NORTHERN EXPEDITION 2014 : DAY XIII , to the Magical twin lakes

# DAY XIII : To the twin lakes

#109.     Today was goin to be another special day amongst all the specials till date on this trip J . Today I was going to visit the twin lakes of Ryul Tso situated down south of Hanle on the route to Thit Zarbo La.

#110.     The route was a cracker and the INDMOITABLE was definitely out of its league , here I was going to depend on the work horse of this place a.k.a The Tata Mobile 407. The GH owner Mr Sonam agreed to accompany me and soon on a cold morning with a packed lunch we were on our way to see the twin lakes.

#111.     The route involved was not on the map and was a track made by vehicles which play, a thorough knowledge of the terrain is a must out here especially the initial Kms were pretty torturous. The Tata Mobile was up to the task and very slowly in gear I & II we proceeded ahead up and down as the track led us.

#112.     The twin lakes Ryul Tso and Chilling Tso are around 40 Kms from Hanle and further along the route one can reach Thit Zarbo La. This is total Changspa Country and one has to keep in mind that the guard dogs are not very welcoming to strangers and once they get their jaws in, it is only the master that they will listen to.

#113.     Soon I reached the twin lakes and after spending some time in splendid isolation I decided to also travel till Salsal La which lay on the route to Chumur , this is a diversion from the path that we were on and soon we took the diversion and proceeded ahead.

#114.     We reached Salsal La by around noon and had a great lunch out there followed by some hot tea. One of the very best moments in my life. The road ahead proceeded to yet another pass known as Shongdong La and thereafter to Chumur. But that was left for some other day , we turned back from here and proceeded back as I wanted to visit the Hanle Observatory too.

#115.     Overall a great day and I loved every bit of it . I think the visuals will speak for themselves with regard to the beauty, the isolation and the magnificence of what I experienced. 

CLOUDS OVER HANLE GOMPA  

SPEECHLESS 

NUNNERY AT HANLE  

SALSAL LA 

GARDEN OF ADEN  

CHANGSPA HUTS  

CHILLING TSO  

CHILLING TSO  

RYUL TSO  

MAGICAL RYUL TSO  

THE PATH TO THE LAKES  

SALSAL LA  

OBSERVATORY AT HANLE