Jeep Safari to Tso Kar LakeJul 16, 2009
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A yak searching for food.
A yak grazing.
An adult yak grazing with its calf.
We left Tsomoriri Lake this morning at around 8 a.m. to begin the long drive back to Leh, albeit via a different route which would take us past Tso Kar Lake. Tso Kar Lake is a much smaller lake in Ladakh, and in my view, one whose scenery pales in comparison to the visually stunning Tsomoriri Lake. As we neared Tso Kar Lake, our jeep got stuck in the sand upon taking a detour along the side of the road as a road crew was doing construction on the main stretch of road. Our jeep proved no match for the soft sands on the side of the road, and it was only with the help of the road construction crew that we managed to eventually nudge our jeep out of the sandy pit where it had been lodged. We also helped a subsequent jeep which had also gotten stuck trying to traverse the detour on the opposite side of the road. This cost us about an hour worth of time.
The route past Tso Kar Lake joins up with the Leh-Manali Highway shortly before the Tanglang La pass, and as such, we found ourselves repeating the last several hours of our very memorable journey from Manali to Leh. Once again, we had to brave the unexpected: avalanches of a couple of patches of remaining snowfall which ground traffic to a halt as well as other unexpected roadside delays. By the time we eventually made it back to Leh, we were wiped out from the long arduous drive. While our two day trip to Tso Moriri Lake and Tso Kar turned out to be a memorable one, I will think long and hard before I undertake a similar trip to merely look at beautiful scenery - I prefer to hike, bike, kayak, raft or trail run in it, not merely be a passive observer of it. We have a long jeep trip to Srinagar ahead of us beginning the day after tomorrow, so I expect to be very sick of jeep travel by the end of the weekend upon reaching Srinagar.
