Leh to Khardungla Pass

Leh to Khardungla Pass: World's Highest Motorable Road

Khardung La Top

Ever since the trip to Ladakh was planned, there were some must see places that we had identified. And Khardungla pass was right up there on the list. How often do people like us get an opportunity to scale the highest motorable road in the world? Well that was a good enough reason for us to plan for this ride. Though we had just been to Pangong Lake the previous day and having completed the trip in a single day, we were still egged on to scale Khardungla.

At the starting point in Leh

The ride begins !!

Creative rock sculpture on the way

View of snow capped mountains

The morning started off a bit late (obviously we were still under the stress from the bumpy ride we had to Pangong), and the first thing was to rent bikes from the market. We started off looking for the bikes that suited each of us. Akhilesh and I rented the Bajaj Avenger @ Rs 900 per day. Vamshi teaming up with Mamta went for the Bullet Standard while Meet and Hamza picked up the Bullet Classic. That left Vishwajit alone who also went in for a Bajaj Avenger. We all took the bikes and went ahead to the petrol pump at Leh. We filled a full tank since we had plans to continue our trip to Nubra valley while the others were going to return from Khardungla itself. Well, just like yesterday we were “Saath Ajoobe”, only this time round Mili and Vinod were replaced by Vamshi and Vishwajit.

We left from the petrol pump and waited under the milestone which prominently read; Khardungla Pass (39 km) and Diskit (118 km). Our target for the day was set. In about 10 minutes we were joined by everyone and it was already noon by then. Pretty late to start one’s accent up Khardungla but nevertheless everyone was eager and buoyant about the ride.

Leh View Point

Another View

Contrary to popular believe the road was quite smooth with little to no traffic till South Pullu. On the way we passed by the Leh view point which provides a complete panoramic view of the Leh city. As we started the climb the view started getting better and better. We could see the snow capped mountains in the distant skyline while the snow capped Khardungla kept teasing us all the way through. Just as we were about to reach South Pullu we met Poonawala sir who was part of our mountain biking expedition with YHAI. He along with 2 more of his friends were also on their way towards Khardungla but on cycles. Poonawala sir seemed exhausted from the ride and was probably not going to continue beyond South Pullu. He asked us to pass on the message to his friends who had already gone ahead of South Pullu. We accompanied Poonawala sir till South Pullu.

The winding road !!

Another View

With Poonawala Sir just before South Pullu

The road from here started getting bad. There was no tar, dust flying around, debris from landslides and an absolutely bumpy road. Our joy ride was over to put it in sober words. Now started the actual mountain biking with speed’s of hardly 20-30 kmph. The stretch from South Pullu to Khardungla top and from there till North Pullu going towards Nubra valley is horrendous.

Deteriorating road after South Pullu

Our co-riders !!

On the way in between South Pullu and Khardungla top we had to take a forced pit stop since there was a landslide which had happened and the road was being cleared of the debris. That presented us with the opportunity to have drinks and get shutter busy. This is where Akhilesh decided to switch bikes with Vamshi since he also wanted to get the experience of riding the Bullet. But just 200 meters into the ride and the bike just didn’t take a pick up. We could not go beyond the first gear. We finally managed to ride it for another kilometre or so and there we had Vamshi waiting for us. We exchanged our bikes back and restarted the journey.

Strike a pose : Akhilesh

Strike a Pose

The winding deteriorating road

Clearing the Landslide

Hats off to them !!

Similar to the experience while getting close to Changla pass, here also the air started getting chillier and thinner. We could feel the drop in oxygen. The ride however was less taxing as compared to the one to Changla pass. The anxiety levels were really high with expectations rising on every blind turn hoping that we have made it to the top.

Then came the moment when we sighted snow capped mountains within touching distance and the final right turn took us on top of the world. We reached the Khardungla top. We managed to scale the highest motorable road in the world. Yippie !!!!!

First glimpse of Khardungla Top

K-Top: World's Highest Motorable Road - Conquered !!

Just like at Changla pass, there was an army post, a souvenir shop and a canteen at the top. There was a similar warning board here also. There were clear instructions not to spend more than 20 minutes at the top. We had already started feeling the dip in oxygen and the most irritating part is to wait in a queue to get our share of pics in front of the board which very prominently says “Khardung La Top (18,380 ft): Highest Motorable Road in the World”. We finally managed to get the chance to pose for pics and we didn't bother to let anyone else get any close to the board until we were done. We clicked as many pics as we could, solos, in pairs and group pics.

L ti\o R: Vamshi, Hamza, Akhilesh, Meet, Mamta, Me & Vishwajit

Jai Veeru @ K-Top: Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge :)

Akhilesh @ K-Top

Me @ K-Top

We had a group hurdle to celebrate our achievement. This was the last point till which we were travelling as a group since I and Akhilesh had plans to continue further to Nubra while the others were going to return back to Leh. We had spent a good part of more than a week together and it was quite difficult to bid good bye. But we left with promises to stay in touch and in this age of whatsapp & facebook it’s quite difficult not to stay in touch. We bid goodbye with a closing pic taken with a bottom up view under a hurdle. We bid adieu to everyone and moved towards Nubra valley. The Nubra story is covered as part of my next post and believe me the Khardungla story is only the trailer to the Nubra story.

Group Hurdle

There were some very interesting things we saw at the Khardungla top apart from the fact that this place holds a significance of its own on the map of the world geography.

Cycle air pressure meter: This was heart warming to see a universal cycle air pressure meter installed at the Khardungla top for cyclist to check on their bicycles. This shows that people are encouraged to traverse these mountains ranges on bicycles and go back with an awesome once in a lifetime story J

Cycle air pressure meter @ K-Top

Ganpati temple with Ladakhi prayer flags: This was also an amazing site to view a Ganesh temple at Khardungla. The temple is built near the foothills of the snow covered hillock. The ganesh idol is brought from Kanyakumari and there is a story behind the sanctification of the idol. The entire area around the temple is surrounded by snow, Ladakhi prayer flags which are tied there by tourists like us in remembrance of their trip to the Khardungla top. 

Ganesh temple @ K-Top

The Ganesh idol story

Canteen with a "Maggi" story: One thing that we didn’t see at Changla pass but did see here at Khardungla was a canteen. You can probably call it the world’s highest canteen. Since we were to continue our journey further to Nubra valley and since we were quite hungry we checked with the army for food options. As per them the next food options would be only at North Pullu which was some 15 km away. So we decided to have whatever food is available at the canteen at K-Top. There was the staple diet of the Himalayan ranges available here “Maggi”. There was a board put outside the canteen narrating the Maggi story. It was quite insightful. There were also some interesting trivia published inside the canteen about the wildlife of Ladakh. We had maggi and tea. Chatted for sometime with the canteen owner and then started off for Nubra valley.

The "Maggi" Story @ K-Top

Wild Mammals of Ladakh

Birds of Ladakh

Our next target for the day was reaching Diskit which is the main city in the Nubra valley. And the main attraction there were the sand dunes at Hunder.

Our next target: Sand dunes @ Nubra Valley

K-Top on the way towards Nubra Valley

Many more memoirs to share.... Sachin