Thursday, September 8, 2016

Day 4 - The God's own Highway: Srinagar to Kargil

Day 4 - The God's own Highway: Srinagar to Kargil

Our houseboat's otherwise affable caretaker gets off the hook if you ask him to give you an early morning tea. So when i sensitized him last night that we would check-out at 5 he threw his usual tantrums but we didn't really have a choice & i could finally motivate him.

Barely half an hour into our 216 km long journey (which took us 8 hours to complete) the great nature started unfolding layers of its magnifisence. It was truly a treat to watch gentle yet pure greeny white water streams giving us their healing company for most part of our trip. The hills along the tricky road would challenge you for any colour blindness as you end up testing your cognitive skills to identify how many colours in different shades of Revlon are actually there on a single piece of rock!! You bow your head in respect when you see what precise chisel work is on display in the nature's workshop. I could hardly decide what to capture & what to leave! Such was my helplessnes in my effort to do justice to the sheer regality & elegance of this road (which at times i thought was teasing me) that my Pa had to gently remind me that we had some unfinished business.

Sonamarg disappointed as there was absolutely nothing to write home anything about it but we got the icing on our cake when we halted at the Drass Memorial. I went 13 years back in time when giving our final year engineering exam we got to know about the challenge our enemy had posed for us by intruding these vary heights which are so strategically located. Blood would run then when we would hear about the ongoing developments on war thru media. I once again had goose bumps as memories of the war & the war heroes who fought so valiantly in enormously challenging circomstances to save our Mother Nation's pride & honour. Meeting some of the soldiers was indeed a surreal experience.

There was nothing to do in Kargil & after landing at 1:30 pm we kept ourselves confined to the hotel room for the rest of the day.

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