On the other side of Khardung La, we had a long descent to reach the Nubra Valley, close to the Pakistani border. The views of the valley were amazing. Fields and villages clung to flatter sections before giving way to cliffs and canyons to the valley floor. We followed the canyon for a while before rounding a corner to reach Shyok Valley where a river trickled at the floor or soaring mountains. The river is clearly low right now but you can see the high water marks reach right across the valley floor.
As we're driving along the rough roads of the valley floor, we hit a snag - flat tire number two. Two is a funny number for flat tires. It usually means you have no spare since you've already replaced flat tire number one with the spare. As it turns out, this is probably about the twentieth or thirtieth time that these particular tires had been patched, judging by the complete lack of any tread and the myriad patches on the tubes. Alas, we're miles from nowhere and there was nothing to be done but start rolling....
After a quick visit to a tire shack a few kms down the road for another quick patch, we're back on the road (though we would get a third flat tire later, we had patched both flats and, thus, had a spare). We continued our tour of the valley visiting two Buddhist monasteries set high up on the hillsides. As you can imagine, the buildings and the views were fabulous.
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