Road Trip to Leh (India): July 2009 – Day 7 of 10

Leh to Sonamarg

Sonamarg is located between Kargil and Srinagar.

We started at around 7 AM from our guesthouse in Leh to try and reach Srinagar by evening. It generally takes 10-12 hours to cover the 400-odd Km distance. Kargil is the midpoint.

The road was excellent as we started. We reached the Gurgudwara Patthar Sahib, a Sikh place of worship made and maintained by the Indian Army. It is among the world’s highest-located Gurudwaras at 12 thousand feet.

We had a great breakfast at Khalste, around 100 Km from Leh. We reached Kargil at noon, however we did not stop there. 40 Km from Kargil is Drass, the second coldest inhabited place on earth after a town in Siberia. Though at this time of the year and the day, the temperature was high enough to keep us comfortable in T-shirts. Here we also sighted Tiger Hill, from where intruders from across the border were famously flushed out by the Indian Army in the battle of 1999. Markings of the 10th anniversary celebrations of this victory could be seen on several mountain slopes.

We were 40 Km from Sonamarg when we realized that we were out of fuel. The next gas station was only at Sonamarg and we were still to cross the treacherous Zozi La pass. We asked for diesel from an army camp but could not get it. Then we tried asking the trucks passing by, offering to purchase it from them at a higher price than market, before finally getting 10 liters for Rs. 500, almost double the market rate. This exercise consumed an hour and we thought it prudent not to go on till Srinagar but stop a few kilometers before at Sonamarg.

Sonamarg is a heavenly place with lush green mountain slopes with herds of sheep and horses grazing, and a gentle white stream running across the valley. The famous Hindu pilgrimage, the Amarnath Yatra, also starts from a place close to Sonamarg. As a result there was heavy military presence in the area since these pilgrims are often a target of terrorists.

The main market of Sonamarg is exceedingly small and the large guesthouse of J&K Tourism Development Corporation occupies the centerstage. We went straight to its office and a friendly old man showed us our options to stay for the night. We took a luxury cottage up on the mountain slope for a discounted price of Rs. 1800 for the night. The cottage had two spacious bedrooms, a drawing room and a kitchen. One of us is a tea freak and he was overjoyed to see the stove where he later made his own tea, the way he likes it. We had a filling dinner down at the market. We also bought some tasty Kashmiri apples.

We were happy to have stayed at Sonamarg since it would have been very late if we tried reaching Srinagar today, plus we would have missed the sightseeing at Sonamarg which we plan to do tomorrow.