Tue, May 23: Nubra to Leh, Ladakh, India

It was sunny and clear and lovely (and warmer) today than yesterday so we have hopes of making it to Leh.  We delayed our departure as the driver and guide said that the pass wasn’t going to open until about noon.  Of course we took more pictures of the same scenery on the way back up.

We arrived at the North Pullu at about noon, had a quick bathroom break and headed up the mountain.

Again, more pictures of the same beautiful scenery.

Most of the way up we could see the pass but they had stopped traffic again and were only letting a very few at a time to go on up.  After an hour or so we were let through and headed up.  We didn’t see any signs of the avalanches but it was pretty warm (relatively speaking) so maybe everything had melted.  We didn’t stop at the pass but kept right on driving in the hopes of getting down successfully.

When we made it the South Pullu we discovered that all of the northbound traffic was being held there.  We estimated the backup to be around two miles…much of it with cars parked two abreast.  So we drove on a little sliver of the pavement and on the shoulder.

We eventually made it to our hotel in Leh where we were supposed to have two nights and an easy day in which to get laundry done.  Instead it was one night and hand laundry.  And at 7:00pm tonight we should get heat.  Yeah!!