Recollections Part 60 – Trekking in Baltistan (continue from Part 59) We arrived in Hushe in late afternoon; Rajah went to meet the village chief for permission to camp in his land. We were immediately welcomed by a group of children, each one offering small pieces of raw precious stones as token of their hospitality and friendliness. I accepted a few and in return I gave them chocolates and sweets. A few of the young men were suffering from goiter, I suppose, by the look of their swollen neck and a few children had wet and red eyes. I took pity on the children and gave them my only bottle of eye drops. There were 2 young girls waving from the window of a double storey building and they too have red eyes. A close look at the houses indicated the lack of windows for ventilation caused the wet and red eyes. Cooking was done inside the building and the smoke was the cause of the problem. The houses were constructed of stone walls finished with a coat of mud and the roofs were supported by wooden beams topping with a thick layer of dry wheat fodder and mud. This was to insulate the building from the cold of winter; there was no leakage problem because it seldom rain in this region. There was a stream flowing rapidly through the village, providing irrigation for the crops. No fish could be seen in the murky waters. Tree trunks placed across the stream served as the footbridges. Just before we started trekking, I realized why we require so many porters; they had to carry all our baggage, tents, cooking utensils, our food and also their own supplies. Some of their V-shaped baskets carried as much as 30kg. We followed the track besides the stream; leading the way was the two guides and the cooks, we were next, then the porters. The going was easy in the beginning, but after about a kilometer the track gained gradient and we had to start laboring up the slopes. There was no tree or grass just barren rocks smoothen by the elements of nature. The next thing we saw was interesting; it was a cluster of Ling Zhi or Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) growing out of the rocks besides the track; the biggest one was about 20cm in width, white with concentric rings and darker radial lines on the surface. This mushroom is highly prized and is reputed to be an elixir of immortality. It could be found in 6 colors; green, red, yellow, white, black and purple; red color Ling Zhi is most commonly used and cultivated. Four hours later we stopped at a flat piece of land with a stream flowing down from the Masherbrum Mountain on our right. The water comes from the melting snow; cold but clean and clear. While the cook was preparing lunch, a few of the porters were collecting cakes of dry cattle dung with bare hands and using the front piece of their attire as the bin then dropped their collection in front of the cook to be used as fuel. A flat piece of stone was used as the hot plate and naan was heated on top. We watched the porters devoured the naan and hot tea with relish, while we ate our canned food and apricots collected earlier from one of the tea kiosks. We did not see any wild animals when we continued trekking, but they were definitely around; there were remains of carcasses of cattle, precariously hung, high up on ledges where the snow leopards enjoyed their meals. Now I know why our guides were armed with rifles. Snow leopards are relatively shy animals and they would avoid contact with humans so it would be difficult to spot one. In the evening we arrived at a small flat area; here we camped for the night. We were warned not to wander away from our camp at night to avoid attack by wild animals, but I had to because of the cold and an urgent need to relieve my bladder in the early hours of the morning. I walked about 20 meters away from my tent and eased myself; the next morning in that location was a small ring of up stand ice to prove that the temperature was below freezing in the night. Our guide said that we actually slept on ice and he stoop to scratch the earth and sure enough about 3cm down was solid ice; the permafrost. We moved out of the area after a hurried breakfast and arrived at a stream about 3 meters wide, flowing rapidly under an arch of ice forming a natural bridge to the other side. The width of the arch was about one meter; in order to determine the safety of the passage, one of the cooks made the first crossing before we cross safely to the other side of the stream. The trek here was precariously narrow and we had to move round a bend of steep ice formation and just as our lady friend was crossing there was a mini avalanche of ice crashing down in her direction. We exhorted her to run but her leg was mired in the loose ice; fortunately she was not hurt badly; only a small piece of ice hit her leg and she could still continue to walk with a bruised calf. More carcasses of cattle and sheep were seen as we proceeded; it strikes an eerie feeling in us; we could end up just like that if we were to wander away from the group. In the evening we arrived at our next camping area that was scantily covered with shrubs and stunted trees and while the porters were pitching tents, I heard a loud bang; it came from the rifle of Rajah, his assistant ran up the mountain slopes about 100 meters away and came back with a Himalayan Snow Partridge, about the size of a chicken. The cook, Hussein, quickly made a meal out of it; we had BBQ partridge. It tastes like chicken, but it was tough like chewing leather. I was not sure if Hussein used the cattle dung or wood to roast the partridge; anyway it was good! We were now 5 days into the trek and the most arduous part of the trip; the track was narrow at some spot and squeezed to about 60cm wide with the almost vertical mountain wall on the right and dangerously steep and deep ravine on the left; we moved with caution but still an accident occurred. The lady trekker was a few meters in front of me when she crossed one of those spots; she tripped and fell off the track, but she managed to grasp hold of a protruding rock and I lifted her up immediately. She was a bit disorientated but she implored of me to keep the incident secret; I did. No other people saw the incident because we were spaced out far apart. She tripped because she was tired after 5 days of trekking and we were on high altitude and may be suffering from altitude sickness. Following that incident, I had to keep her always in my sight. Leaving behind that dangerous part of the trek, we saw a small structure constructed of pieces of rocks piled up to a meter high. There was only an opening into this small structure; inside was dark and had just enough space to accommodate 2 people. In summer and autumn, the Sheppard, would herd their sheep or goats up the mountains where there would be patches of grass for their herds to graze and sometimes they would spend the night in the tiny cubicle. Besides the stone structure were several earthen jars; the storage for yogurt. Milk were placed and sealed in the jars and yogurt would be ready by the next summer. The Sheppard would depend on the yogurt for their sustenance, while they were many weeks away from home. The next day we trekked through a beautiful meadow covered with coniferous trees and its fruits were everywhere on the ground. This was the only place I saw beautifully covered with grass. To my surprise the guide said that the whole meadow could be bought for 5 thousand US dollars. This offer was about 30 years ago. On the seventh day of the trek, we passed several houses; we had not seen any before and I knew that we were near the end of the trek. We followed a stream and by mid afternoon we were back at where we started. The first thing the porters did was to remove their backpack and shoes if any. Some endured the whole trek with only slippers and a few with shoes that we would discard; toes if any were left could be seen sticking out of their shoes. It was hard earned money; for 3 US dollar a day they had to endure the hardship of bearing heavy loads, the freezing weather, the risks of falling off the track and attacks by wild animals. This was not the worse, I could see now that some of them had less than 10 toes; the missing ones lost to frostbite. It was medication time too for the porters. To show our appreciation for their efforts we purchased a goat from Hussein and he immediately did the rest to turn it into “Kambing Soup” and roast meat. Together with the porters, we had a hearty meal. Before we leave the village, I gave one of the porter’s my extra pair of jungle boots and a 15cm dagger to the cook. It was a good and memorable trek worthy of our youth. (Continue in Part 61).
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 05:19:09 +0000
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