Woke up with the mesmerizing view of green laded mountains. Kashmir tells you to spend your time, to live in the land of the Gods, to ski, to paint, to love. After a joyful shikara ride we headed for our next destination Kargil, (200km) and the streams that always ran parallel to our vehicle throughout the trip. The white fierce river had the magnitude to freeze you in just 40seconds. It drizzled in between with cold breeze streaming through and that’s when the first time I felt the chill.
I had never seen snow, the very first glimpse of the snow laden heaven in Sonmarg brought twinkles to my eyes! Many tourist were gathered to ski in Tazivas glacier which made the highway jam. We were surrounded with snow. It was up, below and around us. There was a beauteous brown landscape when we climbed towards the most vicious and precipitous ‘ZojiiLa’ Pass’. I wonder, I crossed it and still alive. The narrow road (let’s call it road) had hardly any space to cross even one car. And just when I thought it could not get more adventurous than the 6km truck jam happened and we had to cross those trucks side by side, it took nearly 3 hours to cross that road.
In those sharp turns, I missed one or two heartbeat. There were moments when I felt the jeep would skid anytime into the deep valley below but thankfully we traversed. The Dras valley starts from the base of the Zojila pass, the Himalayan gateway, standing proudly at a height of 10990 ft. With the heartwarming senses for the 101 brave warriors we departed for the Kargil, after few kilometers sighted marvelous Kargil war fame ‘Tiger Hill’.
We estimated to reach Kargil in 5-6hrs, but never underestimate the mountain roads, it took us 10 straight hours and with tussle to find a to stay made us reach our room at 10.30pm in Kargil.
