Now came the big drive — big not because of distance (which, incidentally, was the longest thus far on the drive), but because we were finally heading to Leh. Heading out of Kargil, the roads were all right but deteriorated pretty fast, and the experience was “enhanced” by the endless army truck convoys. It is as if they never end — you feel you could keep overtaking one truck after another yet never finish, and if you take one little stop for food or otherwise, you do it all over again. The roads became good a few kilometres later and there were a lot of sharp bends, fun to zip through. There were arrow-straight stretches, too, and it was exciting to see how fast (safely, of course) we could take our SUV.
