Tso Moriri

Spectacular

Can see the bottom

Some Vegetation on the shore

For lot many days, haven't clicked myself, so decided to take one selfi on these desert lands. With 2 big cams around the neck, took this selfi with my cell phone!

Selfi

Spent the whole noon and evening viewing the lake from the hotel. In night the view was similar to that of Hanle. Clicked the beautiful night one more time before we hit the bed.

Milky Again

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