Ladakh on a bike and a budget: Leg-2 Sumur to Turtuk and Thang
Turtuk, once one of the lesser-visited places bordering POK in Nubra Valley had been witnessing a steady growth in tourist traffic over the last couple of years. Turtuk, one of the northernmost villages of India was a part of Pakistan occupied Kashmir in Gilgit-Baltistan and was taken over by the Indian Army after the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war.
The unique history of this place and accounts
of its beauty we read of earlier were reason enough to inspire us to go check
it out ourselves. For context, we were a relatively inexperienced (for this
terrain) yet spirited group of eight people riding on 04 bikes (02 Royal
Enfield Himalayan’s and 02 Royal Enfield Classic 500’s-important for later). As
spirited as we were, we lacked the foresight to have carried spares like
puncture kits, brake wire’s etc given the challenging terrain and remoteness of
the Himalayas, more about it later. The total distance to Turtuk from Sumur is
approximately 120 kms and google showed a live trip time of approximately 03
hours.
We started from our camp in Sumur at 09AM towards
Khalsar, on the road to Leh and were met by series of Indian Army Truck convoys
heading towards Siachen Base Camp, a frequent affair. It became a ritual to
wave to all the Army trucks over the last few days. Rationality and necessity aside,
it felt great to be able to say hello to our troops with childlike enthusiasm with
our renewed appreciation for their Courage, having lived a few days in these
climatic conditions (Which get way worse in winters). At one point midway, we
were asked to stop by approaching Army Trucks and were offered toffees. Although
this is a seemingly casual thing by our kind soldiers, with the backdrop of the
Himalayas in this cold desert, chocolates never tasted as great as they did
that day and this remains a core memory.
Shortly after, we’ve reached the Petrol Bunk before
Khalsar, in this remote cold desert, fuel availability is scarce and is advisable
to refill fully here or at Diskit. Khalsar, which we’ve crossed the previous
day enroute Sumur from Khardung La is a Y Junction from where the route leading
to Turtuk heads west while Sumur, Sasoma and further to Siachen base camp is
due north, map below for reference.
After the petrol bunk is without a doubt one of
the best stretches of Nubra Valley, with a flat and straight road for
kilometers on end before the climb begins towards Diskit. This road is
notorious for traffic jams owing to heavy Army Truck movement who rightfully
have the right of way. We were stuck in one such long traffic jam for quite a
while, the army did their best to quickly clear the traffic though. This
traffic Jam partly diverted our attention from how steep the valley right beside
the road was, without any protective barriers at that. I wondered how risky it
would be to ride on this road in the dark and mentally calculated the earliest
we would have to start back from Turtuk in order to cross this before dusk.
Alas, destiny had other plans and nothing prepared us for what was in store for
us later that evening.
Enroute Turtuk after Diskit and Hunder is also
the northern most paved runway of India at a place called Thoise. Owned and
operated by the Indian Air Force, Thoise airport is an important airport for
quick troop movement to Siachen owing to its strategic location. Infact, the name
Thoise which is referred to everywhere on distance signages is actually an acronym
for Transit Halt for Indian Soldiers Enroute (THOISE) to Siachen. Being from
the Aviation fraternity myself, I was naturally excited to pass right next to
one of the most challenging airports to operate from in the world. Photography
is prohibited in the vicinity and from much earlier since the runway is right
next to the road and we were more than happy to oblige, if you are visiting
Turtuk, please make sure you obey the restrictions mentioned by defense
signages around Thoise.
The road to Turtuk runs parallel to Shyok river
and crosses it multiple times between Thoise and Turtuk and further upto the
Zero Point between India and Pakistan beside Thang, from where Pakistan is
literally a stone’s throw away. I would let the pictures narrate you the story
of our ride (Click on the pictures for a better experience) between Thoise and Turtuk, road condition was generally quite good
with intermittent short bad patches and few under construction bridges.
A game of Shadows in the noon
We reached Turtuk well past the Google maps
projected time at 1300 Hrs, (Its best to add a 25% buffer to the time suggested
by Google Maps in Ladakh) and were surprised to know that the Government started
allowing civilians to the very last village of Thang beside the Zero point.
Thang, about 10 kms further away from Turtuk was opened for unrestricted access
by civilians, apparently just a few days earlier. We abandoned our plans of
checking out the erstwhile Pakistan run school for Thang and reached the village
by 1400hrs.
There were quite a lot of Civilians there already, essentially most of the people who considered traveling to Turtuk worthy, ended up in Thang as well. Needless to say, the atmosphere was electric with an air of unexplained euphoria among most people. Not one for an avid display of emotions, I sat munching on fresh apricots looking at the lands of our not-so-friendly neighbor while a few from the lot hurled choicest of abuses for good measure.
Vary of the fact that we already crossed the time we had to start back in order to cross the treacherous roads around Diskit before dusk, I was already beginning to get a bit anxious. Little did I know that we wouldn’t cross it before midnight and would potentially be stranded in the middle of nowhere with temperatures inching close to zero..(to be continued)
P.S: Do reach out in case you need any suggestions, itinerary help etc to do this route yourselves (Free of cost, of course)
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