Ladakh Journey | Enthralling Experience of Zingzing Bar Nullah

The Journey so far-

Day 4 | 3rd, August 2010 | Keylong to Leh – Ladakh

The fate was decided and God had declared “ WHEREEVER WE WILL GO, IT WILL RAIN” 😀 … so it did rain in the night at Keylong as well… But, the morning in Keylong had a pleasant cool breeze as we woke up and left the Hotel at 5.30 AM. We very well knew that the vistas we were going to witness today will be incepted into our minds forever and ever. However, the weather was ready to spoil the art of capturing the beauty into pictures. As we moved it started drizzling with bleak weather all over to distant sceneries, a heart break for a photographer.

It appeared that we were the only souls driving on the Manali-Leh highway today :)…  As we crossed Jispa it was the first one of those many breaks which we took on the entire journey. Going through Jispa we felt really-really disappointed for not staying there last day. It would have been remarkable experience of stay just on the bank of Bhagha River with lots of trails to trek around and photography opportunity to clinch in the entire day. If we would have stayed at Jispa the last day hadn’t been so-so boring :cry:. But, anyways we need to think of today and move on.

We were taking continuous sips of ORS to maintain the hydrated body in order to minimize the impact of AMS, the but obvious effect was “???”… yes you guessed it lot’s of “PEE BREAKS” :D…My cousin didn’t let me sit in front as he was feeling uncomfortable in the middle seat. I wanted to sit in front to click pictures but he didn’t let as I banged the front door shouting some helping verbs :D… Some clicks on our stoppage… We also had to stop at Darcha for a short time where as a tourist one has to register their names at the check post. Passing Darcha bridge we did shot some pictures…although in motion we tried to get best we can…

Small water crossing as we exit Keylong…

Beauty of Manali – Leh National Highway…

The Bhagha River Bed… Manali – Leh National Highway…

The Bhagha River… Manali – Leh National Highway…

We had plans of breakfast at Zing-Zing bar with stopover at Suraj Tal to click some pictures… The Deepak Tal looked amazingly fabulous or I should say you better judge yourself…

Deepak Tal… Solo Shots… 🙂

Deepak Tal… It’s boating time… 🙂

Deepak Tal… Guys spoiling the Beauty… 😉

Clean… shall I call this road??…

Lonely Truck …

View on offer… but behind us…

The beauty kept on increasing as we marched closer and closer towards Baralacha Pass. Baralacha Pass is one of the top among the beautiful passes Himachal Pradesh, in fact for me the most beautiful pass of Himachal Pradesh. We all were extremely excited to witness it live for the first time. Nothing special happened as kept moving and the only thing constant throughout the journey was late breakfast and the “RAIN” :cry:… I was feeling frustrated with this Rain now as you cannot click the pictures and who knows when we may be able to visit this place again in life :(… Patseo came on the way where just some zigzag paths defined by army was noticeable. The place had nothing apart from military bunkers and trucks.

Bleak Weather… Patseo… And Zig Zags…

Patseo… Trucks Ready to Rock…

Rain was not ready to stop and as I said it was written that this time it won’t be easy, we were welcomed at Zingzing Bar with a shock!!! No one has moved since last evening 😯 … as we saw a huge herd of vehicles piled all the way to the top. First thing I got was an opportunity to offer some magical words to my travel mates who were forcing me to carry on till Sarchu yesterday :lol:… Thank god, if we had chosen to carry on, we would had been in the list of people stuck here since last night and had to spend the night in the car amidst cold weather :shock:… Again another uneasy decision which looked disappointing at first but ultimately proved in our favor :)… God was helping us all the way…

Dheeraj Sharma

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Let’s know the reason… The water nulla 200 odd meters ahead has gone berserk :lol:… The music of the water can be heard till the Dhabhas at Zingzing bar and we knew it would be enthralling experience now. It would have been life time experience if we had our own car 🙁 and I would have been driving :)… But never mind as the experience will not be less even sitting next to driver’s seat… So, keeping it out of question for a time we ordered breakfast as Maggie, Omelets and Tea to fill our tummies to the core. We had to fill the tummies as there was no certainty when the traffic jam would open. Last night, many people slept inside these 2-3 dhabhas which offer resting place and quilts… We asked a few and they told s that they were shivering in the night as temperature was very low :(… and deep inside I was thanking god to save us from this chaos again. Soon we were out after billing to roam around the place.

Zingzing Bar Traffic Jam…

Few minutes later someone came downhill rushing and shouting “Scorpio crossed, Scorpio crossed…We can go too!!! Chalo Chalo….” … Our driver Ravi seemed to be very popular among the lot and he leaded the march of Manali taxis to cross this water nullah. We asked will you be the first one to cross it?? And he said “YES!!” 🙄 … We reached closer to the nullah and there were 19-20 vehicles including Trucks, Buses, Scorpios, Innovas, Qualis etc waiting for their turn ahead of us. We decided to see it live and here is what we saw :shock:…

Zingzing Bar Excitement… Do we need to cross this :roll:…

Truck crossing Zingzing Bar Nullah…

Car stuck in Zingzing Bar Nullah…

Actually the Scorpio crossed from the other side only after seeing the crane accompanying the army convoy has arrived. The driver knew that even if he gets stuck, crane will help him out to escape these blood rushing moments. But, he didn’t required and the Scorpio sailed through as witnessed by other who were present. Unluckily, the Qualis above couldn’t run like charm and got stuck right in the middle. People and crane helped them coming out of this trouble.

As there was an army convoy the experience holders were seeking opportunity to rush ahead to either get stuck or pass through. The all knew by their experience that if they wait army convoy had to be given pass first. But, the army men were up to it and they didn’t let this happen for long. After just 3-4 vehicles passed this way, they scolded anyone who dared to pass through them. When one of the truck driver confronted, one army men yelled “ Sale, tumhare desh ki rakhsha nahin karte kya hum. Isliye hum pehle jayenge ******** ”(We protect your country so we will go first you A*****). But what pity as you see “tumahre desh (your country)” words being thrown out from some army personnel, disgusting 😮

Beauty with Deadlock… Eventually the Sun Breaks out…

Is this what is melting… looks like an ice-cream…

Anyways, Army convoy had no issues in clearing through and all of them sailed like anything through it. They even took their crane away, leaving so many vehicles stranded right in the middle 😐 But, no one was ready to stop… many trucks got through one after another and even cars too. Some cars get stuck, some got away in one go. The cars which got stuck were being pulled by trucks standing on the other side. There was chaos behind our lane and opposite side was flooded by the vehicles on our side, leaving no space for the vehicles coming from the other side to pass. This caused a deadlock :cry:…

Finally he got some time to sleep…

Oyee… Am I going to jump in frustration??… :roll:…

More time was getting wasted but thankfully another army convoy came which managed the whole traffic in order to pass through 😀 … Even though they didn’t had crane with them but they help cars which stuck by their truck in front and providing the rope as well. There were bikers too who were managing to cross with some difficulty and I remember that one of them got injured as the bike fell on his foot as seen in the video…

Bikes Crossing the Zingzing Bar Nallah

Out of all the cars which were passing through Innova and Qualis had the worst performance and passing ratio. Almost all of them apart one which we saw got stuck and required to be pulled out. The one that managed through broke some part of its under belly  :(… Watch the videos below for cars sticking in the nullah at zingzing bar…

Qualis pulled by truck in Zingzing Bar Nallah

Second of the two poor performers car models in this off-roading challenge….

Dheeraj Sharma

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Innova pulled by Crane in Zingzing Bar Nallah

Meanwhile, as the sun came out the water pressure and level got increased considerably. Finally, after 3 days we were seeing the Sun :D. The vehicles now had more problems in getting through the nullah. Every car passing through was getting stuck in the middle now. Eventually, after 4.5 hour being stuck there we got the chance to move into it. We asked him whether we should stay in or follow you from behind and be ready to push the vehicle if it gets stuck. Ravi didn’t even bothered for second thought, told us to get inside and he made it through in one go without any problem. It was an extremely exciting moment of the life but we were through in one go.

Since, Ravi was leading the charge for Manali drivers, so we had to wait for the other to cross the nullah. One of the Manali taxi didn’t have jack to fix any puncture if required, so it was better to be in group rather alone. The traffic from other side got started to go in as we crossed :(… This meant more waiting time!! But, for us it was time to take some pictures as we relaxed…and some vella  time pass :D…

Chicks Checking the Clicks…

Portraits… shall I call them… 😉 Starting with Neeraj my friend…

Ohh… Me again but posing?… Nopes Measuring the heat of sun… 😉

Saurabh “Mr. Nawab Singh” my cousin and Neeraj…

Meanwhile I had a chat with one driver who broke some part in the under belly of his Innova after being tricked by the local drivers to rush the vehicles through the nullah. One of the passenger was bruised and looking for Dettol / Band-Aid. The driver told us that he has been sent by his owner for the first time in hills :shock:… “Wait a minute, this guy is driving first time in hills and he has been sent to Ladakh… OMG.. God please save him and his passengers. :lol:… “, were the thoughts in my mind. The driver was frightened like hell and was asking if there is another route. We offered him some water to relax him and tried boosting his morale. We told him about the Srinagar route and asked to be careful while he drive anywhere in Ladakh too. We also told him to accompany us as he drive to Ladakh, so as to feel more confident, which he agreed.

After half hour of waiting time, we resumed our drive to complete the Journey to Leh – Ladakh crossing some of the highest passes of the world viz. Baralacha La, Lachulung La, Tanglang La.

Day 4 to be continued with its marvelous beauty…