I am back in Leh, alive and well after the most incredible 3 week journey. There is far too much to write in one post here - I will need to get home and consolidate some notes (I have scrawled about 200 pages of my journal) before putting a decent account on here but, in the meantime, here are some of the key events of the trip:
We walked about 200 miles in total, at altitudes ranging from 11,500ft to 16,750ft. We crossed 10 mountain passes, which according to Kim is a high number for a Ladakhi trek. My legs certainly know that they've done some work and, happily, my stomach has shrunk accordingly. Not sure how much weight I've lost, but it is in the order of several kilos. Not bad when you factor in the huge amount of food consumed on the trip - carbs overload every day but then, a lot of energy was expended and the body needs much more calories at altitude than at sea level.
I have a great beard! I am deliberating about bringing it home or not - the consensus here is that I do return looking like Brian Blessed, even if it brings certain threatened marital benefit restrictions!
I have taken 1100 photographs - the camera and batteries held up brilliantly, the latter mainly because all batteries went in a sock, in my sleeping bag every night, to stay warm. The second battery (of 4) was still going strong at the end of the trek and, when I got back to the hotel yesterday and charged them all, batteries 3 and 4 still held virtually a full charge after 3 weeks!
We had some interesting weather, ranging from searing heat to snow and rain storms, deep frosts and sand storms. I have never consumed or been covered in so much dust - on several days freezing glacial rivers were utlised for full baths just to get the worst of it off - this brought on the raising of my voice by 2 octaves.
On day 3 (thankfully a rest day), I went down with several symptoms of acute mountain sickness (AMS). I seriously wondered if I would be able to carry on but, turning back would not have helped much as it would have entailed re-crossing a near-5000m pass on the way back to a road. Fortunately, Kim (the trek leader) had a supply of a fabulous drug called Diamox, which accelerates the acclimitisation process by a factor of two. By the next morning, I was able to trek and, after a couple more days of the drug, I was fully OK. The only side effect of this course is that it makes one urinate like a thoroughbred race horse. This means that about 4 litres of water a day are required to stay properly hydrated. Take a look at your litre bottles of cordial to see just how much that is!
We have been invited in to local village houses, I have drunk Chang (the local barley beer - it is delicious and tastes not unlike Devon scrumpy, probably just as deadly), helped to thresh and sort barley during harvest, visited countless beautiful gompas of varying sizes and I have given almost 50 youngsters pencils brought from the UK - incredible what tiny gifts such as these means to these kids.
On the wildlife front, things were a little sparse. Some serious, unseasonal, rains that lasted weeks up to 7 days before our arrival eroded large areas of grazing land for blue sheep and ibex. We did see both of these high-level animals at a distance but only on one occasion each. There are loads of marmots everywhere, we saw several pika mice (like hamsters), a dead red fox, red and black kites, peregrine falcons, thousands of bloody pigeons, and himalayan magpies. Redstarts (like a slightly large robin) followed us everywhere. We saw a wallcreeper in Yulchung.
By far the most exciting finds, however, were several sets of fresh prints from snow leopards, in two different locations. The first set was about a week old, the second from within 24 hours of our visit. This was thrilling as there are only thought to be 200 in the whole of Ladakh. To see prints from 1% of the population on a summer trek was phenomenal.
There is so much more to tell, but I am sure this is already quite long enough for now. Once back in the UK, next week, I will upload some photos to share some of the views and sights to which we have been treated. For now, I need to go and do some serious shopping and get packing for my return to Delhi and then home.
Jullay!
Greg
