Photo: Chris (Dr. Buck) (Right) relaxing on the porch of the Sankri Mountain House after we arrived. We are both content to be here after the long drive. We have four days of trekking ahead of us, and then the climb. The kid on the left is in college - speaks good English - and played Cricket on the national youth team.
Organized and met with our jeep driver in front of our hotel. We were joined by one of the Sherpas for the climb, a young guy named Phuba who would prove to be a real workhorse. We took a couple of pics and headed for Sankri, the entry point to a popular tourist trekking destination at Har Ki Doon, and the starting point for our trek to Kalanag.
The drive took about 7 hours. We stopped at the city of Purola for cooking fuel and some last minute provisions. I made my final call home and left a vmail for Carol (since it was after midnight at home). Purola is a dirty, noisy little city (typical) with no tourist activities there. We walked through the market while waiting. Saw a magician entertaining a crowd of about 50 people and just watched for a while... missed the trick... didn't understand enough of the setup. Wandered around the market.
After Purola the road starts to switchback and climb more steeply into the mountains. We crossed a couple of the foothills by snaking up and then all the way down to the river at the bottom of each valley, and then up the other side and over. We started seeing more of the Himalayan Langur monkeys and fewer of the Macaques... they were in plain sight for much of this trip.
The nomads were driving their herds into the higher elevations for the summer, following the winter in the lowlands. We saw families with hundreds of goats/sheep moving up the roadway... working out the right of way with vehicles. This was an amazing sight... but I didn't take photos because it may have been offensive to the families who were working hard on this part of their trek. At one point we were stopped for quite a while due to the volume of goats and cattle in the road.
Eventually the oncoming traffic thinned out, the roads deteriorated to a single, rutted lane. We worked our way toward Sankri.
Mindful Moment: As we entered the Sankri region, the driver stopped at a small shrine on the side of the road. The guru walked up to the Jeep and reached inside to bless each of us with the mark on our foreheads. We said 'namaste' and drove on. We were blessed.
The drive took about 7 hours. We stopped at the city of Purola for cooking fuel and some last minute provisions. I made my final call home and left a vmail for Carol (since it was after midnight at home). Purola is a dirty, noisy little city (typical) with no tourist activities there. We walked through the market while waiting. Saw a magician entertaining a crowd of about 50 people and just watched for a while... missed the trick... didn't understand enough of the setup. Wandered around the market.
After Purola the road starts to switchback and climb more steeply into the mountains. We crossed a couple of the foothills by snaking up and then all the way down to the river at the bottom of each valley, and then up the other side and over. We started seeing more of the Himalayan Langur monkeys and fewer of the Macaques... they were in plain sight for much of this trip.
The nomads were driving their herds into the higher elevations for the summer, following the winter in the lowlands. We saw families with hundreds of goats/sheep moving up the roadway... working out the right of way with vehicles. This was an amazing sight... but I didn't take photos because it may have been offensive to the families who were working hard on this part of their trek. At one point we were stopped for quite a while due to the volume of goats and cattle in the road.
Eventually the oncoming traffic thinned out, the roads deteriorated to a single, rutted lane. We worked our way toward Sankri.
Mindful Moment: As we entered the Sankri region, the driver stopped at a small shrine on the side of the road. The guru walked up to the Jeep and reached inside to bless each of us with the mark on our foreheads. We said 'namaste' and drove on. We were blessed.
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