Wild Horses, Nomads and Lakes – A Challenging High Altitude Trek in Ladakh in the Indian Himalaya with Carol & Martin Noval
28 June to 23 July 2008 (15 days on the trek)
DELHI – KULLU VALLEY – LAHAUL – LADAKH – CHANGTHANG PLATEAU – TSO MORIRI LAKE – TSO KAR LAKE – LEH – DELHI
About trekking with us:
“…a perfect and powerful trip … I feel very fortunate that I happened upon a tour being led by such knowledgeable, interesting ...and WELL ORGANIZED people - thanks again... “ Jim Tepperman
“I just want to thank you for both for your wonderful leadership and great knowledge of the area, history, and culture, as well as your good hearts to accommodate a trekking novice like me. I have great memories to cherish and confidence about myself.” Candice Simon
This trip is an immersion into the life and spirit of the Himalayas, the land and the people.
Surrounded by cream-colored hills and meadows, Tso Moriri is a vast expanse of azure water, a blue that is other-worldly, truly electrifying. The color of the lake changes throughout the day depending on the light; at times parts of it seem to disappear as if "captured" by the reflections of the tan peaks behind it.
On this trek we explore the high-altitude lake region of the Changthang Plateau, on the extreme southwest of the Tibetan Plateau. This is nomad country – here Changpa nomads live in yak wool tents with yak tail standards protecting them from evil spirits, and graze vast flocks of pashmina goats, sheep and herds of yak.
There is plenty of wildlife too – kyang (the wild horses of the Changthang), wild goats, marmots, giant wild hares and a great variety of birds: bar-headed geese – mothers and fathers bobbing on the lakes with their goslings – brahminy ducks, gigantic “bearded” vultures, terns and the rare black necked crane.
We camp on the shores of two wonderful high-altitude lakes, Tso Kar, ringed by a necklace of gleaming white salt deposits, and Tso Moriri, with fresh water and containing every shade of blue you can imagine.
There are beautiful stone “mani” walls along our way, each stone carved with the mantra “Om Mane Padme Hum,” the jewel is in the lotus, the mantra of the Buddha of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara. For more than a thousand years, Tibetan Buddhist culture and religion have flourished in Ladakh and continue to do so today.
We enter dimensions of reality lost to the modern world, coming into touch with the primordial elements in their pre-civilized condition of purity – earth, water, fire and air – and space, the fifth element, which the ancient Greeks and Romans omitted, but which the Asian world treasures as the most important element, the one from which all the others derive. Here in the Himalayas space is palpable; it is the origin of sound; up here, space chants AUM, the cosmos’s first sound, the sound that gives rise to all things.
The trip begins in Delhi. After a short train ride, we drive into the Himalayas and acclimatize in the lush Kullu Valley at the foot of the Great Himalayan Range. Here we visit ancient temples and traditional villages with houses of rough-hewn cedar logs, grey stone and slate roofs. We walk through cool forests of giant cedar, locally known as “Devdar,” tree of the gods. The Kullu Valley is the “Valley of the Gods,” and we’re likely to see processions of villagers carrying their flower- and brocade-draped “devtas” to village festivals accompanied by musicians playing horns and drums.
Driving over the magnificent Rohtang Pass (13,050 feet), we enter Lahaul, a land of mountains, glaciers, mighty waterfalls, streams lined with poplar trees, Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and Hindu temples, and prosperous villages growing hops and potatoes.
Now, in the heart of the Himalayas, we drive across the Baralacha Pass (16,278 feet) and reach our first campsite at Pang (15,695 feet).
The following morning, now fully acclimatized, our trek begins and we walk easily into gorgeous nomad country. It is a perfect trek – long enough to get into it and begin to feel that your body and mind have been transformed.
We follow the courses of rivers and streams, sometimes walking on river beds – kaleidoscopes of multicolored stones – and find that each body of water has its distinct “personality,” gently gurgling rills, raging torrents and wide, swift-flowing, imperturbable sheets of clarity. The valley floors are grassy wetlands, riots of greens and wildflowers where birds flit about ceaselessly feasting on this land’s riches: accentors, redstarts, hoopoes, larks, ravens, choughs, snow pigeons.
From the top of the first pass at 5000 meters (16,250 feet) – “seems like a mere hillock,” as one friend put it, because we are already so high – the 23,000-foot high snow peaks of Tibet fill the horizon.
We stay at high altitude (between 14,625 to 15,600 feet) for most of the trek and get the inimitable feeling of high mountain euphoria, a feeling of purity and the comprehension of crystalline clarity that has always led traditional people to identify great heights with divinity; we come to understand why the Himalaya has been called the abode of the gods. Most of the walking is full striding on fairly level springy ground “on top of the world.”
Herds of wild horses cavort on the shores of Tso Moriri Lake and our horsemen tie their horses for the night, knowing the wild kyang may come to lure their tame horses away. We meet majestic Changpa nomads – maroon-robed men and women on gorgeously decorated steeds.
Just at the northern edge of the lake is the village of Karzok, one of those frontier places that looks as if it's at the end of the world. Local traders sit behind great piles of pashmina, other varieties of wool and a myriad of goods that come over the not-so-far-away border with Chinese Tibet.
Sitting comfortably, leaning against a rock wall anchoring wooden poles to which are tied innumerable strings of many-colored fluttering prayer flags stamped with mantras emitting vibrations of peace and compassion to the world below, and gazing at snow peaks stretching to the horizon, we’re at the top of the Yalungnayu La, the highest pass we’ll cross (17,550 feet). As our base camp is already quite high, it’s a steep but short and exhilarating climb, and the views from the top are amazing.
On the other side of the pass is Tso Kar Lake, another gorgeous, quite different lake, this one surrounded by deposits of pure white salt. The water here takes on the colors and shapes of its surroundings: it is a wonderfully illusionary place. The wetlands around the lake harbor abundant bird life.
At the end of the trek, it’s a short and beautiful drive to Leh (11,880 feet), capital of Ladakh, India's "little Tibet," with its fascinating bazaars and palace, a mini-Potala, and the world's highest polo field. We stay in a deluxe hotel with a beautiful garden overlooking the Ladakh mountains. We explore the town and visit Alchi and Thiksey monasteries.
Amid a grove of ancient poplar trees stands the thousand-year old, remarkably well preserved Alchi temple complex – a treasure trove of 11th century, pre-Chinese-influenced Tibetan Buddhist architecture, sculpture and painting. There are monumental statues three stories high of Bodhisattvas; the walls teem with paintings of divine figures, and scenes of everyday ancient life.
The 16th-century Thiksey monastery spills down a hillside and houses a huge golden statue of the Buddha Maitreya, the Buddha to come. The views from the monastery's rooftop terrace over the Indus Valley are spectacular.
It’s a short, beautiful flight from Leh to Delhi over the moon-land landscape of Ladakh with grand views of mountains and glaciers and into the lush summer green of the plains of India. We tour Old and New Delhi, its museums and monumental buildings of the British Raj, colorful temples, markets and beautiful parks. Ride bicycle rickshaws in Old Delhi and wander the narrow, winding lanes of its colorful bazaars.
On the trek, horses carry all luggage and supplies, and our crew sets up camp and prepares three delicious meals a day. We trek leisurely, half-days most of the time. There are ample opportunities for afternoon strolls in wildflower-bedecked meadows. Trekkers need only carry light daypacks.
The trip price is $2790 per person (single supplement: $225). Includes accommodation (hotel rooms with private bath; spacious Gortex tents on the trek), all meals, snacks, mineral water and soft drinks, road travel by SUV, one afternoon a/c rail journey, Leh/Delhi flight, international airport transfers, entrance fees, and a group size of 8 members. Carol and Martin guide you throughout the trip.
