Srinagar to Leh in one go - a very bad idea

I have only myself to blame. I was told to spend two days on the road from Srinagar to Leh, making a stop half way at Kargil.

Seven o'clock in the morning at the Srinagar taxi stand I found out that I could do this trip in a one very long day. I thought it was brilliant. I'd get to Leh late in the evening but I'd save one day.

The journey began well. I made friends with Natasha, a cool English gal, and a funny backpacker guy, who at our first fuel stop somehow managed to find weed that was growing on the empty lot next to the petrol station.

The smirk on his face was priceless when he showed us what he had bagged.

The first 10 hours of the drive went superbly despite the fact that for some reason we did not stop to eat anywhere and we were getting rather hungry. But the views were gorgeus. I envied the few people we met travelling this road on an old Enfiel.

Then it got dark. The load of trucks that passed by on the tiny road were no longer a source of nervous excitement. They were hell. On the other side there was a rocky wall and on the other a 300 meter fall.

Five hours passed in relative silence. Then our driver got a phone call after which he asked us if we had booked a guesthouse in Leh. Upon hearing that we hadn't he insisted that we'd stay for the night in Nimmu as we would not be able to find a place to stay in Leh that late.

It was about 11 o'clock. We were and hour away from Leh. We refused flatly.

Half an hour passed. Then our driver told us that the road to Leh was blocked because of an truck accident. We certainly did not believe that. This guy was obviously getting a comission from the guesthouse he wanted to take us to.

A little before midnight we reached a queue of trucks. We still did not believe that we could not go. We were only about 15 minutes from Leh and the day had been exhausting.

So we walked up to the other end of the queue to see what the problem was. And yes, there was indeed a truck laying on the road, blocking all the traffic on the tiny mountain pass.

Embarrassed we walked back to our Jeep to tell our driver that we'd stay in the guesthouse for the night.

Once we got there, it turned out that we were not the only ones wanting to stay there. What was left for us at the Chamba View guesthouse was a room which did not even have beds not to mention mattresses. The windows were broken and the Himalayan night outside was freezing cold. They only had one blanket to give us. Thank God I had a sleeping bag.

For this hideous room they charged us 300 rupees. But we had no choice. That night we had a very little sleep.

The next morning we woke up to a glorious sunshine and drove the last 15 minutes to Leh.

It had been quite a journey.

If you are to travel from Srinagar to Leh I strongly recommend doing it with the stop in Kargil.