Nubra Valley

The good old traveller’s saying “The early one catches the taxi-seat”, is applicable for us today – the 16th July. We start to our last exploration. Very early in the morning, at 7 o’clock (!!!) we start, accompanied by Vera and Anita.
The two German girls we met first in Manali at the night of the semi-finals, again on the “Hellride Jeep Trip” to Leh (we reported earlier), then we stayed in the same hotel in Leh - all by chance – finally joined the silent retreat. By that time we were already used to each other and good group together. :-)

The Nubra Valley has only been accessible since 1994. Permission still is required. Due to partly narrow streets there are restrictions, i. e. Nubra Valley is to be entered before noon and exited after noon. At nights streets are closed. Nubra Valley begins north of Leh and stretches until the boarder to Pakistan in the west and Tibet in the east. The area has enormous strategic importance for Indian military. There are approx. 70.000 soldiers around Leh. The military presence frightens us and disrupts the incredible beauty of the landscape.

We drive the world’s highest motorable pass (5600 metre). The view into Nubra Valley is already breathtaking! It is very chilly and windy up there - approx. 5 Celsius.
K2 is in front of us!!! WOW! WOW! WOW!

During the drive down through the rough, desert-like landscape, we stop many times to take pictures and enjoy the view again and again. Anita, who studied geology, analyses the rock formations for us. The depth of the valley and the height of the mountain is a stunning combination!
There as some little oasis-kind of spots, nurtured by glacier rivers that allow flora, fauna and human being to exist. In many respects this seems to be different from the rest of the world. A place that is far from the civilisation and runs under different conditions.

We visit a monastery, enjoy sand dune jumping and hug some camels. The temperature down in the desert is around 35 Celsius.

In the evening we find an interesting“ this-and-that”-shop in a village. Suddenly the shop gets crowded, when we show up. The villagers did not see people like us before.
Nice Tibetan porcelain and many other nice things here ….. we shop with candle light, no electricity. We suppose the shop has been closed since the moment we left it, because it full filled the turnover target for the next 2 years already. :-)

After a delicious Tibetan dinner we walk to our guest house in complete darkness. The only illumination are the stars, the huge milky way and the moon. An incredible night! The stars are so so bright and to see sharp.

The next day we feel obliged to visit monasteries. Julia is the monastery- and Buddhism-expert in the group and tries to persuade the monks for a play with their Alphorn-like-trumpet. Very soon everyone wants to return to the road and watch the landscape while driving. Before we exit Nubra Valley, we take a last shot of K2. We are glad to have visited Nubra Valley, a beautiful and unreal place!