Day 1:

So many times we have read the advice and even advised others to make sure that he/she doesn’t land up in Leh on Sunday and Govt Holidays as permit won’t be available to travel. Somehow in such a hurry we missed that point, it was a long weekend and we understood DC office would be closed for next 3 days. Even Regzin was not hoping much on that situation, but suddenly I thought of opening the Leh website to see if I could get any contact. Landlines / Office no. won’t work as it was holiday, only hope was mobile, first few either gone unanswered or switched off. Finally got hold of PA to DC and explained her about our situation and in winter ladakh when you have a fixed date of departure, have even fewer days of good weather, loosing a day is significant and loosing 3 days mean loosing the whole trip almost. She was kind, listen to us and spoken to ADC on our behalf and even shared ADC’s personal mobile with us. We called and pleaded him for the permits, finally it was decided that though it was a holiday, we would submit our documents to Chowkidar of DC Office and ADC would come sometime on next day conveniently and got those signed and then Chowkidar would stamp those from office before handing over to us. We did exactly the same and as Sanjay mentioned luckily got the permits on time even without paying the wild life conservation fees (Which is significantly increased this year) as the office was actually closed. So the trip surely started with good luck.

We started our day by submitting our documents to the Chowkidar and started our journey towards Chilling where road ends and trek starts for Chadar. The beauty of Ladakh in winter is simply can not be expressed in words, better we stick to snaps.

Stok Kangri from Leh in a winter Morning:

Freezing yet flowing Indus:

Winter Ladakh, so fascinating:

Magnetic Hill on Leh – Kargil Road:

Road from Sangam towards Chilling (Zanskar is frozen in left):

Magical Zanskar frozen completely:

The Road Continues by the side of Zanskar:

Zanskar river magical water through a fish like opening from the Chadar:

Chadar is formed hard and strong:

Magical Zanskar River:

So clear the water, you can the stones in river bed even after it’s flowing so powerfully:

Standing on Chadar is always a dream:

Chadar was so thick here, we couldn’t even put a dent by throwing big stones from top:

Chadar is being formed here, see still the bluish water is visible below the ice layer:

Sangam from Zanskar side (Indus coming from Right)

We returned to Leh in afternoon and first thing we did was visiting the Chowkidar in DC Office and fortunately we got our signed permit ready. So now we are ready to explore some more interesting areas.

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