Adventures in India

We start by taking a night train to a hill station called Shimla - a very calm place FULL of nervous monkeys - when you look at them they start hitting you. From Shimla we take a long bus drive (9 hours) to Kinnaur. The words "bus drive" sound very relaxing, but... this actually, is one of the most scary and dangerous drives that we have ever experienced. Most of the way is done on a very narrow dirt road, on the edge of a huge gorge (about 500m' high). In some places along the way there are landslides which you have to cross by foot (because a vehicle can't pass...) and catch another vehicle on the other side of the slide. You have probably heard about the "death road" in Bolivia. In my opinion, this way is ten times worst. We keep and say that the bus drivers in this area are all extremely good drivers, since all the "bad" drivers surely haven't survived...

In Shimla.

After that long frightening drive we arrive safely to Rekong Peo - the capital of the Kinnaur district. The Kinnaur district is located close to the Indian-Tibetan (Chinese) border and the people there are a mixture of Indians and Tibetans. Rekong Peo and Kalpa (the upper village) are extremely nice! - all the place is full of red delicious apple trees...(a bit like in heaven...). Snow capped mountains of more than 6000m' can be seen from there - among them is the "Kinnaur Kialas" - a holy mountain (similar to the Kialas in Tibet!). This mountain is our first target. We plan to encircle it according to the local pilgrimage tradition.

Kinnaur Kialas (6,050m') (I bought the photo in Kalpa.).

We start walking in a tough desert-land full of deep gorges and high mountains. The walk is tough. You start in an altitude of 2500m' and cross a mountain pass of 5260m' in 4-5 days. In the end of the first day of the walk we camp in a place next to a river. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, we hear the sounds of rocks falling... on us... We think that a land slide is coming, a common thing in this area, which is very dangerous. We are escaping our tent... and then discover that..... monkeys are crossing the cliffs above us and cause this rock fall...

We start walking in a tough desert-land full of deep gorges and high mountains.

A local woman.

A local men.

Well, the winter is approaching and the shepherds take the sheep across mountain passes, hundreds of kilometers, to low and worm places, where they can collect grass in winter. Suddenly wind starts to blow and snow starts to fall. We and the sheep have to go down from the pass quickly. We go through a very steep descent to the village of Chitkul and then to Sangla. On the way the shepherds tell us that in Sangla many more sheep and shepherds will join them and they plan to continue for another 5 days over another mountain pass to the next valley, towards the worm places. I and Nir decide to continue our journey with them. We don't know the route that they are taking (it isn't mentioned in our book) but we will simply follow them....

On the way the shepherds tell us that in Sangla many more sheep and shepherds will join them.

In Sangla (2900m') we actually finish our pilgrimage circuit around Mt. Kinnaur Kailas, and will start the goats and sheep part of our trip.... We rest in Sangla one day (YOM KIPUR).

Preparing provisions for the trek.

From Sangla we go up the valley (Sangla Kanda) escorted by hundreds of sheep towards the next pass - Rupin La (4700m'). It is very funny walking with the sheep. They go quite fast and they don't really care if the way is steep. In the end of every group of sheep and goats you can find the nursery (תינוקיה) about 20-30 few-days old baby sheep and goats). The young ones are so cute and nice. They cry almost like babies. They don't have the mood to make this tough way, but the shepherds "encourage" them by hitting them from time to time with their sticks. The shepherds are very nice to us - they give us food called Tsampa (a mixture of water, butter and flour which is eaten uncooked - "Indian energy bolls"). The way to the pass is hard (but not comparable to the previous one). I and Nir can hardly keep the rhythm of the nursery, the elder sheep go much faster then us...

We go up the valley escorted by hundreds of sheep.

Taking the young goats from their night shelter.

Some of the youngest goats are carried on horses.

Eventually we reach the pass - Rupin La. The pass marks the border between the Kinnaur district to the Garhwal district. While standing on the pass snow starts to fall. We start to go down. After an hour or so we decide to camp somewhere on the way as we are very tired. The sheep continue going down. We follow them with our eyes to see the way that they take (the way is not marked - if we don't see the sheep we actually don't know where to go). We plan to meet them in the following morning. We pitch our tent in the rain, eat something and go to sleep.

Our tent.

We feel so relived - there are new friends to show us the way...We keep goiwith our new sheep friends... the way is full of snow and our feet and cloth become all wet, but we don't care. We are so happy! The views with the new fresh snow are extremely nice. We keep going down the valley, and pass few villages: Jakha, Juskund, Sewa and Dhala. We wash ourselves in the rivers along the way. It feels so nice after a long time with no wash.... In a village called Netwar, we finish our walk and say good bye to the sheep....

We keep going down the valley.