The next two days are bonus days! 
We were supposed to ride down to Chandigarh to end our trip there - but I thought that it was a wicked waste of time, and a most unpleasant ride to boot. So we had a brainwave - we found that it is possible to ship the bikes overland from Leh to Mumbai and we could fly out from Mumbai! This gave us two bonus days! so we are going to explore the Indus and the enigmatic Dah Hanoo valley
Our first view of the Indus for the day as we ride out from Leh
We follow the Indus to Nimmu, where the Zanskar merges into the Indus. What a beautiful confluence. 
I have seen this confluence from above many times, but this time we ride down to the confluence point and ride up the Zanskar valley
This road is going to connect to Padum, and hence will be the other end of Darcha Padum road which we had explored upto Shingo La
What a river! And what a superb road! 
I am forced to stop every few minutes for a click - it is so beautiful!
The mountains are in different colours, and these change every few kilometers
It's uncanny
We could have stayed there all day - but we had to leave to get to Dah Hanoo
We go back to the Sangam and follow the Indus downstream
The Indus goes along the highway for a bit, then it leaves the highway and enters the Dah valley. This valley is the historic route by which the Aryan tribes entered India, and it still seems like time has stood still since then. 
The rocks and valleys look the same as they must have seemed to the wary advancing Aryan tribesmen
The views are simply magical
We are spellbound
Just ...wow
Spare a thought to the brave people who build roads in such terrain... a memory stone to a brave armyman who lost his life here.