Land of Ice

You never quite know what thrills and drama are going to greet you on the roads of India. Organized chaos or just a complete disregard for any rules. I'm not sure. If there is 2 lanes use it as 3. One way roads and roundabouts means both ways or any which way. One of our long distance taxis didn't have a rear vision mirror. Why would you want one when there's cars and trucks coming at you from all directions? Bryan taped it back up with his duct tape. Sidemirrors are never used because they are already pushed in to stop scraping when you come within a hairs breadth of other cars.
With all this in mind we ventured out to tackle one of the most dangerous roads in the world.
The Srinagar to Leh road is a gravel, often one way road that traverses some of the highest passes in the world. It is only open for 4 months every year and even then it is often closed by landslides and avalanches.
Day 1. Srinagar to Sonamarg.
We left Srinagar via the scenic route around the lake and followed the icy green river in to the mountains. From Kangan the road starts to climb. Leaving green fields behind we enter a Narnia like landscape. Giant green conifers against a backdrop of glacial blue white ice and snow. Ice flows crisscross the road but have been cut away so that we are travelling through cliffs of towering ice. Sonamarg is a splash of green where Indian tourists come to ride sleds and ponies in the snow. It is also the gateway to the Zoji-La pass which at 3529m is not the highest pass on the route, but it is considered the toughest. The army are only letting one way traffic through at a time. It takes 5 hours to get through the pass so that's a long red stop light and today doesn't happen at all.
Day 2. Sonamarg to Srinagar.
We spent the night at a wayside guesthouse in Sonamarg. Its a very cold place and I was very glad for my down jacket and sleeping bag. Nobody seems to know when the road might open so it's up early and wait with everyone else. The time for opening seems to change hourly. One minute everyone is running for their vehicles and ready to go and the next the confirmed green light is 4am the following morning. By midday the chilly drizzle becomes a freezing rain and when the mountains start to pour water and tumble rocks we know there's no going anywhere but back today. A landslide is confirmed so it's back to Srinagar and plan B. Not sure what plan b is yet but in the meantime we're back on the houseboat relaxing. This time I can't even blame the drivers for the mayhem on the road.

Namaste Sandy

The photo is of the Zoji-La pass and everyone waiting for it to be clear of ice and snow.