Two nights later we came back to Leh, where it was snowing at the Khardung pass. The next day we drove to Rumtse, at 4095m (trek starting point), some 90 km along the Leh-Manali highway. The Rupshu/Changtang trek is in a remote part of Ladakh. The area is a continuation of the Tibetan plateau where the camps are never lower than 4300m. As Ladakh has the most expensive taxi fares in all of India, and the pony men have to be paid to get to the starting point and back to their villages, this area is financially inacessible to most would be trekkers; hence the true sense of remoteness can be experienced on this trek.

Those who know Chandra from Nepal was promoted to be the cook on this trek as part of true Responsible tourism. For photos from this trek http://notjusttreks.com/gallery/india-north.htm

We started this trek with two other groups but we passed the other groups by two hours into Day Three, so for the rest of the trek we were on our own in vast high altitude pastoral valleys; until the day we were approaching Tsomoriri Lake where our path crossed with a German group going in the opposite direction.

One goes through beautiful valleys which are inhabited by nomads with their numerous sheep, goats and yaks. The Changtang/Rupshu area is also home totame Marmots, Pikas (mouse hares), Golden Eagle, Lammergeiers, Tibetan wolves and red fox, amongst other wildlife.

We trekked through Tsokar (Salt Lake) and ended the trek at Tsomoriri Lakewhich is 4-5 km wide and about 40 km long. During the trek, like the rest of Ladakh, we experienced rain, some hail, strong winds and even snowfall for two nights where we camped pretty high, around 4900m to 5000m. Quite an experience to witness snow in July and August in the Northern hemisphere. During a spell of rain, we were invited by a nomad into his tent for tea. We interacted with his children and showed them pictures we had taken of them, which they looked at with fascination. By the time we left the nomad's tent the rain had stopped.

When we got to Tsomoriri Lake there was a beautiful rainbow in the evening. Our jeep which was expected didn't turn up. We heard from other trekkers who had been stranded there that the roads to Leh from Manali, Srinagar and Nubra had been washed out and Leh was cut off from the rest of India. We were stuck at the lake for a day. When a jeep arrived to pick up a group of French who had been stranded at Tsomoriri arrived, I managed to convince their guide and driver to squeeze in the Morgans to Leh as their flight to Delhi was the next day. Our vehicle arrived within a couple of hours of the Morgans’ departure. We stayed one more night by the lake (a much better place to stay an extra night, we could have been stuck in worse places) and left for Leh early next morning.

On the drive to Leh we witnessed the devastation caused by ten days of incessant rains. Fortunately as Ladakh is in a militarily strategic area, the army was quick to repair the roads and it also created much needed income for the villagers working on the roads. We heard news of trekkers stranded in other areas, being evacuated by helicopter. There was a story that a stranded group who had been without food for five days was on the verge of killing a mule to feed themselves when they heard the whistling and cries of their rescuers. This incessant rain is really freakish for Ladakh which is supposed to get only 30 cm of rain per year. Is it global warming? Is it the planting of trees to make Ladakh green that attracted the rains? No one has the answer yet.

Legends of Mussorie
Sir George Everest

Raj Tamang Responsible Adventures
www.notjusttreks.com