Towards Khardung La

Snapped on my Galaxy Tablet, a man who seemed to be on a very long walk from Leh towards the Khardung Pass on the world's highest motor road. Not only was the road narrow, precipitous and scattered with rock falls, but it was snowing and this walker had wrapped his face against the cold.

This was my first photography tour and I had been looking forward to a leisurely time in a Srinagar houseboat, but as news of trouble in Kashmir became more serious there was a late change of itinerary and the group chose instead to switch to Ladakh. As it was a late change and I knew very little about the region, I was surprised by the snow. I was also finding out about photography tours and was tickled that despite other members of the group being far more experienced photographers with some serious gear, my Galaxy was great for taking pictures in difficult conditions because of the way the focus works. I did not have time to try to adjust the settings on the Nikon, and as others were having trouble getting shots perhaps it would not have been worth the trouble.

The road was quite busy with cars, trucks, motorbikes and minibuses as well as a few walkers, who appeared to be local people rather than foreign tourists because of the clothing. Wrapped up well . he appears to have protection against snow blindness on the long walk, 39 km from Leh to Khardung La and perhaps even further over the pass to the Nubra Valley.  Although only the higher section had snow, this was for several kilometres at high altitude.  At this point I had not been particularly affected by altitude, although others in the group were less lucky.  

The original picture was far from straight and because we were moving there is quite a lot of distortion, but the picture captures some of the amazing sights along the road.