The rich and fertile valley of Nubra was open to tourists as recent as 1994 and thus most parts of it remain unexplored and unknown - still a mystery to the outside world. At a lower altitude than Leh, it has warmer climate and is greener as well.
Beginning our trek in Leh, the capital of Ladakh at 11500ft, we spend 4 nights in to get ourselves well acclimatised and the days are spent rightfully visiting monasteries , monuments, taking short hikes before beginning the trek.
We then embark on a trek very few have been on. We first drive to the famous turquoise blue lake of Pangong at 4268m is one of the largest lakes ( 120km) of which only 1/3 rd of the lake lies in India as the rest of the lake lies in Tibet and return to the village of Durbuk from where we begin our trek on a path taken by shepherds when the Shyok river gets too high to cross in the summer. We will cross the Nebuk la (5440m) and descend to the Shyok valley ending the first half of the trek in the village of Hotong. We then drive to Hundar before continuing on our trek through a lovely gorge and highland pastures up the Sniu Sumdo valley – an area visited only by the locals who bring their sheep and yaks here for grazing. The pastureland is rich here as it is fed by the numerous mountain streams. After climbing Ajangilung ( 6060m) and some more unnamed peaks here, we cross Lasermola ( 5150m)to descend down the Phyiang valley ending our trek in Phyiang from where we drive to Leh.
Day 1. Del to Leh. Rest, relax and acclimatise. Hotel
Day 2. Around Leh Sightseeing Over night at Hotel leh.
Day 3. S/S Shey Thikshey Matho and Stok. Over night at hotel Leh.
Day 4 Drive Leh to Hemis Monastery. Set up camp. Lunch at camp and after noon walk to the Gotsang Above Hemis Monastery and evening back to camp.
Day 5. Hemis to Spangmik( Pangong lake). Over night camp at Pangong,
Day 6. Spangmik to Durbuk (Patsa) After break fast we drive to Durbuk in route visit Shachukul Monastery and Tangtse monastery and the great Lama of Ladakh Togdan Rinbochey foot print at Laga Durbuk.over night at Patsa camp. Here we meet with the horses for the trek.
Day 7. Durbuk (Patsa) to Rely Village,(4/5 hours walk). Over night camp at Rely.
Day 8. Rely to Tangyar Phu 7/8 hours. Today we cross 5250meter high pass Neybukla. Over night camp.
Day 9. Tangyar Phu to Tangyar Village 3 hours walk. Tangyar is a small and pretty village nestled in the valley.
Day10. Tangyar to Khungru 4/5 hours walk.
Day 11. Khungru to Hotong, 4/5 hours walk. Drive to Hunder village. Over night camp at Hundar.
Day 12. Nubra valley tour - Disket Monastery, Samstanling monastery. Over night at same camp.
Day 13. Second section of trek starts today, we walk from Hundar to Hunder Dok Skarchan Camp. 5/6 hours.
Day 14. Skarchan to Sumdo 5/6 hours walk and over night camp.
Day 15. Continue up the valley to the base of Ajangilung or neighbouring Dawa peak to high camp. We follow a small stream to high camp until we reach the terminal moraine of the glacier.
Day 16. We walk to the top of ridge climb Dawa peak – a straight forward climb to the summit ( 6000m). Return to base camp.
Day 17. Rest day
Day 18. Back track to Hundar Dok which we follow to our earlier camp at Brokgongma, a small village with beautiful views of the mountains in the Hundar valley. We pass a village school here.
Day 19. Continue our gradual climb across the pastures carpeted with flowers in August following a stream for another 5 hrs to camp at Thanglasgo or a little further to the base of Lasermola at 4800m. There is a tradition that 2 – 3 families from the village of Hundar Dok come here every summer with the animals of all the villagers for grazing and whilst here they make cheese , butter for the villages. Camp is at a very beautiful spot on the banks of the river. 5 – 5 ½ hrs.
Day 20. Leaving the pastures we climb to the snow line and moraine until the top of Lasermola pass at 5400m taking about 2 – 3hrs to the top. At the pass we are rewarded with excellent views of the Karakoram mountains and the Ladakh and Zanskar range of mountains . For those who have more energy they can go a bit further and higher for better views. There will be snow at the pass so we leave camp early to make the crossing early . From here we descend to the Phyiang valley to camp at 4500m. 7 hrs.
Day 21. We descend to Morobuk pastures and then to Phyiang. We get wonderful views of the Stok range of mountains today. Meet with vehicles at the roadhead and drive to Leh ( 45mins).
Day 22. Day at leisure.
Day 23. Fly back to Delhi.
