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Down the Silk Route

Nubra Valley is Nature's oxymoron — a high altitude sandy desert flanked by mighty glaciers

GRAND PAST At Nubra Valley

Nubra valley is the northern-most corner of India. Bound by the Karakorams to the North, the Siachen Glacier to the West, China to the East and the world's highest motorable pass — Khardung La — to the South. It's a valley of pretty villages and people with Central Asian features and with a heavy Army presence.

Nubra is nature's oxymoron. There are 6,000-metre high peaks, mighty glaciers, on either side of the valley, but the valley floor itself is a high-altitude desert — complete with sand dunes, camels, oases and the thin, muddy Nubra River.

Going from Leh, the changes are obvious. From the Mongoloid faces, you move on to Central Asian features. The journey to Nubra takes about 8-9 hours, first winding up to Khardung La, which at 18,380 feet is the highest motorable pass in the world. The BRO (Border Roads Organisation) has a permanent post there, to make sure that the pass is usable even through most of winter. But if you go later in the season, August or September, the pass doesn't seem impressive. The snow would have melted leaving large black diesel spots and hundreds of diesel cans lying around the rickety BRO shack.

On the other side of the pass, the road winds down till you come to the first village in Nubra — Khardung. It's a pretty little patch of green with a few dozen brown houses and gives the eyes a good break from all the browns and reds of the mountains around. A few hours from there, you come to the village of Khalsar, a one-street village, which has a big Army base. As you leave Khalsar, the surroundings change ever so slightly, but suddenly instead of green fields, you are on a road winding through sand dunes. If driving on that stretch in the afternoon, it can also get very hot. Surprising, as you can see snow-capped mountains around you.

Bonding on the border

What you don't miss all along the route are the signs of the heavy Army presence. It keeps reminding you that you are close to the world's highest battleground at Siachen, which, at a length of more than 72 km, is also the biggest glacier in the world beyond the Polar region. The best of it though is to bump into someone from your part of the country — you hear a snatch of Marathi, a face that looks like it's from Tamil Nadu, a Bengali accent somewhere and it opens up a whole new way to bond. The men who are guarding the country's borders and the visitors from the distant cities often end up sharing their life stories over chai and Maggi noodles in this remote corner.

Nubra has two main towns, which are just bigger villages. Diskit, the first town you come to is non-descript to the point that there are no bazaar or restaurants. There are a couple of Nepali-run dhabas and a few shops on the main Bazaar Street. For stay, there are a few guesthouses; all of them priced relatively the same. While there is nothing to see in Diskit , it's a good place to make your base while you discover Nubra.

Hunder, the other town, is about 10 km away. On the way, there are blindingly white sand dunes. It's a strange vision, like someone with a whacky sense of humour decided to put a bit of Thar in the Himalayas. You can rent camels to explore the dunes, which can take almost a whole day. If you are more adventurous try a camel trek or a safari, to visit the monasteries and villages around. And if you are ready to venture further, check out the hot water sulphur springs at Panamik.

Highest airfield

Another place that you can see from the road but will not be allowed to visit is the world's highest airfield at Thoise. As of now, other than the Army planes, only Jet Airways flies to Thoise, but the service is limited to transferring troupes from Chandigarh or Delhi to Siachen.

But tourists aren't allowed beyond Hunder. Just 80 km from the LoC, with the world's highest airfield close by, it's strange to know that this stretch of Ladakh was once a busy highway of the Silk Route. You could get to any part of Central Asia through Nubra — Yarkhand, Gilgit, Lhasa, Kashgar and even beyond Turkistan and China. The Bactrian camels with their thick fur and double humps that now only serve tourist value were once the mainstay of the region, carrying silk, spices, paper and other coveted goods along the Route, making Nubra a self-sufficient and prosperous region.

Now however, what you mostly see are endless convoys of Army trucks making their way with fuel and rations to Siachen. But the Army has done its bit for the region as well. It is the provider-par-resistance here. From medical supplies to education to communication and transportation, it takes care of almost all the basic needs of the people here.

Nubra is a valley that has been a part of a grand past. Its present and most likely the future are marred by the Siachen conflict. But visiting this opera of sand dunes and snow-capped mountains will also remind you that there are still places in our country that are worth keeping pristine.

INDU PRASAD

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