Zanskar 1987

We took a “2 X 2 luxury coach” from the Delhi Inter State Bus Terminal to Manali, Himachal Pradesh. It was a full day journey from the hot plains to the Indian hill country, arriving at 1:00 am.

We met Huw on the bus and formed a trekking group of three. We all spent a couple of days in Manali, preparing for the “expedition“, purchasing materials for a tent, blankets, and a mountain of food.

Darcha (3,350m) was a disappointment, amounting to not much more than a collection of a few simple houses and two “hotels” with a police checkpoint. Neither of the hotels had beds, so we slept on the floor for a couple of nights while we acclimated to the higher elevation. We arranged horses with Norbu (55 rupees/day each for 2 horses) who seemed like quite a nice chap. Sheila sewed a door onto our small tarpaulin tent.

We started out from Darcha in the afternoon after a lunch of dhal bhat (rice and lentils). All three of us were struck with stomach cramps and later with some diarrhea. We were still hard hit from the intestinal attack on the second day and limited the walk that day to just two hours.

On the third day, we managed to reach Zanskar Sumdo and its tea shop. We spent two nights there, acclimating, still recovering from our stomach bouts.

We were largely fully recovered by the time we reached Ramjak (4385m). We wandered the rock gardens with marmots and I collected alpine flowers and pressed them in my journal.

We gradually ascended Shingo La (5062m) drinking plenty of fluids. We crossed a huge snow bridge and began a steep ascent early afternoon. We speculated that the pass was 3 or 4 minutes away. It turned out to be three hours further. Suddenly, I was struck by altitude sickness (nausea, vomiting), however our horses had gone ahead, so we pressed on. All strength was drained and I just felt like sleeping. It was a hard climb for me, and I was in no condition to enjoy the views at the pass. We made a steep, snow covered descent including crossing icy streams barefoot. I made it to camp, crashed out, drank some tea and soup that aided my recovery. We mostly slept soundly that night.

We all slept in, including Norbu. We descended further down a steep valley. A Mars bar partly invigorated us as we walked beneath the impressive face of Gumborangjan. We reached our first Zanskari village (Kargiakh) and kids begging for sweets. An old man tried my glasses on and seemed reluctant to return them to me. We pushed on to Table (one farm, plenty of dust and rocks). A young girl gave us a handful of fresh peas. We also met Tanzing Chumbel, a young monk, on his way to Phuktal Gompa.

The river valley narrows below Table into a series of canyons with an up and down trail. We stopped at the small collection of closely grouped farmhouses at Purne (3832m) early afternoon. It allowed us to wash and laze around for the remainder of the day.

It was a beautiful walk (side excursion) to Phuktal through a lovely red sandstone canyon, leading to an incredible monastic complex on the side of a cliff wall. The monks collected the 10 rupee fee and one in particular hounded us for kakka (sweets). We returned to Purne and made ourselves noodle soup for lunch.

From Purne, we went as far as Ichar, staging our journey, rather than rushing to Padum. We visited the perched village of Ichar and then had another short day through an impressive canyon, stopping at a pond just above Reru. That allowed us to relax, bathe, wash some clothes and wander Reru in tranquil surroundings. On our final day of the trek, we walked by Mune and the impressive Bardam Gompa, perched like an eagle’s nest on a giant rock.

We followed a jeep track (hard on the feet) reaching surprisingly quiet Padum (3565m). We stayed at the Chorala Hotel, run by Trumbel. He was a Zanskari who lived the winters in Kulu. He was wearing a Maradona T-shirt and listened to Dire Straits on his tape deck. He said that he was having a good season, grossing 70,000 rupees but his rent had doubled to 20,000 rupees.

The exiled Red Hat leader, a Rinpoche from Bhutan was to appear at a three day festival in nearby Sani, so we spent a couple of days going back and forth from Padum. Sani was buzzing with activity. On one of the days, we sat in the Gompa for a long afternoon of cramped legs. The puja went on for a long time in which virtually every vessel, vajra, cloth, etc in the Gompa was blessed. A small red cloth was passed out to each of us which we put over our eyes, then we dangled them from our ears.

Huw had left by then, but Sheila and I made an excursion to Zangla. Norbu was still looking for customers, tempted by a large group that was going to Lamayuru , but that was in opposite direction from his home and it was late in the season. We walked to Thonde and stayed there a night. We walked through Zogla, onto Zangla for a quick look and then headed towards Karsha. We camped out under a rock overhang. The next day went up a steep slope to Karsha and had a visit of the monastery before returning to Padum to wait for transport out of Zanskar.

After a couple of days wait, a truck arrived in Padum. We boarded the back of the uncovered truck just after noon and we left town 3 hours later. It started to rain, then snow. We huddled under our blankets and tent for protection from what became a blizzard. We were cold. Glaciers were below us and we went over Pensi La (4400m) and eventually to Rangdum well into the night. After an hour and half in Rangdum, the driver decided to stay there overnight so we erected our tent. We didn’t sleep very well and the truck horn blew at 4:15am and we packed up for another session in the truck. The bone jarring journey continued; we were constantly thrown about and we reached Kargil by 11:00 am. We checked into the Evergreen Hotel. I bought 2 “B class “ bus tickets for Srinagar. We woke up 3:15 am (no electricity in the hotel) and somehow managed to find our bus. By 7:30am, our bus reached the base of Zoja La to wait. No one seemed to know what was happening but eventually at 2:00pm all the buses and trucks took off in a mad flurry to wait at another checkpoint. Once 200 northbound vehicles had passed, our convoy could cross Zoja La. The scenery was spectacular but unnerving. We reached Srinagar at 9:00pm. A tout lead us to a run-down houseboat on the river for the night.

The following day, we made our way to the Houseboat Rolex to recover from our journey.