Independent Trekking and Travel

Hi from Holland,I did half the trek, from Padum to Darcha in mid-September 2014, most of it solo. It took me six days, including a daytrip to Pughtal Gompa. Pictures can be found here: http://followhans.smugmug.com/India-Zanskar/ . The last picture of that gallery is the map I made based on my GPS recording. Download the (adapted) GPS recording here: https://db.tt/dnZP6h0vIt was a marvelous trek, with beautiful scenery and lovely little villages with homestay options for the first 3 nights. I constructed my own place to sleep for the last two nights, with a tarp and a good down sleeping bag (it was still very cold though). Note that they have started constructing a road which will go from Darcha to Padum (and on to Kargil), and also to Pughtal Gompa. With Indian building speed it will still take a while before it's done, but I already met up with some building activity, especially after Shingo-La, down to Darcha. If you want to do this trek, don't wait too long.If you don't feel like finding your own place to sleep after Kargyak and want to limit it to homestays, you could also double back from there and end again in Padum, with a daytrip from Kargyak to Upper Lakang to enjoy the scenery closer to the pass. It's well worth it and easily doable with a reduced pack. I would advise against going from Kargyak to the pass and back in one day.These was my itinerary:*) Day 1: when I was there, the "road" (very rough) had been extended towards a place called Anmu, about 40km from Padum. Shared taxis go there and back to/from Padum and take about two hours. At Amnu there is a nice tea tent, where you can also spend the night. I walked on 8km to the lovely village of Cha, which is a much nicer place to (home)stay than Purne.*) Day 2: daytrip to Pughtal Gompa, going there straight from Cha and going back on the other side of the river via Purne, where you can have tea and stock up on snacks. This is a lovely daytrip (19km). The monastery is simply amazing and the scenery is great. The colour of the river is uncanny. We caught the monks at lunch, as you can see in the pictures.*) Day 3: from Cha to Kargyak. This was a long day (26km), perhaps a bit too long. Homestays were also possible in the villages underway, so don't worry about spending the night. I passed through the main valley with the little villages and the friendly villagers working in the fields. I had tea in a house underway and later at a tea tent, where I got some snacks as well. It was closed when I got there, but the man came up a few miutes later when he saw me. At the end of the day the huge mountain/rock of Gumburanjon was visible. Very impressive. There is a side valley just before Kargyak, with another village as well. I regretted afterwards not having a look at that valley, so I'd recommend taking two days to get from Cha to Kargyak and add the side valley as well.*) Day 4: I was not 100% well the fourth day, so I made it a short one. I went from Kargyak to Lower Lakang, at the foot of the Gumburanjon. It was about 12km. I made my own bivouac there. There was no tea tent, but I brought my own food. I would recommend going about 5km further to Upper Lakang, which is more beautiful and has more options to make your own bivouac, which many half-ruins of huts, but I only found that out the next day :-)*) Day 5: The day of the pass. I crossed the 5km to Upper Lakang where the ascent to the pass starts. It's not technically difficult nor very steep, but the altitude and fatigue of the previous days - not to mention the 15-20kg on my back - made it a pretty good challenge :-). The pass is a special place, with prayer flags and all. Going down I found an abandoned shepherd's hut where I stayed the night. There was also a tent camp nearby where you could stay the night. Total length of the day according to the GPS: 18km.*) Day 6: the longest day (28km) and almost all of it down. The beginning was very beautiful, but after a few hours the road building activity started and popped the spell a bit to be honest. In the end I walked down to a few kms from Darcha, where I hitched a lift on a tractor. I spent the night at the Darcha bridge - 100 rupees for a bed inside a restaurant :-). Buses leave there early in the morning. So I didn't go into Darcha town itself which was a few kms further. Note that there were no tea tents the whole day and that the last half was on a proper asphalt road. At Palamao the road crosses a bridge and you might be tempted not to follow the road and go down on the other side of the river, through nice fields etc, but don't do that. You'll get into major difficulties down below.The next morning I was on my way to Manali :-)I hopes this helps other people who want to have some off-the-beaten-track adventures.Cheers,Hans   

Hi You all, Thanks SO much for sharing all this information ! In 1 week I will be in Ladakh and want to trek solo. It is very incouraging to know that it is possible. Unfortunatly I couldn't open Your links Hans, neither GPS nor Photos. What tool did You have for the GPS? I bought one, but stupidly it doesn't work with apple products. My question: On this trek Lamayuru to Dacha: Is it easy to find/see the trek or could one get lost? I will of course try to get a map in Leh and do have the cicero guide, but still. That is my only worry. I plan to first drive to Nubra Valley as HH the Dalai Lama will be there on 18th July +/-, and walk south and then  - hope it works with hich hike or bus??? Cross over on the Leh Srinagar Road to Lamayuru to start the trek, maybe visitin Alchi on the way. If anyone is in Leh starting from 15th July 2018, I am  happy to gang up . Best regrads, andrea