Today we started actually trekking. We took a shikara ride from our houseboat to the shore where we met our guide from yesterday.
Then he took us to the travel agency across the street where our guide/cook whom we came to call Uncle-jee was busily packing stuff to take along. He was not a man of many words and very serious.
Our guide from yesterday waved goodbye, and we were off with two strangers (guide/cook Uncle-jee + driver) headed to the hills. Halfway there we stopped in a small village where the guide/cook bought some processed cheese slices and a couple of live chickens, much to our delight and surprise. The chickens traveled with us for two days before met their doom and ended up in our stomachs! We are truly city folks to be delighted by this very obvious form of food storage.
When we reached the trailhead, after some traffic and windy roads for several hours, we were met by three other men and two small packhorses.
While they were packing our stuff together to sling on the horses, Russell had his first big injury for the trip--he fell off a rock and landed on a broken plate lying on the ground. Thankfully, I'd carried along a big first aid kit I'd barely used in the three years since I bought it. I ended up using the kit many times on this trip, from treating sunburns to patching skinned knees to giving pain meds for the aches and pains of our guides.
Ah, the many uses of a dupatta. I was very glad to have brought several lightweight scarves to protect my face and neck from the beating sun.
Our hike today was short but steep.
When we reached the beautiful clearing that was our destination, Uncle-jee made us a delicious lunch. Here's the guide/cook in his cook-tent with Graham and another guide Salaam keeping him company.
At this point we realized they had not brought any purified drinking water, but instead gave us glasses of water filled with "spring water" from the nearby spring. It looked clean enough, but I felt rather dubious about the whole thing. So Rich went back down to Sonamarg after our lunch on a horse and bought some water and sunscreen (Fair and Lovely Cream for Men!) to help us survive.
Oh, the views! Absolutely gorgeous. See the Thajiwas Glacier in the snow-covered mountains?
Would love to know what Graham thought of all this.
And where's Isaac? Let's hope he shows up in the next few days' pictures!
Then he took us to the travel agency across the street where our guide/cook whom we came to call Uncle-jee was busily packing stuff to take along. He was not a man of many words and very serious.
Our guide from yesterday waved goodbye, and we were off with two strangers (guide/cook Uncle-jee + driver) headed to the hills. Halfway there we stopped in a small village where the guide/cook bought some processed cheese slices and a couple of live chickens, much to our delight and surprise. The chickens traveled with us for two days before met their doom and ended up in our stomachs! We are truly city folks to be delighted by this very obvious form of food storage.
When we reached the trailhead, after some traffic and windy roads for several hours, we were met by three other men and two small packhorses.
While they were packing our stuff together to sling on the horses, Russell had his first big injury for the trip--he fell off a rock and landed on a broken plate lying on the ground. Thankfully, I'd carried along a big first aid kit I'd barely used in the three years since I bought it. I ended up using the kit many times on this trip, from treating sunburns to patching skinned knees to giving pain meds for the aches and pains of our guides.
Ah, the many uses of a dupatta. I was very glad to have brought several lightweight scarves to protect my face and neck from the beating sun.
Our hike today was short but steep.
When we reached the beautiful clearing that was our destination, Uncle-jee made us a delicious lunch. Here's the guide/cook in his cook-tent with Graham and another guide Salaam keeping him company.
At this point we realized they had not brought any purified drinking water, but instead gave us glasses of water filled with "spring water" from the nearby spring. It looked clean enough, but I felt rather dubious about the whole thing. So Rich went back down to Sonamarg after our lunch on a horse and bought some water and sunscreen (Fair and Lovely Cream for Men!) to help us survive.
Oh, the views! Absolutely gorgeous. See the Thajiwas Glacier in the snow-covered mountains?
Would love to know what Graham thought of all this.
And where's Isaac? Let's hope he shows up in the next few days' pictures!
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