The last day of our abortive hike into Zanskar was a relatively short walk from Wanla over a relatively low 3700 meter pass to Lamayuru, the monastery town where we had already visited a festival earlier in June just before the start of our treks. This hike was actually unnecessary since we had already made it back to a road and we had a taxi waiting, but since we had time we decided to take in what has classically been considered the first day of this trek.

I got in trouble with Marcia by calling it a “low pass,” since the 500-meter (1600 foot) climb was still a significant effort. The terrain was not the spectacular canyons of the previous day but rather a series of dry washes reminiscent of Death Valley. Still, it was nice in a deserty way and it was satisfying to see the back of the large monastery when we rounded the final bend.

After lunch we were back on the road – the very long and bumpy road to the Zanskar valley. The two and a half day journey was one of the things we were trying to avoid by hiking in, but with that not an option we settled into the rhythm of an Indian road trip.

The first afternoon's drive was along the supposedly good road that connects Leh to Srinigar. We only had to go halfway to Kargil, and we had already covered half of that distance by starting in Lamayuru. Even so, it took us three hours to cover 65 kilometers (40 miles) because the boys from BRO had done an excellent job tearing up the pavement. It seems they were trying to widen the strategically important road to two lanes, but rather than do a few kilometers at a time they just tore up everything. One lone paving machine had finished about 500 meters, but the rest was like a giant construction zone.

At one point the road was blocked by a minor accident that had happened when a military truck had scraped a commercial truck on a narrow bend. They couldn't have been going more than 2 kilometers per hour and the Moslem driver of the commercial truck claimed had had been stationary, which was probably true. But with thirty Indian military men from the convoy immediately joining the argument, it seemed likely he might have to pay for the ripped canvas. Fortunately we got them to move the trucks off the road so we could get by.

Just before stopping for the night, we passed a carved rock with a large Buddha that may be more than 2000 years old, dating from the first wave of Buddhist expansion across India.