Wander through India : Northern Expedition 2014 : Day X , to elusive Wari La and unpredictable mighty Chang La

# DAY X: Sumur-Agam-Wari La – Tang Tse

#70. The dawn of a bright beautiful cold day in Northern Ladakh and yet another challenge lay ahead of us .It is these challenges in the trip which made it so special when I look back into the past . Today was the climb to Wari La.

#71. So what is special about Wari La, well am sure many would definitely relate to this pass but then a greater number would actually not !!! Not much is written about this pass in the internet barring few accounts documented by those who have crossed it . For the uninitiated like me crossing this pass is like an act of self gratification and personal achievement. To have been to a place which has so sketchy mention and remains elusive even in this day, is worth more than numerous trips to places which are much more pretty and scenic but easily reached. Will the Indomitable, a sedan be able to make this pass, again I had no documented record of this so there was no comparison that I could draw. Only SUVs had done this or maybe bikes.

#72. So with these apprehensions on a glorious morning we set out from Sumur after bidding adieu to our hosts and dropping off their small daughter to the school. The point which struck me was the trust factor that is developed while interacting with the people who live out there, here we as a couple totally unknown to them, took their daughter in our car to drop her off to school .The magnitude of trust which they so easily put on us is immense, in the cities that we live in I hardly think anyone would dare to even think of taking such a step.

#73. So then we were on the road to Khalsar where we stopped for a quick breakfast which simply was just not up to the mark , after the breakfast we moved ahead and reached the cut where we took left to Agham and Shyok. The route was hugging the mountain all the way with the walls of the mountain just dropping off on the other side. The road was extremely narrow and I am sure that in the months following the opening of the route this section of the road would definitely be worrisome for all those who wish to reach Wari La.

#74. I was on the lookout for any incoming vehicle who could tell me if Wari La is open or not for none of the people at Khalsar could give me a correct picture, such is the anonymity of this pass. Soon we descended from the mountain and reached the valley floor with the Shyok River flowing next to us on the river bed.The path was quite scenic as we moved ahead on a road in the middle of mountains ranges , soon after around 25 kms from the diversion to Agham we reached a bridge where the left turn after the bridge would take one to Shyok village and to the infamous path towards Tangtse which bypasses both Wari La as well as Chang La and meets up on the militarized route which leads to Daulat Beg Oldi. But on this occasion we were not interested in that, that is reserved for someday in the future for the moment we took a right after crossing the bridge and on to the climb toward Wari La.

#75. The scenic beauty of the route which lay in the shadow of the mountains was incredible with patches of yellow vegetation interspersed with green brown and blue topped with white snow. The climb had begun and I was moving along at a sedate pace conserving the engine temperature and making it steady preparing for the long steady climb ahead. The bane of this pass is the continuous gradual climb which is relentless and does not even out even one bit . Hence the difficulty in reaching Wari La.

#76. Soon we were crossing the cut for Thangyar Gompa and we had a quick visit to the gompa though did not enter inside much as the climb ahead was actually playing on my mind a lot . At one section we stopped for a quite a while as we came across a group of Himalayan Deer who were having a late breakfast on the shrubs growing on the mountain side . This route is so devoid of vehicles that they were literally on the path itself basking in the morning sun. We were delighted to have had a chance to observe them for close to 30 minutes. Thereafter we moved ahead , soon the climb began in earnest and I could see the road climbing into the mountains and at one section far ahead the path was in the entire snowed out section of the mountain. The INDOMITABLE was now in first gear all the while though I tried many a time to shift into second gear for ableast 3-4 minutes so that the engine rpm could be bought down. My one eyes was constantly on the engine RPM as I was trying to reduce the rpm as much as possible to avoid overheating the engine. The outside temp was quite low and the sun was hardly able to warm up the surrounding. We were totally alone and in the distance we did observe few yaks grazing so there was human presence but absolutely empty a road with nothing coming or going other than us and the sound of the INDOMITABLE as it moved ahead.

#77. The last ten Kms were the toughest with the road broken and water streams having created their own path especially in places where the road took a turn upwards and with the incline coupled with bad road surface it was quite a task moving ahead. The scenic beauty was worth the trouble that I was taking and the strain that the INDOMITABLE was undergoing and by 1130 we were at Wari La with the last 5 kms totally snowed out however the Michelin XM2 held up very well and with the extreme slow speed I was able to manage the traction to move ahead.

#78. The feeling of standing at Wari La slowly sunk in as I sat down next to the Indomitable and looked around at the snow covered mountains at all sides with the cold wind on my face. After spending some time and allowing the engine to cool down we started our descent towards Sakti. The going was totally downhill as we moved on a extremely narrow path hugging the mountain.

#79. Sakti was reached by 1245 and instead of turning left towards Chang La I turned right towards Karu as the reserves of fuel that I was carrying was coming down and there was no more fuel that I could be assured of as I headed into Eastern Ladakh towards Pangong and then Hanle.At Karu we had lunch followed by topping up of fuel and by 1400 hours we were on our way. We retraced our way and then turned right towards Zingraal. The Chemrey gompa was crossed and I actually wanted to visit the gompa however it was a long road ahead and the visit would easily take around an hour so we gave it a miss, there is always a next time when it comes to Ladakh J

#80. Zingraal and the famous Z of Zingraal was reached by 1500 hours as we sped on in the afternoon sun towards Chang La. The road to Chang La was quite decent and we were able to make steady progress, numerous army convoys were crossed and the afternoon sun bore down quite strongly. Chang La was reached by 1600 hours and we spent some time at the Chang La Baba shrine .Thereafter we were on our way towards Tang Tse and here we had our first casualty.

#81. The electrical supply was being provided using the power point in the car through a invertor and in a casual approach by me wherein a immersion coil for heating the water was connected which resulted in the fuse being blown off for both the invertor as well as the power supply point of the car. This was a bad news as now I could neither use the Navigator nor have the services of the mobile for long as both devices consume battery charge at a very high rate. The journey in the days ahead was at the extreme fringes of Ladakh and the services of both the devices was essential. I did have printed maps with me as a backup case which had now become the primary asset.

#82. I was pretty mad at myself for this development but then there was nothing to do.. I was carrying spare fuses and thought of looking into the matter when I reach TangTse. Soon we were on our way and reached Tangtse by 1800 hours and booked into the Chang La GH which was more or less the only place to stay. The evening was super cold and I tried to understand the signs of the various fuses in the fuse box to locate the one which indicated the power supply point however the ones which I indentified, replacement did not solve the issue and I did not tamper with the remaining fuses as I did not wish to compound the problem .ODO for the day stood at 75552.