Markha Valley

The Markha Valley was the location for our next trek in the Himalaya, and it didn't disappoint!  This one was to be a bit more challenging, both in distance and height, but we were ready.  this time we had 2 maps and a guide book with directions, a big step up from our last jaunt.  However, in typical Indian style, it made no difference what so ever!

Every map and guide we saw told a different story, different distances, different times, not even the villages were in the same spots!  However we soldiered on confident that it would all sort itself out eventually and we would make it through the 5 days problem free.

We made our way to the bus stop an hour early to ensure we actually got a seat for the ride (top tip if you're in India, seats fill up quickly) and jumped out in a village/ collection of houses known as Chilling.  Here we started our walk along the road to the river crossing and official start of the trek.  Seeing us toursits plodding along the road a truck driver took pity on us and gave us a lift for the few kms to the trolley.  Yep, I said trolley.  That's how we were to cross the raging Zanskar river, the same river we rafted down a few days earlier.  Once there we waited around for the locals to finish their lunch, then lucky me, was called up first, not because I was the lucky one, more that I probably looked the most gullible!  So over I went and was then put to work haulling everyone else over, lucky me.  Hauling people and laugage over the river at about 3500 metres is hard work, and i don't mind admitting that i was completely spent by the time all 12 people were over!

Matt's work out for the day

With everyone safely over (eventually) we hit the dry and dusty trails along the Markha valley, a much different place than the baby trek, the villages were more like a couple of houses in a relative group or just a single parachute tent (pile of rocks with a parachute over the top) in the middle of nowhere.  We left the tent behind and opted for homestay accomodation after our expereinces last time.

One of the locals

The homestays were a great way of getting an insight into the local life, but were very basic, we ate the local food ( a few vegies with  watery but yum sauce and a pasta type lumpy thing or chipaties and jam).  But most are very friendly and make you feel at home, pouring more chang into your cup than you actually want!

Skiu home, just hanging onto the mountain

Our days on the trail were pretty big, walking about 20kms per day (starting at 3500m to over 4000m) with a feeling of actually being a little more remote, no roads in the area, donkeys trudging along occasionally with other trekkers gear (lazy buggers!) and generally not seeing too many other people.  We wandered through high altitude meadows and valleys with yak and sheep herders doing their thing, admired the awesome views of snow capped mountains and rushing rivers before arriving in Nimaling, a dot on the map containing a parachute tent with food, a place to sleep and a collection of donkeys, yaks, goats and sheep wandering around camp.  At 4700m sleeping is hard to do, its more like resting your eyes while its dark.  We finally got into camp in time for a bit of dinner before the clouds came in and gave us a rattle with a bit of a thunder storm.  Lucky for us we were in one of the few water proof tents and were spared the middle of the night shuffle.  As luck would have it there wasn't too much rain, most of it came down as snow and when we woke in the morning the high passes in front of us were all white.  Enter the Kongmaru La.

Looking back at Nimaling camp

Looking up to Kongmaru La

The Kongmaru La was our highest pass for the trek at 5200m and was standing right there in front of us saying come on, get up!  We plodded up one step at a time (very small steps) with our lungs working over time, but with enough energy to look over our shoulder and take in the views... until we noticed the cloud coming.  Like a solid wall a huge bank of cloud began to chase us up the mountain, finally swallowing us a few hundred metres from the top.  With the cloud came more snow, and out went the views, but reaching the top was still a great achievement.  We celebrated Sophs birthday with a special bottle of Sprite (she'd been craving one every day of walking since the start of the baby trek, so I snuck one in from Leh) before we got too cold and headed down the other side.  And what a descent, we basically dropped straight down 2kms of altitude before things leveled out a bit, the marmots looked at us a bit sconfused, the mountain sheep, just ran around us and on we went until we reached the river which we were to follow for the rest of the day. 

Birthday Energy!

Another local

Here we hoped things would ease up and we could enjoy a leisurely stroll, but oh no, not yet.  With the storm last night came all the rain down lower and our little river was a bit higher than it probably should have been.  This meant that we had more river crossings than we wanted and a track that seemed to disappear all too often.  I don't remeber how many times we crossed the river, but well over ten times, and it was moving, and freezing!

River crossing number 1... this is an easy one!

We eventually made it to Sang Sumdo, were we called it quits and crawled into a very cozy little homestay for the night feeling very happy with ourselves.  The next morning we jumped on the 8am minibus that took us to leh.  Of course, the 8am bus left at 7:30am (we're getting the hang of India stretchy time) and launched down the road... for about 10 metres before veering off to dodge the river which had taken over the road.  In Ladakh its like the roads are just guides showing you the direction to travel rather than being a path to drive on, they are washed away all over the place and look more like dot to dot puzzles.  So the bus does a few more river crossings for us.  Its a sign of things to come when you first get on the bus and see three men, one chanting religious words, another fiddling with his payer beads and the thrid spinning his prayer wheel.  We just told them to keep up the good work!!

our two boots at it again!