Pangong - Nubra Part 2

This is substantially the crossing of the Wari La, which we accomplished meeting only a couple of vehicles.
The ascent, in a completely bare valley, is all in sight from the very beginning. When you are in Sakti, it is hard to believe that the saddle that you see in front of you is 5300 metres high.
An unpleasant feature is that, with alarming regularity, the switchbacks have ascent on one side and descent on the other! Of course, the ascent stretches are longer than the others but... the engineering of this road is truly hard to understand.
The pass is totally desert, only with a ruined house, which of course would be better than nothing as an emergency shelter.
The other side is wonderful, with a wide valley in which the road descends gently among marmots and yaks.
In Labaps we were hosted by an ayurvedic doctor. The next day we ascended to Digar, a little village dominating high cultivated terraces.
We then reached a totally desert Shyokh valley, with the road plagued by landslides. Here, we understood why we had not net anybody before. Only at the junction with the Khardung La road we were relieved, finally sue that we did not need to trace back the Wari La due to an interrupted road!
From Khalsar easily to Sumur. We heard rumors that the road of Nubra was in terrible conditions, whence we put aside the idea to reach Panamik and its hot springs.

Photos: WORK IN PROGRESS!

Below I report the description of my panorama of the private temple in Labaps:
http://www.panorama-photo.net/panorama.php?pid=18283

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To understand the genesis of this photo, we have to start at least from the day before.
On the roads of Ladakh there are two wayfarers, who have the proposal to concatenate the three big passes between the Indus and the Shyokh valley, namely Chang La (5372), Wari La (5308) and Khardung La (5368).
This is the day of Wari La, which they tackle starting from Sakti. After a couple of kilometers, however, they already come to a stop. Namely, hearing a sound of drums coming from a school, they become curious to see what is happening, and so they dare to enter the gate. This reveals boys and girls sitting in rows, holding yellow flowers, because they are waiting for the leader of a charity project supporting the school: she has just arrived in Ladakh from Germany, and is expected to arrive within minutes. When this happens, the two are invited inside, to take part to the official ceremony.
This is an incredible experience, but of course also steals time to the Wari La, which is no minor pass. Add that one of the two has a wounded leg, being fallen on treacherous gravel during the descent from the previous pass, namely Wari La. He even has difficulty in mounting on the bicycle, for which job he sometimes needs help from the companion. This has, however, at least one advantage: to limit the rate of photographs...
Beyond the school, the road is nearly completely deserted, and the two discover to have a whole Himalayan road at their exclusive disposal. The stop at the pass is very short, since there is substantially nothing to see. Short after the pass the one with the aching leg needs an Aspirina, but afterwards it is only a long descent inside a wonderful valley, with the Himalaya at both sides and the Karakorum in the background.
Darkness falls before they reach the Shyokh valley, and at a certain fork they happen (by mistake or half-willingly, this is difficult to judge) to turn to a side valley. They come to a point after which the road has been swept away by floods. At the same time, however, a light appears - as welcome as unexpected - on the opposite side of the river. The problem is that there seems to be neither a bridge, nor the possibility to ford. But if there is a house, they argue, there must be also an access. So, they leave the bicycles and they start to walk along the destroyed road. After some tweaks, they discover an access to the house. They find a man, who receives the two at first with visible suspicion, but then more friendly. He also has for them both an enchanting room and a basic meal.
What is depicted here comes the following morning. Amchi - this is the name of the man- leads his two unexpected hosts to visit his private temple. They also discover that he is a charismatic and renowned ayurvedic doctor - ayurvedic meaning shortly: no Aspirina at all...