From Phutkal to Leh

In the morning we left our school room to have breakfast down at the guest house. Than it was time to hike back to continue our trip to Leh.

Up in the mountain in the middle of the picture you can see Phuktal Gompa – a last look before we went round the corner towards the end of the trek.

If you pass a stream that comes right from the mountain you fill your bottle!

This guy was almost 90 years old and did walk up all the way with his bag. And he was quite fast as well.

This guy was not even a third of that and took a horse taxi up the mountain – together with some Asian tourists. Somebody told us that he is a big shoot in the system. Still he did not like that one can identify him on the picture. As soon as i lowered the Canon he was lowering the hand as well.

The usual road fixing. This is a never-ending story here. Some guys from England explained that the Himalayas are still “growing” and they do grow fast. So that is why we have all the road blocks and you have to constant take care of the roads. Makes sense in a way.

Military checkpoint

At a rest stop somewhere on the way to Kargil

The friendly owner of the place

Tired Spanish girl

Our “Tourist Bus”. It was really not a bad way to travel and it was way cheaper than a jeep! The downside: 19 hours of driving with the SAME driver! We got a bit worried when it got dark and we still had a few hundred curves to go in the mountains.