Desert days and nights

Spring is the perfect time to visit the high desert of the Colorado Plateau. Mary and I spent 4 days and a couple of nights trekking and camping in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. We had a backcountry permit for an area called Chesler Park, an arid meadow surrounded on all sides by the towering spires of rock which give Needles its name.

This is spectacular country and a unique landscape. The deep canyons and impossible looking buttes are instantly recognisable as the American West. Nowhere else on earth looks like this. Spending nights under the stars (so many stars!) is a special experience, the sky so clear and dark you can see satellites tracking silently overhead.

One of the disadvantages of trekking and camping in the desert is you have to carry in all your own water - or find it. Lugging 15 litres of water makes you wonder if that titanium cookware set in your rucksack was worth the expense.

Mary enters Chesler Park.


A desert flower.


Another desert flower.


Balloon prepares to fly over Monument Valley.


Monumental Monument Valley.

The West Highland Way

Last summer, Mary and I walked the West Highland Way - a 95 mile trek across the Highlands of Scotland. It runs from the outskirts of Glasgow, along the length of Loch Lomond, Britain's largest lake, across Rannoch Moor and past famous and dramatic Glen Coe. The Way finishes in the Highlands at the foot of Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain.

Rannoch Moor is Britain's largest uninhabited wilderness - dramatic, wild and beautiful. At just 50 square miles however, it serves as a reminder of how densely populated Britain is. 50 square miles would be swallowed up in the American West or the Australian Outback. I wonder if there might even be 50 square miles in America where no one has ever set foot? It seems entirely conceivable that there are small areas in the West that were as unappealing and inhospitable to Native Americans as they are to the population today.

A lot of trouble to emphasize the bleedin' obvious: Scale drawings of the USA and UK. The black square inside the UK represents 50 miles square. The tiny white square inside that represents 50 square miles - the size of Rannoch Moor, Britain's largest uninhabited wilderness. It also happens to be about the same size as the city of San Francisco. It's easier to see if you click for a larger image.


On the banks of Loch Lomond, Britain's largest lake and stunning it is too.


On Rannoch Moor. Hey! I thought you said it was uninhabited!


Mary finds the way. Don't say anything, but she's standing next to a trail marker.

More photos from the trek

.

Mani Rimdu

Mani Rimdu is the highlight of the Buddhist calendar in the Khumbu. It's a festival celebrated at 2 monasteries (Gompas) at different times of the year. The Thami Gompa is favoured because of the abbots more liberal attitude to drinking and dancing in the evening. The second day of the festival coincided with a rest day we had on the way back from Gokyo (more in another post) and so I decided to go along.

A measure of our attitude to walking after 5 weeks of trekking is that although the festival was a five and a half hour round trip with some moderate climbs, this counted as only a 'medium' in our new trekking lives. So I decided to toddle along. I couldn't persuade Mary to join me. I suspect her vague interest in Tibetan Buddhism may have been offset by the 11 hours walking the previous 'big' day. No matter. Incomprehensible ritual and religion awaited and nothing could stop me!

The best way to describe Mani Rimdu was a cross between a dance festival, music recitation and pantomime act - complete with comedy sketches. The Gompa is populated with monks and lamas and it was the lamas who danced and performed for the excited Sherpa audience. Lamas are important spiritual leaders and set apart from the other monks by heaving been identified as the reincarnation as previous Lamas, so that the current Lamas are several generations removed from the 'original' Lama, while being exactly the same person. Hope you're following. I'll try and explain a little more about Tibetan Buddhism when we reach Tibet. Sherpas were Tibetans not so long ago incidentally, hence the practice.

I sat between two old Sherpa geezers during the performances who seemed to enjoy proceedings immensely, laughing and rolling around at all the best jokes. One of them took the trouble to explain to me the meaning of each dance and ritual in great detail. I'd pass on this wisdom as a detailed description to each picture, except that he was speaking in Nepali.

I stayed far too long at the festival which meant a moonlit walk home to Mary in Namche Bazaar. A moonlit walk alone though a Nepali forest is an interesting experience, but I've still managed to avoid becoming Yeti fodder!

On the horn - Mr Lama and the jazz man himself, Mr Lama!


On the triangle - Mr Lama!


Mani Rimdu celebrates the triumph of Buddhism over Bon, the ancient Tibetan religion. Confusingly, many of the Bon gods were 'converted' to Buddhism too. Throw in some Hindu influences and you have the most confusing array of gods, buddhas, bodhisattvas, demons, guardians and lamas. So this masked figure could be anyone. Sorry I can't be more help. I'm working on it.


This is definitely a bad guy, so probably a Buddhist demon or Bon chappy.

Gokyo

Gokyo was the second destination of our extended trek in the Khumbu. The Gokyo valley lies to the east of the Khumbu valley where Everest Base Camp is located. It is incredibly picturesque and home to 6 lakes which lie at increasing altitude above 4800m.

Gokyo Ri (5300m) was a local peak which we climbed for just stupendous views of Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyo - the works. The pictures are pale imitations of the view, but the best I can do until Google invents something better.

Mary at lake 4 (such a romantic name!) with a canine trekking companion we adopted for the day.


Mary and Cairn.


A mani stone and prayer flag (upon which both are inscribed the prayer "Um Mani Padme Hum") ascending the Gokyo valley.


From left to right: Matt, Mary, Everest (no. 1), Lhotse (4) and (in the distance) Makalu (5).


Mary descending from Gokyo Ri to lake 3. Gokyo 'village' is clustered on the bank of the lake. The Ngojumba Glacier, the largst in Nepal, stretches grey and rubble-strewn along the valley floor.

Everest Base Camp

Everest Base Camp was the turn-around point for the first half of our trek in the Khumbu. This is the end point for most trekkers - typically after more than a week of walking - but it's only the starting line for climbers. Mid-May is the traditional summit season and so there were many teams at BC and many climbers were on the mountain, including some who had just summited. Sadly, and inevitably, there were also deaths, including 2 Koreans killed attempting a new route. We watched a helicopter take their bodies away.

Base Camp is nothing more than a temporary village of tents setup on the Khumbu Glacier at the foot of Everest. We hadn't expected a warm reception since climbing expeditions don't generally welcome trekkers, who can bring germs into camp and scupper the most elaborate and expensive of summit attempts. However this year a *bakery* had opened and we snaked on delicious apple pie and almond shortbread and had the chance to talk to camp inhabitants as they dropped by for a bite.

Mary enjoys apple pie at the Everest Base Camp bakery.


The view approaching Base Camp. The Khumbu Glacier covers the valley floor. The Base Camp tents are the small collection of coloured dots at the far left in the middle of the picture. The climbing route and flank of Everest begin on the right as the glacier makes a turn and ascends the mountain as the Khumbu Ice Fall.


The Khumbu Ice Fall from Base Camp. This is the first obstacle climbers must traverse on the way to the summit. There are 4 camps above the Ice Fall and a typical acclimatization plan means spending several days at each before an attempt on the summit. This means many dangerous trips through the Ice Fall between Base Camp and the high camps before a summit attempt. The safest time to move through the Ice Fall is early in the day when the seracs of ice, some as big as houses, are cold and less likely to move or fall. The glacier is in constant motion and makes groaning, cracking and splitting sounds all the time.


An old Russian-built helicopter lands at Base Camp. We learned this pilot was not popular since he flew too close to the tents and made too many circles - ruffling many tent flaps and risking avalanches.


Everest from BC to summit. The Khumbu Glacier stretches along the valley floor and Base Camp is the small collection of dots at the outside of the right hand turn the glacier makes onto the flank of Everest. The Khumbu Ice Fall can be seen as the glacier climbs the mountain from left to right. The summit is extreme top right, shrouded in cloud.

Sherpas n' Yaks n' Yetis

We're on the last leg of our extended trek in the Khumbu region of Nepal. The Khumbu is home to some of the highest mountains on earth, including Everest (number 1!), Lhotse (4), Makalu (5), Cho Oyu (6) and Manaslu (8) - of which more in another post. The local people are Sherpas, world famous for their physical ability in the mountains and an essential part of every trekking and mountaineering expedition. Just like the Gurung people we met in Annapurna, the Sherpas are an industrious and fun-loving lot who run great 'teahouse' lodges under very difficult conditions - everything here must be transported on foot by Sherpa porters or by Yak.

Yaks are the other famous inhabitants of the Khumbu and also a big part of mountain expeditions. Mary and I found an abandoned little yak calf one afternoon, only a day or two old and with no sign of its mother. Wondering what to do, we eventually decided to carry the little chap to the nearest village hopeful that yak calves were sufficiently valuable to elicit help from the locals rather than laughter at the sentimental, impractical westerners. Feeling a little like Billy Crystal in City Slickers, we eventually came across a Yak herd and shepherdess. On seeing the calf, the yaks started calling to it and fixed me with a menacing stare. The calf called back to the big, shaggy beasts, which only seemed to agitate them further. Feeling like an accused yak-napper, I attempted to reunite the calf with its kind, but the other yaks were less than happy to accommodate the little chap. Eventually the shepherdess carried the calf herself. I couldn't help think about the little guy as I lay in my sleeping bag that night, listening to the wind outside, wondering if he was OK.

Yaks can carry more than Sherpas - but only just. Sherpas smell worse than Yaks - but only just. Actually, that's an injustice to Yaks and most Sherpas. It is specifically Sherpa porter's feet that smell worse than anything dead or alive and can strip the paint from the interior of a teahouse in the time it takes to remove a pair of fake Teva sandals and warm your feet by the stove.

Fortunately, we didn't meet any Yetis.

All aboard - the yak train. In the background is the Lhotse-Nuptse ridge and our first view of the Everest summit, peeking over the top.


This little sherpani was the center of attention at our lodge in Dingboche.


Sherpa porters carry building materials on the trail to Gokyo. Spare a thought for these guys next time you're loading up at Ikea or Home Depot.


Tengboche Monastery, the largest in Nepal.

Slowly, slowly walking! Little bit up, little down.

We hired a porter / guide for our first trek in Annapurna. Mr Lama is a knot of muscle and sinew who has spent his life carrying loads in the Himalaya. The mountains here are not great for a guy's machismo. The knotty Mr L could carry "eighty five kay gee, no problem!" usually in the traditional style - in a basket suspended from the top of his head by a rope. We saw porters carrying huge and diverse loads this way. There are no roads or motor vehicles in the mountains and so everything is carried by porter, from food to building materials to live chickens. We saw the lot.

Mr Lama had a comparatively easy time of it during his 2 weeks as our porter. The 15kgs of Mary's rucksack were small beer, despite her best efforts to defeat the knotty man with a great diversity of hair and skincare products. I packed each morning to ensure that my pack weighed as much as Mr Lama's. This effort of macho self esteem backfired as each day Mr L would try both packs and say "Same same! Very strong man!" which when you know that he can carry more than your own body weight using only his scalp, is a crushingly patronising thing to say. He meant well I'm sure.

I think we are a little fitter and stronger on our return, however. My calf muscles, once like knots in thread, might now possibly be described as knots in steel thread. We're going to pack a little lighter for our Everest trek and try and manage without a porter for the first couple of days to see how we go. Mary is dreading the packing process more than the prospect carrying a pack for 3 weeks. I'm confident she may change her tune.

Another of Mr Lama's favorite phrases was "Slowly, slowly walking! Little bit up, little down." He is certainly right about walking slowly. Good trekking would seem to be an exercise in avoiding injury, by a fall or sprain, or by repetitive strain, particularly on the downhills. His second statement was less accurate. It is very difficult to walk anywhere in the Himalaya without a *great deal* of up and down. On the way to and from Annapurna Base Camp we ascended and descended over 12,800 meters (over 42,000 feet) which is one-and-a-half times the height of Everest. Perhaps after our next trek I will have knotty Lama legs too!

The indefatigable Mr Lama.

Everything was carried by porter - although some foodstuffs are self propelled! This is a sobering thought as you tuck into your evening meal and know that everything before you has been carried on someones head - rather like knowing that all the atoms in your body were created in a supernova! (perhaps not)

Lodges on the trail at Landrung. At every stop the views were a million dollars and the room rates a little under a dollar-fifty.

A rare moment of sober contemplation by a young Nepali.

We saw a couple of people airlifted out of the area. One English chap who had collapsed was sedated by one of Mary's super-strong and slightly trippy (pico trippy!) codine tablets. Our little medical kit comes in handy again.

Annapurna Sanctuary

The Annapurna Sanctuary was the turnaround point for our trek. It is a valley in the middle of the Annapurna range surrounded on all sides by huge mountains, including Annapurna I, the tenth highest in the world.

We were blessed with 2 days of clear weather when we reached the Sanctuary. Previous days had seen cloud and rain roll in by early afternoon and this would have meant snow and zero visibility in the Sanctuary had it continued. Because of the enforced early finishes we started walking early in the morning and by lunchtime were sipping hot tea, eating Dahl Baht and settled in a lodge for the night. This meant lots of time for reading and backgammon! Current backgammon score: Mary 'doubles' Brett - 23, Matt 'luckless' Darby - 18.

Tip: click the grey play button in the center of the video to play it in this page (clicking outside the play button will take you to the youtube website and play the video there).

Annapurna, Nepal

Just when you feel you have begun to understand a little of India and your affair with her, you discover she has a more charming and beautiful sister! Nepal is that rarest of places, somewhere of which I had high expectations, all of which have been exceeded.

Mary and I just arrived back from 12 days walking through the Annapurna mountain range. We were 'teahouse trekking' - staying at small lodges in villages along the mountain trail. The scenery was amazing, slowly transforming from hot and humid rhododendron forests at lower altitudes to a cool, spartan, alpine landscape as we approached the base of the big mountains. Our turnaround point was the Annapurna Base Camp in the Annapurna Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is a gently sloping valley in the middle of the Annapurna range where one is surrounded on all sides by enormous peaks, of which more in another post.

The lodges were great - basic but comfortable - run by local Nepalis who we found to be friendly, open and fun-loving. At first glance the big difference between Nepal and India seems to be the attitude of the people. Each village we stayed at was spotless and each lodge carefully and charmingly built, particularly the slate terraces and patios on which each building perched. I can't help feeling that the landscape and villages would be tended very differently in India, and we saw evidence of this in the Kashmiri mountains. Indians seem to be infected with a slap-dash, make-do attitude and there seems little quality in anything that is built. In contrast their northern neighbors do a terrific job in more difficult circumstances: Nepal is much poorer than India, although at first glance the opposite seems true.

The Annapurna region is not typical of Nepal however, benefiting from the two largest sources of foreign income - trekkers and the British Gurkas, of whom many are drawn from the local villages. Still, our first impression is that the people here seem richer than in India, if not economically then in their outlook and character. Always smiling the Nepalis we met were an unusually happy people who enjoy life to the full in some of the most beautiful country imaginable.


Mary rests by one of hundreds of waterfalls that cascade into the deep valleys of the Annapurna. Many of these waterfalls might be the centerpiece of a European or US national park, but here in the big mountains, they're just a part of the amazing scenery.


Annapurna I, one of 14 mountains in the world over 8000 meters tall and the first of the 14 to be climbed. In the foreground is a monument to Anatoli Boukreev who died on Annapurna I in 1997. Boukreev is famous for the controversial role he played in the Everest disaster the previous year when 8 climbers were killed descending from the summit of Everest. The book "Into Thin Air" criticised Boukreev's actions, although he saved several lives in a solo rescue during the night of the deadly storm. "Into Thin Air" is a cracking read. I've just finished "Into The Wild" also by Jon Krakauer and also a ripping yarn.


Butterflies were our constant companions throughout the trek, particularly at lower altitudes and in the blooming rhododendron forests. There seemed to be many dozens of species, several as large as small birds. We saw a lot of other wildlife including a couple of snakes, one an 8 foot Python (Mary says 10 feet!). There were also many raptors and we watched one golden eagle from a ledge as he flew below us in the valley, then steadily climbed above us and the mountains, riding thermals without a single flap of his wings.


Nepalis are always laughing! Their lodges and houses, particularly the wonderful wood-fired kitchens, are always filled with non-stop chatter and laughter.


Your intrepid reporters in the Annapurna Sanctuary hiking down from Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) back to Machupuchare Base Camp (MBC). The peaks Annapurna South and Hiun Chuli are in the background.

Hiking Kashmir

After 2 days on our houseboat we headed up into the Himalaya to the east of Srinagar to do some hiking. We stayed with a family in a small gypsy village close to Sonamarg. These people describe themselves as 'gypsy people' or 'pony people' and I suspect belong to the 'scheduled castes' as they are now described in India - what used to be called 'untouchables'.

The gypsy people lack almost all basic infrastructure. There is no sewage system, no garbage collection and no running water apart from the local river. They have electricity but with several long outages each day and then only for lighting - they have no refrigeration. Most importantly they don't have easy access to health care which is expensive and many miles away in Srinagar. We patched up a procession of family members with cuts, scrapes and grazes using our little medical kit. We were the first western visitors of the season as the snow has cleared in only the last few weeks.

The family were wonderfully welcoming and we left after 3 days feeling almost a part of it. They took us hiking each day, sometimes with their ponies, and once above the timberline at 11k feet as we scrambled up a local mountain with amazing views - all the way to K2 on a clear day. Hopefully this will help with our acclimatisation for Nepal. We'd love to come back in the summertime when the snows have cleared for a longer trek.

Our cook and guide was Shafi, who travelled with us from Srinagar. Shafi is an interesting character who can speak at least 6 different languages (we were still counting when we left) and sings each language too. Nights were filled with playing cards and listening to songs in Fârsi and Kashmiri. Each song told a story, typically a cautionary Muslim fable which he would tell us we would do well to heed.

Shafi also claimed to have seen several Jinn, and also to know some personally. I had read an article about Jinn last year, but it is a very different experience to be told about them first hand, by candlelight in a remote Kashmiri village.

Our Mum for 2 days and the lady of our gypsy house.

Little Rhuma charmed "bishkits", hairclips and various girly products from Mary every day

Mary, Shafi, Rhuma and determined little chap with stick.