The Mysterious Nubra Valley

 

Ladakh journey is incomplete without a trip to the beautiful towns of Nubra valley.

In case you missed, please see my previous picture blogs of Leh and Pangong

Ladakh – A bucketlist destination ( Day 1)

Pangong Tso

In this blog, I will try to give a visual treat of the Mysterious Nubra.

Nubra Valley has mainly 3 major towns – Diskit – which is famous for the biggest monastery and a biggest sitting statue of Buddha, Hundar which is famous for sand dunes and double-humped Camels ( believed to be brought by Mongolians  ),

 

 and Panamik for hot springs. Nubra valley derives its name from river Nubra which is distributary of river Shyok.

It’s definitely a very good idea to start early for Nubra Valley as it passes through Khardungla – the highest motorable road in the world.

As you get just at the outskirts of Leh, the brownish tint of all the mountains makes a very interesting landscape to be witnessed. Some pictures which I clicked gave a feeling like these mountains have been artificially painted.

 

 

As you reach near Khardungla, the sun starts to vanish and you can experience a journey which is through the clouds.

The ride is as bumpy as it can get.

 

At around 1800 ft. above sea level, it is one of the toughest roads to drive on. Remember Leh is at 10,000 ft. and the distance between Khardungla and Leh is just 40 km. So mountain sickness can catch you pretty quickly due to a sudden change of altitude.

Khardungla is a rest spot for all travelers to and fro Nubra, and has small shops for a quick cup of Tea.

I preferred to stop just after crossing Khardungla as it was not buzzing with lots of tourists taking selfies, rather seemed to be more scenic and less crowdy.

The road gets a little better once you cross Khardungla, but the journey has too many sharp curves till the far end.The mountains start to get colorful. They give a feel of rainbow mountains of Peru.

Just a few km before entering Diskit, the mountains again change color and are back to rusty dusty brown.

 

 

There is a long stretch of straight road which reminds of Death Valley.

 

I reached Diskit, Nubra Valley around 3 pm. It was getting cloudy and dark and had started to rain a bit. The clouds posed for some amazing pictures.

I checked into my Hotel, grabbed a quick bite and headed straight towards Hundar.  It’s definitely a marvel of GOD that you have mountains, snow, and sand dunes at the same place. As it was raining a bit, so I wasn’t sure how far I should go inside the desert. I could see tourists enjoying the camel rides in the drizzle, but I skipped it. As the sun was playing hide and seek, I was able to get varied colors in my pictures; cloudy skies and included yellow skies when the sun was setting down.

 

I waited till the sunset to capture some good pictures and then headed back to my resort to get some rest after a tiring but exciting day of travel.

 

 

I stayed at Desert Himalaya . Its a beautiful resort at the backdrop of Diskit Monastery providing tented accommodation with all the luxury facilities and super hosts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Driver for the Day was Tashi – Contact Rigzin -9906990444 for Car Bookings and excellent service.

 

Watch this space for more pictures of Day 4 of Nubra Valley and how I got a chance to see His holiness, Dalai Lama …