על הוביטים בבני אדם

after a relaxing 5 days after the markha valley trek, I decided to go to a little easy going trek between villages in west ladakh- what is called lower ladakh.

  at 4 PM I left for Likir , 2 hours drive from Leh, with an Israeli girl, and we met in the bus 2 guys from poland and a group consisting Israeli guy,french guy, and English, australian, and brazilian girls. the polls trek alone and we joined the 5 people group, walking to Likir monastery, an hour walk at the twilight of the day.

   the next day we walked back to the village and crossed a little pass, entering the arid moonland landscape of ladakhi desert. 

 

 we had lunch in the tiny village of sumdo and carry on via  a pass to yangtang. this village was lovely and we slept all

together in one big room, and I tried to take a shower with hot bucket in the...toilet. ladakhi toilet are a room in the second floor covered with earth on a wooded floor and a hole in the middle. after do youre poe, you use a shuffle to cover it with earth, and the product is compost, that the ladakhi use to fertile theire fields.

  next day, the 5 people group took the bus back to Leh and I carry on the trek with dana, the israeli girl. we tried to find the path to th long way to himis chocpaco, and failed. came back to the village and tried again.

  we picked up the trail on the river and it was blocked by a land slide. a ladakhi old man help us cross the landslide by going above it. it was scary enough and we went on until the river crossing. the stream was hard, and we had to cross the stream barefooted using a stick I found near the river.

 

  the trail was washed by the stream   here and there, and landslides blocked it here and there as well. so we had to cross the stream more than 10 times, wetting our shoes and pants. 4 times we were lucky enough to use "bridges" of big log of wood put across.

 

  after 2 hours of mending with the river we picked[ up a jeep path up a side valley to an impressing monastery- Rizong gompa. we ate chapati with jam and filled up our water bottles and around 14:30 start walking toward a steep pass.   we had hard time pick up the trail but eventually found it and walked up a ridge, went down and climb another. the trail become steep and we lost the sun...around 5 we were high and ascending more and more. the way to the pass was beautiful, and we went left, climbed and join the pass around 17:30. climbing 500 m altitude in 3 hours.

 

  the descent was hard and stannous. very steep descent on loose scree. after an hour we were in the valley itself loosing light quickly. at seven it was dark and we lost the trail and go in the river bad, hoping there will be no waterfalls.   we were happy to see  a few tree's and stupa's we knew are a sighn  for arriving himis. we were about to tackle the last obstacle before himis- a landslide- when a ladakhi family who lived nearby saw our torches and called us. it was 20:00 pm and we came to theire house and ate dinner, and stayed the night. they didnt know english but had a ladakhi-english dictionary so I use it to talk ladakhi with them. it was very nice and a good way to learn ladakhi.   the next morning we left to himis itself, crossed a small pass and descend steeply to a wide deserted valley. we couldnt find the trail up to the prinkiti la pass and wasted 3 hours to find it. we climbed a steep hill just to get down on the other side, and then again...with another hill. eventually we saw some cairns (rugum) and found it. going steeply up with a mighty chasm down below, we arrived to the top and went down quickly to a village called Ang. around 18:00 we arrived to Temisgam and stayed in a nice hotel. next morning dana went alone to lamayuru while I continuo trekking. going up the valley to Tea(tia) and ascending the short  steep ascent to the bongbong la pass which was very nice. from there through deselect area that remind me the desert back in Israel I walked for two hours untill down to the Indus valley.

 

  hitch hiking brought me to Lamayuru and the randevous with Dana not before waiting 1 hour in the middle of the road because a landslide blocked the road and highway workers blew up 3 exposives to dismember the boulder that fall from the mountain.   Lamayuru have a famous impresive gompa but its the most poor village I saw in Ladakh. next day we hitch hike on a truck bzck to spituk for 5 hours and 30 minnets by bus to Leh.   winter is comming and it is very cold. since it is very risky and very unplesent to go 21 hours to manali ,I booked a jeep to srinagar. from there I will go to jamu, chamba, and rishikesh.   Juley from Ladakh!