Ah! Ladakh, famed for its cold weather, high altitude, and lack of civilization is the northernmost point of India for tourists and the geographically disabled. Since Leh is mostly visited by those wanting selfies rather than adventure, we at WildTents decided to change the odds by going all out adventuring, starting with a long drive from Nashik in northern Maharashtra with cars who were at best acceptable for the job at hand.
The trip was in planning for almost a year. Being a 16-day trip, we were initially very accommodating and rescheduling constantly to allow for the maximum number of people to take off work. As the year mark drew closer, we had to say “F*** this, we go on 15th July, if you can make it awesome, if not, scream at the sky”. As a result of a hard date being set, we abandoned Dushyant who refused to get free time when asked, and set off for Leh from Nashik.
On the way, lady luck abandoned us for greener pastures: we had a flat tire, brake pads becoming whatever the opposite of a brake pads are followed by another flat tire, all-night drives, con men trying to charge tolls on bad roads, a truck causing us to see the stairway to heaven and the worst problem of them all: closed alcohol shops! All the suffering made us enjoy brighter parts of the adventure more.
We got to camp in the hills, we got to experience views that few can speak off, we learned the history of one of the original Indian empires and got to live through the music video of Michael Jackson’s Earth Song as the deserts became green like they were being resurrected right in front of our eyes during the drive.
This is the point that I ruin your day with photos and a video from the trip while not telling you anything more. You’re going to need to come back regularly for the next few weeks for the full story. There are three reasons we are doing this as episodes:
1. It’s a really long story
2. I’m exceptionally lazy
3. Okay, there are only two reasons but I said three earlier and I’m too lazy to go back and change it.
Check out the photos below while following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or our website’s RSS feed to see this full adventure playout.
