Preface
After reaching Leh on the previous day on our bike trip to Leh Ladakh in October ’24, we had a complete acclimatization day and used the rest time to find the best deals for our rental bike and bought some necessary stuff, along with getting adjusted to the cold, weather and local conditions. Read it here.
Plan for the day
So the plan for the day was
Leh -> Khardung La -> Khardung -> Khalsar -> Diskit
It was just a short journey of 120 kms, but the main task was climbing up the Khardung La Pass and descending all the way down on the mid day. We planned to visit Khardung La top on the way and then explore Diskit and stay there at night.
Getting ready for the ride
So this was the first day of our bike trip and we had rented and brought our bikes previous night itself and fueled it up so that we could depart soon. We also had made trial rides and preliminary bike checks before hand for our safety. We had brought 2 pieces of luggage for our journey, one is the large bag pack and the other is small travel bag to keep essentials for our bike ride.
We kept the unnecessary things in our bag pack and carried very light and necessary stuff with us for the bike ride. As we mostly wore the riding gears much clothes wasn’t needed and we didn’t carry laptops too. We kept the same in our hotel in Leh and left early in the morning. We went to buy the cover for our luggage and also bungee cord to tie our luggage. Once all set we were ready to depart.
Departing from Leh
Once all set we directly moved out of the Leh city towards Khardung La pass and once we moved out, we started climbing up directly to a very higher altitude. We had a small check post on the way and nothing much was checked. But if you have a bike which isn’t registered with Ladakh UT, then you would be in serious trouble.
The beginning road was very very terrible. The curves were very steep where we were climbing higher and higher, but the roads were worse, hence the journey was a bit difficult. Finally there was a police check post, by the time which we had already climbed 16k feet and some 2k more. We had to write our vehicle number and some other details and then they left us without any trouble.
Khardung La climb
Khardung La is just 38 kms from the Leh city which can be covered in almost an hour or 2. Sometimes the road is completely covered with snow and very slippery due to black ice formation. Also the road side is extremely deep which isn’t recommended at all in such conditions. After the check post, the climb again was much higher and higher, we were feeling kind of dizzy and very cold due to sudden increase in altitude.
That is the reason why acclimatization is extremely important. We having some riding experience with the bike, this wasn’t much of a trouble. After an some 1.5 hours of ride we finally made it Khardung La.
The Mighty Khardung La
This gracious high altitude mountain pass is the shortest and all weather road connecting to Nubra Valley in Ladakh. The other one is through Chang La and Khalsar which is a very time consuming and a tricky one. This also connects ahead to Siachen Glacier, the highest battlefield of the world. That’s the reason why this is very crucial to India.
Also before the DS-DBO road this was one of the option to reach Daulat Beg Oldie, hence was crucial in that sense as well. Standing at an altitude of 17,892 ft high, this is one the 10 highest motorable passes of the world. Some locals even claim they can sight Mt K2 when the sky is clear, but there’s no evidence for this.
Khardung La
We parked our bike and took a good sight at one of the highest motorable passes of the world. The surrounding mountains appeared to be too closer and most of them were right below us. The wind was too heavy and there wasn’t much snow at that time. Usually the one can always see snow in this year round the year. It was my childhood dream to visit this lovely pass and click a picture in that beautiful yellow board.
The dream finally came true on the first day of the bike ride and that actually gave us much confidence and specially regarding riding bike at such high altitude. Because the next few days the altitude wouldn’t be too high and only after leaving from Pangong we would be riding at such high altitude again in the Hanle-Umlinga La-Tso Moriri areas. We clicked few good pics for lifetime memory and then had an amazing tea in the nearby cafe, before starting our descent.
False claims regarding Highest Motorable Pass
There was a slight error in measuring the altitude of this pass and it turned out to be 18,379 ft, which made it the second highest of the world, even the highest before opening Umling La Pass. Local summit signs and dozens of stores selling shirts in Leh incorrectly claim its elevation to be in the vicinity of 5,602 m (18,379 ft). But the correct altitude is 17,892ft.
The Khardung La descent
It isn’t recommended at all to stay for longer time in such high altitudes. Body starts acting abnormally due to lesser supply of oxygen and we specially South Indians aren’t much familiar with it. So we left early and then started the descent. As I was now confident about the roads, the bike and my grip on the bike, it was far easier to control it on such roads and started rapidly. We didn’t had anything since morning, so took a small break in the dhabas nearby.
Towards Diskit, Nubra Valley
We had now entered Nubra Valley as we had planned to stay at Diskit at night. We then continued ahead, the road was very good with some patches in between but the views around was totally amazing. Every turn would show us a lovely new picture and we had to frequently take breaks to capture them all.
Reaching Diskit
Just before Diskit, there’s a diversion which takes us to Thoise, Diskit, Hunder, Turtuk. The other takes us to Siachen Glacier where tourists are allowed to visit till some point. There are some places also named Sumur, Panamik on the way to Siachen. But we didn’t have plans to visit there due to shortage of time.
We fueled up and proceeded towards Diskit. It was evening by the time we reached there. We had left around 10 after the initial preparations and spent too much time in Khardung La. So we had covered almost 120kms only today, but the day was completely soul filling without a second thought.
Conclusion
So we took a decent rooms near the sand dunes spread out everywhere. It was an amazing scene just parallel to the Shyok river. The next day we had a short yet an amazing journey ahead towards the POK area.
