The call came unexpectedly but
decision was taken instantly followed by applying for leave from office, booking
tickets, etc. You never lose upon a lifetime opportunity to encounter the ghost
of the mountain even if that means a near intolerable altitude and temperature
freezing your senses, do you? The train started on time from Sealdah. We kept
on building up the adrenaline, feeding on different stories of wild travels
from the past. Bed tea in our trains always comes from the tea sellers who
board the compartments even before the service from pantry could start. This
also works as either very disturbing morning alarm or an equally welcome announcement
for the next halt in absence of an official declaration system in trains. We
were already in Uttar Pradesh and woke up to see that the Bengali scripts were
replaced overnight by Hindi all along. You actually may see sign-boards of at
least five languages (Assamese, Bengali, Odissi, Telegu & Tamil) when you
start from Guwahati in the North-East by train for Chennai to the South. This time our destination was New Delhi, the
capitol in the North.
We were occasionally greeted by families
of Sarus Crane, a very common sight at the cultivation lands in the northern
part of the country. The grey bird with red head is as tall as we stand and
quite fearless to the farmers working nearby. The birds enjoy widespread
protection due to the belief about a pair’s lifetime devotion to each other. A
few shy horse-like figures hide behind the bushes as our speeding train
crossed. These are Nilgai or Blue Bull, the largest of the Antelopes found in
India (from the Blackbuck family of recent Bollywood attention). The antelopes
are structurally same as deer, but unlike deer which periodically shed and
regrow their horn, antelopes has a permanent one. The male Nilgai is dark grey
and female is mud colored. Despite damaging crops, they are not harmed as they
are believed to be related to the sacred cow. Oriental White Ibis, the black
& white bird with curved long bill were also seen. We saw a number of
water-bodies flocked by numerous ducks before the train entered Aligarh. One of
them even had a River Tern, skimming the water surface for fish which made us
initially think it to be an Indian Skimmer. Indian Skimmer has an orange bill
and a dark upper part unlike River Tern which has a yellow bill with more
whitish body. The pond also had a Eurasian Spoonbill which raked up the muddy
corners for frogs and the more common, Indian Pond-heron & Cattle Egret,
looking at the water like a magician as if to hypnotize the fish in it. The
train route always covers the most remote and unseen areas of my country. We reached
Delhi for an overnight stay and next day morning took flight for the Kushok
Baluka Rimpoche Airport of Leh.
As per various references, Leh was
known in the past by different names such as Maryul or low land, Kha- chumpa
etc. Fa-Hein referred to it as Kia-Chha and Hiuen Tsang as Ma-Lo-Pho. It is
said that the first Immigrants to this land appears to have been the Tibetan
nomads called Chang-pa who followed ancient Bon religion before Buddhism was
introduced during reign of Ashoka. The whole of Leh district is mountainous
with three parallel ranges of the Himalayas, the Zanskar, the Ladakh and the
Karakoram. The beautiful, Stok Kangri is the highest peak at 6123m. Three
rivers, Shayok, Indus and Zanskar flow through Leh. The flora and fauna of
Ladakh was first studied by Ferdinand Stoliczka, an Austrian/Czech
palaeontologist, who carried out a massive expedition in the region in the
1870s. For such an arid area, a total of
225 bird species have been recorded. About 11 Snow leopards (Shan in Ladakhi: 9
adult & 2 cubs) are believed to be in Hemis National Park of Leh at the
time of our visit.
Photo credit: Prasun Kumar Majumdar
With the high terrains, Leh offer
fantastic trekking opportunities along with nature/ wildlife sighting/
photography. Local sightseeing can include Indus-Zanskar confluence at Nimmu,
Shanti Stupa, Leh Palace, Hall of Fame or the famous War Museum, Chamba Temple,
Jama Masjid, Gurdwara Pathar Sahib, Stok Palace, Zorawar Fort, Magnetic hill,
Pangong Lake, Tsomoriri Lake, Nubra Valley, Siachen Glacier etc. and the
trekking trails. Rafting & cycling options are also there. We went for the
five day, Leh (3524m)- Spituk (3210m)-Zingchen (3385m)-Husing Nallah -Rumbak (3812m)-Yurutse
(4077m) route covering parts of Hemis NP with occasional temperature as low as
-30°C. This real story is about our lifetime experience seeing the Shan and
other wild encounters of lifetime.
The flight was full and seemed like a miniature
India with people from all states preparing to fly together for all purpose. The
Sun light reflected from the white, snowy mountains of Himalayan Range while we
tried to keep our eyes open from the remaining sleep of last night at Delhi.
Like an expert bird the aeroplane flew between barren mountains with white
patches and landed at Leh airport. We followed the other regular passengers who
took out their winter gears and polarized sun glasses before deplaning. A
fresh, chilling air greeted us along with the smiling face of our driver, Lotus
Namgyal. He rushed us to the hotel where we will spend the day acclimatizing to
the height and cold, real bone tattering cold.
We spend the afternoon buying various items that we missed in Kolkata.
Our tour guide, Tsultrim Changsem visited us in the evening for a detailed
session about the tour starting next day. The night was chilling but we braved
that to climb the roof top for the clear star-filled sky and the moon-lit snowy
peak, Stok Kangri. We fell in love with it just like all others, visiting Leh
do. We will have no connection with the rest of the world for the days to come
and we started enjoying every bit of it.
Photo credit: Prasun Kumar Majumdar
Day 1: Leh - Spituk - Zingchen –
Husing Nallah
After breakfast we drove from Leh towards
Zingchen through the picturesque Spituk Valley crossing the river, Indus. The
region is a birding paradise and we had our first encounter with the Chukar
family, a buff colored partridge with a black band over the face like a half-worn
necklace. We arrived at Zingchen and a
team of porters and cook joined us. We started our trek through a gorge over
the chader of hard icy layer of the river surface towards Husing Nallah. The
sound of the tinkling river under the ice makes you wonder as if a fairy from
the tales had touched the surface by her magic wand last night stopping the
flow so that you can fall into her arms walking over the river.
Photo credit: Prasun Kumar Majumdar
We were walking cautiously over the
ice when small rocks started falling from above with dust in the air. Some
activity was definitely happening far on the rocky-mountains making us all
eagerly glancing at the site. Then appeared a heard of Bharals or Blue Sheep
what we had missed to locate because of their slaty grey color blending
perfectly with the surroundings. There were many along the snow line where
small bushes are source of food to them. The males have black patches in the
front of legs which the females don’t have. The horns are curved backwards
towards neck. The Bharals are tough climbers and Snow Leopards prey upon them. So,
the Snow Leopard trails are mostly along the tracks of Bharals. Our excitement
enhanced and with each sound the adrenaline rush kept us going despite the
chill and breathlessness. By afternoon we reached Husing Nullah where we will
camp for two days and the place was already a fare for hundreds of wild lifers
from BBC, Nat Geo, Freelancers, Adventurers, Explorers, porters, cooks, support
staffs and travelers like us with their numerous tents and gears. One thing was
common and connected each one of us, the expectation of sighting a Snow Leopard
and the cold, cutting our greetings to node.
Photo credit: Prasun Kumar Majumdar
Day 2: Husing Nallah
The place is surrounded by hills and
the only road that brought us here from Zingchen follows the path of the little
river covered by ice. You will still hear the continuous flow of water beneath
the hard icy layer. A few shrubs and trees will greet you with cold wind that
plays around from every direction despite the hills. One permanent and a couple
of temporary toilets are erected near the foothill. They are horribly smelly as
decay is slow in the harsh weather. Tents of different color are easily
identified by the local porters and stories of previous sighting started
flowing once they meet, greet & complain about strangeness of their
employers. The previous night was spent in the sleeping bags with full winter-wears
on and still shivering. The water intake was more than usual at this environ.
The punishment was the nature call at night. The hushing sound of pleasure from
the trees mating the chilling wind overlapped the one from continuous flow of the
river. The sky was dark blue from the reflection of light from the full Moon and the stars on the snowy barren hills. Everything seemed to have planned
to hide their most precious secret. The one that is seeing you now, you can feel
it’s breath touching you, still warm, so near and yet the only movement you see
is that of the Tibetan flags of different colors put on a string in rows to
wave-of the bad spirits.
We woke up from sleep as our tent was
trembling from the running footsteps. A few seconds were wasted to leave the
temptation of the warm sleeping bags. Everyone was running around on war
footing despite the cold and our query fell into deaf ears. They carried their missile-launcher like
lenses, tripods, monopods, scopes, video cameras and we followed suit. In
wilderness the natural instinct kicks in automatically. We didn’t knew or see
and still we anticipated something exciting happening at the top of the mountain
a few kilometers away where every gear pointed with the owner’s eyes
behind. Our lenses didn’t have the
range, neither had we a scope with us and still with a very high heart beat we
shared the joy that reflected in every face. The Ghost of the Mountain chose to
make an appearance in her throne at the top of her realm. And then a foreigner
called us to join him in seeing through his scope what was happening in the
heaven. A mother Snow Leopard pampered her quite grown up cub at the top on the
mountain very much camouflaged with the surrounding rocks. Hours passed like seconds before they
disappeared behind the rocks, leaving us with memories of lifetime to share and
cheer till we live. We could take a few snaps through our limited gears where
it appears like an ant but what was captured in heart was bigger than any award
winning photographs. We were blessed to see the Snow Leopard on our second day.
We were blessed to meet so many wild life lovers who shared with us their
privileges. Nature removes all boundaries created by human.
Whole day was spent by us volunteering
in turns behind the scopes as spotters. We saw Bharals on another slope of the
mountain, a Tibetan Fox on the opposite mountain running after something beyond
our visual reach. Tibetan Fox are common in this part of the world. It is a bit
reddish with thick far and smaller than the Indian Fox of the plains. Over
lunch we heard stories of sighting of a Pallas’s Cat by a porter from the group
that prepared to move out and approach closer to the sighting area next day.
During our afternoon walk we also heard about the existence of Asiatic Ibex,
Ladakh Urial, Argali in the trek route that we planned to cover in coming days.
We tried to imagine the mountain goats/ sheeps from the description of horns
that a kind forest guide from other group drew by his walking stick.
The river under the frozen surface
continued to call us out and we obliged despite the stormy wind that had
already taken everything under its shawl of cold. We were relaxed as were the
others who had waited for months just for a glimpse of the grey beauty. The day
was rewarding in contrast to the unpredictability that we had consoled
ourselves to experience before the tour. We walked towards the small bridge and
some activity under the carpet of the red and golden leaves fallen on the bank
of the frozen river caught our attention. Something very small was moving fast
and stopping suddenly like a statue that eluded us of a sight. We waited
holding our breath. A few minutes passed and then there it was. A guinea-pig like
mammal appeared with great caution in the little opening allowing us to locate
it. With small round head, ear and without a tail, this short legged energetic animal
of orange-grey moved around the rocks suddenly stopping & disappearing,
soon to peep out between the rocks. A traveler
who stopped over seeing us lying on the edge of the road informed us that this is the most common Pika of this area
named the Royel’s Pika or Himalayan Mouse-hare. There are other species like
Large-eared Pika etc. They are going to be our friend throughout the trek
route, surprising us with sudden appearances from the broken rocks. A
Red-billed Cough circled over the valley announcing the end of day as the Sun rays
slowly hides behind the Mountains in front of us. The wind took over to rule the
night that promised to be romantically clear and we shivered along with the
small patch of trees. It was a most satisfying day one can ever imagine in this
part of the world and we will remember this day as one achievement till we live
on this beautiful & amazing place, we call our home, the Earth. (To be continued…)
Photo credit: Prasun Kumar Majumdar
