We started from Langmusi at 9:00am and walked our horses out of town (3 of the people in the group had never ridden before so the guides weren't taking any chances!). There were 2 guides - one is named Chenqiao, the other a local (Shi Keta) who really knew the territory. We headed off through mountain areas and finally reached our lunch camp - a real nomad camp with yaks and sheep. Lunch was tsampa - millet flour, tea, butter and dried yak cheese mixed into a dough and eaten just like that, plus warm milk. This was followed by fried cabbage and flat bread. From here we walked up the valley to a small gompa (religious place with prayer flags). On the way back I slipped in some yak manure, but luckily missed dirtying myself, and was too quick to rise to let Anne take a photo!!
Back on the horses and off to the grasslands through some glorious wildflower meadows that were home to small animals – grassland mice – and larger ones – similar to marmots maybe. Our camp for the next 2 nights was again a genuine nomad tent - large black tent made of yak wool, with one corner of it filled with yak dung to be used in the stove, meat drying hung from the veiling of the tent, and at night surrounded by yaks and sheep. The family slept one side, we slept the other side on the ground, with a sheep skin as a mattress, and covered by the horse blankets we had been sitting on during the day. The guides made up the beds and tucked us in - they made little sleeping bags out of them and it was so funny having them tuck them firmly around us! But we stayed warm and snug. Dinner was cabbage and noodles, plus tsampa and warm milk.
We went for a bit of a walk and climbed some rocky parts, and one of the guides Chen Qiao, came zooming after us - watch out for wolves!! I told him that we were used to 2-legged wolves and therefore he didn't need to worry - we could cope. Anne added that if I sang the wolves would turn and run!!
After dinner Chen Qiao and Shi Keta gave us massages to work out the kinks from the days riding. Very nice!! Going to the bathroom at night was fun - the yaks surrounded the tent and the sheep surrounded the yaks! So we had to be careful a) not to fall over a yak, and b) not to sit in the yak manure!
We played dress ups in the families clothes after that and took photos. I was wearing Numga's necklace for quite a while and when I handed it back they asked me to guess how much it was worth. I figured about 1000 Y. Nowhere near - 40,000Y (almost $7000). Her father had given it to her when she was 18, and she wore it all the time - including when she collected and spread (by hand) the yak dung to make fuel!!I took it off really quickly – too precious for me to be playing with!
Next morning we headed off to a nearby mountain – 5,000 metres and when we reached 4, 500 on the horses we stopped and climbed the rest of it. Sounds easy but the remaining 500 metres was over 3 peaks! At the top we threw our wind horses to the sky for thanks and luck. Wind horses are squares of paper in different colours with Tibetan prayers on them. The views were spectacular.
We had climbed the easy (?) way up, so on the way down we slipped and skidded down a scree slope and then across the face of a grassy semi-cliff! It was shorter, I'll give you that, but looking back up it, I am amazed we managed it!
Lunch was set out, plus a woman from a small camp below jogged up the hill, with a toddler on her back carrying a large thermos of hot water for us! Made us feel really slack. She asked if I could take photos of her little one, so I did that and then talked her into having her photo taken too.
Back to the camp for dinner and another massage. Then after dinner we went outside to have a look at the night sky - crystal clear and just beautiful. Too cold to stay there for long, so we went back inside and sang a few songs until it was bedtime. Numga gets up at 3:00am each morning to milk the yaks, so her alarm goes off then!! She has 2 children about 7 and 9 and they work like adults, looking after the yaks, riding without adult supervision, separating milk/cream, whatever. But they had fun with us and we enjoyed playing with them. Her husband turned up with 3 of his mates - all dressed in traditional clothes (everyone is all the time), plus rifle and massive knife tucked into the folds of the coat! But after dinner they headed off on motorbikes to another town about 5 hours ride away.
Next morning after breakfast we headed off to the grasslands to the north. The ride was great and the wildflowers just brilliant. Lunch was eaten on the way. We reached a small village and took up residence in one of the families homes. They slept in one room, we all slept on the floor in the other room. Took a walk after we settled the horses and found a tiny wee shop that sold local beer, and then on the way back came across a bunch of guys shooting baskets, so joined them - I was really pleased to be able to get a few in!! Showed them that girls can play games :>)).
After dinner we had our massages - heaven! - and then had a furious game of Uno and our beer - good fun.
Up next morning to ride to a local holy lake. The previous days had been glorious sunshine - I had put Jame in charge of weather, but he had a cold and his weather control abilities fell away for this day! We used the large raincoats that doubled as horse blankets and bed linen, and made it to the lake without getting too cold and wet. It was beautiful, even in the rain and we ate lunch there.
Back on the horses and to the village for dinner and an attempt to dry out a bit. Dinner was followed by massages (!) and then we talked one of the family into buying beer at the shop for us, and played another wild game of Uno.
Next morning we headed back to Langmusi - the rain had meant that we couldn't make the 3rd sleeping place so had stayed at the village for the extra night - which meant we had a really long ride to get back to Langmusi. The ride was fabulous though - firstly through grasslands and wildflowers, then up into the mountains, and across mountain marshes. We stopped on the way for lunch beside a rushing creek. Further along we stopped at the spring of the creek - a mineral water spring and drank plenty of the water. It was the first time I had seen the beginning of a river - this one feeds into the Jialing River, so that was fun too.
Further on we passed a small village - and it was Shi Keta's home, so we stopped above it talking to one of the other villagers and then taking photos of us, plus Chen Quiao and Shi Keta with the village as background.
Finally reached Langmusi, and this time we all rode in triumphal procession through
I had been chatting to Chen Qiao about our next plans - heading to Songpan. It works out that for us it was just as cheap if not cheaper to hire a mini-bus than take the local bus, so I was talking about that - he knew the driver and said he would get him to take us the 'scenic' route - places where few other foreigners go for the same price.
Next morning we were up early as I wanted to buy some prayer beads to remind me of the trip, so popped into the monks shop next to the hotel. Chen Qiao had come down to say goodbye, saw us there and came in. I was looking at one set and he started negotiating for me - got the price down 90%!!
We then organised ourselves into the mini-bus and headed out. The first stop was a mountain pass - where we tossed more wind horses. The next stop was a Flower Lake - huge grasslands with yaks and sheep, and a 1.5 km board walk around the marshes. A lovely walk and enjoyable to see the way the place is being looked after.
Back to the taxi and off to the next section. On the way there were prayer flags all over one hill so I got the driver to stop and we found a tiny monastery and entered. A monk came out and asked us to sit and we talked a little about the monastery.
Next stop was lunch. Finally reached Songpan after the 12 hours drive, and booked into the hotel. It had been a wonderful week.
D.
Back>>
|
