Dras has been given the title of "Second Coldest Inhabitable Place in the World"! It is also called 'The Gateway to Ladakh' and at a height of 10990ft. Its a very small town and gained fame during the Kargil war. It was bitterly cold at night so do remember to bundle up!
The Dras landscape is really beautiful and we got plenty of amazing landscape shots! If you have time on hand, you can even trek upto Tiger Hill, a strategically important hill during the Kargil war.
Just a short distance ahead of Dras is the Kargil / Dras War Memorial also known as Vijaypath, a must stop over place. The memorial is in the memory of the soldiers and officers of the Indian Army who were killed during the 1999 conflict between India and Pakistan. The main attraction of the whole memorial is the Sandstone wall, in the open, which has the names of all the Indian army personnel, who laid their lives during the Kargil war
The roads are okay with a few rough patches. However the scenic beauty of the route makes you forget about complaining. We also left behind any signs of greenery and saw brown stark mountains all over.
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| The town of Kargil |
Many bikers prefer to stay at Kargil instead of Dras. Kargil is a bigger town than Dras and only around 56km from Dras. The choice is yours and we had no complaints staying over at Dras instead of Kargil.
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| Stopover for tomato soup and a game of carrom! |
You can stop for lunch at Mulbekh or any of the other smaller towns on route. Namika La is one of two high passes between Kargil and Leh, the other is the even higher Fotu La Pass. They are very scenic and will definitely leave you awe struck. Be sure to keep some time on hand to revel in the beauty and take lots of snaps.
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| Nemika la Pass at 12,139 feet |
Both the passes are truly beautiful and riding an Enfield Bullet in these passes is an experience in itself. Hats off to BRO for maintaining some of the best motorable roads in India. Crossing the peak of the passes, we felt a sense of peace enveloping us. Infact it seemed to seep into our souls and we could have spent hours soaking in the beauty and solitude of the place. Unfortunately we had places to go and destinations to reach.
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| Spellbinding beauty of the mountains |
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| Fotu la pass at 13,478 feet |
Advice : Carry a GoPro or similar action camera with you. We did not have one and really regret capturing the moments on camera. We would also recommend that you have atleast 1 pillion rider with you as they can take snaps throughout the journey. We were all solo riders so had to stop whenever we wanted to take snaps. If we had a pillion rider we would have ended up with 5x times the number of snaps we ended up clicking.
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| The town of Lamayuru with its famous monastery |
Initially we had thought of reaching Leh instead of stopping over at Lamayuru. Unfortunately one of our riders caught a bad cold and had fever. We had to ride slower and had to stop often too. We were also feeling very lazy today and rode at a very slow pace. Drass/Kargil to Leh is easily doable in a day. Just make sure you leave early as there are a few points between Lamayuru and Leh which are must stop overs!
It was surprisingly very cold in Lamayuru and very very breezy. We stopped at a hotel just beside the Lamayuru Monastery and settled in for the night. The hotel is run by a former army captain who was very warm, accommodating and friendly.