Am finally getting to linking in photos from India! For a couple of weeks I did an “Intrepid” tour called “Mountains and Mystics”. Mostly in Himachal Pradesh (“Himalayan State”), with a little bit of time spent in Punjab. This photo was taken at a farmstay in the Chamba Valley, in Himachal. In the distance you can see a wee bit of snow melting away on some peaks that some of us had walked over a few days before. I was a bit apprehensive about the walk, but decided to go anyway. At the time, there were observations from the valleys that suggested that there might have been up to three feet of snow to plough through on our trek. But when we got up there, our route never took us through more then about 15cm of it. A couple of people left the tour a few days before because of injuries on a day walk – Glen had a fairly serious fall while heading above the snow line near McLeod Ganj. He fell 10 metres down a steep slope, was knocked out and scored a badly dislocated shoulder. Hitting a couple of trees and rocks might have been what saved his life.
It’s a lovely spot to rest at, but requires some effort to get to, even if you’re not trekking. The nearest road is a steep half-hours walk away. and is a bit of a trek in itself. No running hot water here, to bathe you scoop water over yourself from a bucket heated in the kitchen. There is no shortage of cold water though. It runs continously from taps fed by mountain streams. Quite shocking to see for somebody who has grown up in Perth – always felt an urge to close the taps.
What most impressed in this region, apart from the scenery, was how well balanced and agile the folk that live in these parts are, on very steep surfaces, and wearing only sandals. I loved the clean air and dark skies here, after breathing in Delhi and a few of the larger towns. The peacefulness during the walk was interrupted by a sonic boom at one point though. Probably the Indian airforce doing exercises – the amount of military activity in the region was an eye opener.
That’s Catherine in the photo, she joined us with her sister Louise at a town called Khajiar, which is a days walk away from here. We started walking from Dalhousie, which is a couple of days away. The photo below, of the Pir Panjal, was taken from Dalhousie. The Pir Panjal is a Himalayan range that separates Himachal Pradesh from Jammu and Kashmir.
Wheels World 