Photos

It would perhaps be more accurate to describe the Baralacha La not as a pass but instead as a plateau where the heads of three valleys meet at an altitude of 5000 meters. A land of ice, rock, snow and sky: the collision of mountain systems – the Pir Panjal, Great Himalaya and Zanskar ranges –make this the heart of the Himalayas. To the south west in Suraj Tal – the lake of the sun and source of the Bhaga river which runs down to Keylong and on to Tandi. The road to the north continues on to Ladakh eventually reaching Leh after another 12 or so dusty, exhausting but mind-blowing hours. The third option is to head south east where after a kilometre or so you come across the first trickles of what will later become the mighty Chandra river. The Chandra cuts a course through an increasingly high sided valley before bending west. At Tandi it is met and reinforced by the Bhaga, then, upon leaving Himachal Pradesh and entering Kashmir, this ‘double river’ becomes the Jhelum. After crossing the Punjab the Jhelum joins the Indus and, several hundred kilometres later, the snow that falls at the Baralacha La empties into the Arabian sea.