Day 3 in Ladakh
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  • Day 3 in Ladakh

    For our last two days in Ladakh we had planned a hike in the mountains. We left Leh with horses, tents, a cook, a mountain horseman, a guide, and all our equipment. The hike started quite a distance from Leh so we had to get there by car first. Typical of Ladakh, the land is wonderful but extremely arid:

    We finally arrived at our starting point after about an hour. Here’s an old woman we crossed along the way:

    Along the trek we would stumble upon remains of horses and other mountain animals.

    Here’s Chloé taking it very seriously. What was she doing up there to start with?

    And here she’s taking it a little less seriously. Mountain man helped the ladies cross the river at a point where it was no longer possible to cross by jumping across stones and logs.

    If at some point we thought we enjoyed driving through the mountains in Ladakh, walking this smaller path yielded its own surprises.

    Here is our guide walking ahead of us. What a great funny guy he was!

    Me and Chloé standing on a rock high up in the mountains:

    Because of the incredible altitude we had to take quite a few breaks to rest and for everyone to catch up with each other. This made for a very pleasant walk.

    I picked these up near our soon-to-be campground and made this angry-looking face:

    Here’s the view from our campground:

    We stayed just a little southeast from Rumbak village.

    One of the local donkeys:

    That’s our kitchen tent: it’s where the cook prepared our meals and where we would eat if it started raining. Quite a convenience!

    Chloé and I are unpacking at our tents:

    Mountain man takes a nap:

    I just had to take this picture. Isn’t it such a cliché?

    The village of Rumbak can almost be seen from our campground:

    Chloé had a hard time fitting through the traditional doorways!

    I can’t believe this place even had a “restaurant” and a little souvenir shop (pictured).

    There was a barley mill not too far from our campground. We went to take a look at it.

    The night is soon to come and I’m enjoying black tea in the Himalayas. I can check that off my bucket list. What a wonderful journey.

    Stay tuned for pictures of day 4 and the trek up and then back down the mountains!