Kokernag is famous for its huge botanical garden. It was a humongous garden - miles and miles of gardens with every kind of flower, plant, shrub and tree you could want to see. And exquisitely well maintained too! The sun was out and everything was lovely and one had to fight the urge to leap around and do pastoral dances, or imitate old-time Bollywood actors and sing songs while running around trees!
The name ‘Koker Nag’ refers to its springs of course - there are five springs there, and the ‘Koker’ means ‘Chicken’ in Kashmiri, derived from the Sanskrit ‘kukkut’. The springs gush out of the base of a thickly wooded hill from where it divides into channels, which resembles the claw-foot of a hen, hence the name. These springs give forth a lot of water - and this has been channeled into a lovely stream which runs through the garden and waters it. They have  built a number of bridges across the channel - arched, scenic, rustic …something for every taste - and beautiful gardens on both sides.
I geared up and rode off to Sinthan top -i.e - the top of Sinthan Pass - the mountain pass which connects Kashmir valley to Kishtwar district. This is a reasonably high pass at about 3700 meters above sea level, and would be one of the three high passes I would do in this ride.  No one stays there - obviously…it’s very high  - only the shepherds might be spending some time there in summer while grazing their flocks.
This was the third exit out of Kashmir after the main Jammu- Srinagar highway and the Mughal road - and so was well maintained.
What a wonderful ride! As soon as I left Kokernag town, civilisation seemed to vanish and it was just me and the road and the high mountains. It was a wonderful day today - which was awesome luck for me.
The roads were in good condition, and there wasn’t much traffic  - so I could gun the bike and bend the bike over the turns and laugh as I scraped the footpegs on the road! WOOHOO! What a rush!
I reached the top of the pass and looked with satisfaction at the Highways Authority signboard which welcomed me to Sinthan top and informed me that Kishtwar was just 53 km away and this was the route to  Jammu and Kishtwar.
It was a magnificent view from the pass - you could see the bare treeless mountain ranges spread out around you in all directions, with the black tarmac of the winding roads writhing like endless snakes in both directions
I turned the bike around - and the signboard now told me that I was on the road to Vailoo, Kokernag, Achabal, Anantnag and Daksum via NH244 and I should please visit again - but for now - wished me a happy journey.

I rode back down very slowly to soak in the views.