Tagne 2001

<< previous day

contents

next day >>

Dan's Diary

Day 9 - Friday 6th July 2001

Narinder (tiny, above large green patch) is chased by the daily bus

We had decided to get up at 6am to try and avoid the midday sun. The skies were clear and it looked like being another hot day, but it was still quite cool in the shade of the valley. It was the normal routine of toilet, tea, pack, wash and then breakfast at 7am. We had fruit and nut muesli followed by fried egg on toast, which went down well.

Alan and Andy left at 7:30am eager to get most of the walking done before it got to hot, so they wouldn't suffer like they had the previous day. Steve soon followed them while Jon and I finished packing. Some twenty minutes later Jon and I left the campsite with Narinder and started off up the dirt road. It wasn't until 8:45pm that we caught up with Alan and Steve. They were sticking to their word and walking at quite a pace. They knew that the more kilometres they covered early on, the fewer they'd have to walk in the heat. The dirt track ascended steadily up the side of the valley, getting further and further away from the grey river on the valley floor. The scree slopes were on both sides of the road, extending upslope on our left as far as the eye could see and down on our right to the river far below. A bit further along the scree gave way to rock. The road had been carved out of the rock leaving a delightful looking overhang across the road, which bent round a small side valley, fording the stream therein. We all stopped together in the shade under another rocky roadside cliff. Narinder tried to get a lift with a jeep, the first vehicle to pass us that day. The jeep didn't stop, it continued up through a small stream of water running down the road splashing Narinder who had got up to signal to the jeep that he wanted a lift. The driver had probably thought we all wanted a lift and therefore didn't bother stopping. After a drink, we all continued. Around the next bend the road descend back down the valley towards the river and the scree returned on both sides of the road. Narinder had been struggling to keep up on the uphill section, but on the descent he stayed up with the lead porter. The road levelled out by the river and both road and valley curved around to the left. I waited just around the bend for Steve and Alan so I could take a photo of them with the snow-capped peaks of White Sail and its neighbours. I waited for what seemed like ages and they still hadn't arrived. They were no more than a few minutes behind me and I had been waiting for at least five minutes. I started to wander back up the road to see where they were when they appeared. It turned out they too had had the same idea and had stopped to take photos. Around the bend, new views came into sight that were even more spectacular and thus more photos were taken. The river was in full flow now and churned away just a couple of metres from the dirt road, which was at the same level.

Alan, Steve and White Sail

A ten-minute stop at 10:05am allowed Steve, Alan and I to catch up with the rest of the group. We had a much-needed drink before continuing. Sonam came round the bend and caught us up. The milestones told us that we were only 6km to Batal. I thought we could do that in an hour on such easy terrain, and put my head down, quickening my pace. Some buildings and a bridge could be seen in the distance as we rounded another bend. This I guessed would be Batal, where we would spend the night. The track was very slightly inclined as it rose up to village, enabling us to maintain a fast pace. The road took us through some old riverbeds and lake bottoms, now just a mass of rounded boulders. The two daily buses passed us. Narinder resisted the temptation to get on board, probably thinking it wasn't worth it now we were so close.

Just before reaching Batal we headed for a grassy patch set back from the side of the road at 11:25am. Here we sat and ate Rotis filled with cheese spread, tuna, hard-boiled eggs and various other spreads. Nuts and chocolate bars were also nibbled. Sonam and the lead porter had their lunch after us. We lay on the grass, resting. I covered my legs for the sun was strong and I could feel it burning me. Andy and Steve went up into the village to sit in the shade of one of the dhabas and have a cup of tea. Jon, Alan and I waited for the donkeys, which could be seen coming along the road, to arrive so we could take photos of them. Once the donkeys had passed, we followed them up a small slope and into a large bowl surrounded by piles of moraine and scree slopes. This sheltered spot would be our campsite for the night.

Alan indulges in some post-lunch photography

As the tents started to go up, Alan, Jon and I walked down into Batal to join the others at the dhaba. There we sat drinking refreshingly ice cool cokes. Steve had either become disorientated or thought he had walked further than he had. He enquired as to what the bridge was used for downstream. The bridge that he was referring to was the one we had all seen on the trek up to Batal. It was actually situated behind him, he had his back to it. It was upstream and was part of the main road, which crossed from one side of the valley to the other. I was intrigued by a couple of men making a mud pie on the other side of the road. It turned out to be a type of cement that they used to plaster the outside of the stone building. A couple of other parties had stopped in Batal for a drink. An American woman collared Alan and started gibbering away to him. They were going up to the Chandra Tal and camping there overnight.

We headed back to the campsite at 2pm, past a couple of graves of climbers who had died in the region. I put my rucksacks in the shade of my tent and then retreated to the shade of the mess tent myself where we all played several rounds of cards. Sonam brought us some battered curried vegetable pieces and some tea at 2:45pm.

As Sonam left and we all dug in Steve said "Have you seen what they've done to the serviette?". It had been shaped and cut into a pattern, the sort of thing you'd find in a posh hotel and not what I'd expect to have on a trek through the Himalayas. Two minutes later Alan, not hearing what Steve had said and not being on the ball, pointed out the same fact. Once we'd made fun of this fact, he went back to writing his diary, writing that I was writing about him in my diary. The game of cards soon descended into an argument over the rules. We started to write the rules down but this only created more discussions and disputes. After deciding we were getting nowhere with cards, I played Narinder at chess and lost.

I sorted out my kit at 5:45pm and attempted to have a shave but my blade was blunt. Soup was served at the usual time, 6pm along with peppered papadums. While waiting for the main course, I read the altimeter watch manual and worked out how to use all the features of the altimeter.

Bang on 7pm, our evening meal was brought to us. Rice, soya meatballs, curried vegetables and dhal all came in large dishes. Jon and Andy sat nearest the entrance of the tent and thus had the job of dishing the food out. Sonam came back to refill all the large dishes ensuring that we had more than we could eat. The wind had got up and swirled around in the bowl in which we were camped. So much for being sheltered. It picked up dust and blew it everywhere. It wasn't long before the dust had settled forming a skin on our hot orange juice and our food. The rice looked as though someone had covered it in loads of pepper. Cherries were brought for pudding and we gave Sonam our water bottles so he could fill them with water that the cook had boiled and added puritabs to. I visited the toilet tent and did battle with the wind, which seemed to blow at the tent from all sides. The tennis ball was covered in gaffer tape, in an attempt to stop it bouncing so much and I put new batteries in the GPS, before retiring to my tent at 20:55pm.