Black-Necked Cranes and Motorcycle Gangs!

We just returned from a three day, two night camping trip to both Tso Moriri and Tso Kar to observe the impact of paramilitary forces on the region's ecosystem. They are two of the highest salt lakes in the world. I have to admit, I had very different expectations of camping than what we went through...Although it was all worth it!

We left Leh at 5:00am in a jeep with our guide, named Tashi, which means "Good Luck" and five other travel companions; a hilarious older Swiss woman who lives in the UK, a 30-ish German woman with perfect American English and an adorable blond Austrian couple. The distance to the lake wasn't so bad, but we had to go very slowly because of the dirt roads, rock slides, washed out sections of road, criss-crossing the Indus river, sometimes directly or sometimes on rickety, eye-bulging wood bridges, crossing mountain passes, navigating blind corners on one and a half lanes (if we were lucky), herds of sheep and yak, rock breakers (young Indian boys on the side of the road breaking rocks into smaller rocks), etc. We also stopped at a nomadic camp and visited with Shepards and their families. They were staring at us just as curiously as we were staring at them. It took about eight hours, but we finally arrived at Tso Moriri (Tso means Lake in Ladakhi).

Like I said earlier, not what I expected. The village we had heard of was a few shacks and tents, no Internet for sure and no lunch like we had planned. There was nothing else there besides a small paramilitary camp and a few other campers, oh ya and the lake. We (I mean everyone but myself) decided it would be super-duper cool to hop over a stream and camp on a small Island between two mountains. I was not pleased because we were essentially in a wind tunnel and I wasn't sure if the water on both sides of us would woosh us away while were sleeping. I took Jeni's lead and I tried to make the best of things. Trouble happened when we tried putting up our tents. The wind was slapping us around and making fools of our attempts. With much help from everyone, we finally set up camp. Everyone else decided to go for walks, Jeni and I rested a bit, we were now at 15,000 ft and feeling every bit of the lack of oxygen. When we finally went for a walk, the lake was like a mirage that kept getting farther and farther away. We had to cross streams, bridges, barbed wire, rice fields and lots of animal poop, but we finally arrived at the water's edge. It was incredible. The lake displayed every shade of blue with just the slight tipping of your head one way and then the other. Plus there were no boats, no docks, no cabins, just lake. I tried to take pictures to share, but each time I couldn't get everything in, Jeni ended up taking a short video with her digital camera, it still didn't do the view any justice. We hung out a while bird-watching and then headed back to camp.

Dinner was a triathlon. The wind prevented our guide from starting our small cooker, he ended up taking it into the smallest tent, practically burning off his eyebrows, but it worked. It rapidly started getting dark and with the dark came the cold. Jeni's guide book to India says that the Himalayas are the only place in the world where you can sit with your feet in the shade and simultaneously get a third degree sunburn and frostbite! With our frozen hands, we cut various vegetables for salad and the rice. After eating a make-shift, but not bad dinner it was off to bed (before 9pm). It was too cold to do anything else. As I climbed into my rented sleeping bag, I was aghast at the different image I had in my mind of camping at a lake. Ahhh, but then I remembered, if I were back home there would have been several 24 packs, a boat or a couple four wheelers maybe even a jet ski, my best friends, prepackaged yummy unhealthy food, a camp fire and definitely some MEAT!

We shivered away until finally we fell asleep. We work up at 6:30 am, with out anyone telling us to? Breakfast was another disaster. The German woman, Rabea had made the rice for the previous night's dinner, so she didn't want to also cook breakfast. Jeni volunteered, but then the Rabea continuously told Jeni she was doing it wrong. How do you mess up porridge? Lucky for her (my patience was thin), she apologized to Jeni, even though she refused to eat the breakfast. Then we learned that we were changing lakes, this wasn't what Jeni and I had agreed to, but again I followed Jeni's lead and packed up camp.

Another 6-7 hours in the jeep and we arrived at Tso Kar. The jeep rides weren't so bad though, driving along the salt marsh, we saw all sorts of animals and wildlife including, sheep, goats, yak, cows, deer, horses, marmots (like groundhogs), birds and we even saw five black-necked cranes which are an endangered species! Also, the Himalayas are practically indescribable! Rocks in all colors of grey, brown, white, red, pink, purple, blue, etc. Waterfalls, random religious monuments and paintings also graced our view. The funniest part of the drive were the signs, "Overtaker, don't visit the undertaker," "Drinking Whisky, Makes Driving Risky," "Know Aids, No Aids," "Don't be a Gama, In the land of Lama," "Heaven, Hell, Mother Earth, Your Choice," "Horn Please," "Time is Money, But Life is Precious," "Don't Gossip, Let Him Drive," and many more!

At Tso Kar, there wasn't even a village. We had to ask another jeep driver where camping was allowed. We arrived at a spot, not so near the lake (we never even made it to the water), with only one other camp site and a vacant camp with many tents that campers can rent like motel rooms. There was seemingly less wind, so we had an easier time setting up camp. At around 4pm, I felt sick from the altitude and retreated to our tent where I stayed until the next morning. While I was fighting nausea and a migraine several events happened. Three Indians and their entourage of servants, jeeps, tents, etc, set up camp right in front of our tent. I was alerted to this because I heard and then saw Jeni making sure they moved. They did, but only a few yards. Next, we were graced with a enormous Indian motorcycle gang, Jeni counted over 30 bikes. They took up residence at the previously vacant tent camp.

Sleep was nearly impossible. My head hurt like hell and every sound from the wind sounded like some sneaky guy trying to get in our tent. I woke Jeni up at 1:30am and brought in our shoes and some other stuff that was in our tent "patio." We put a lock on the zipper to the patio and one on the zippers to our tent. I realize that if someone really wanted in, these were futile attempts, but somehow these slight precautions and 800ml of IB Profin allowed me to finally sleep.

Our last day consisted of another porridge breakfast, this time made by Rabea, a walk along a beautiful stream, visiting a weird horn shrine and piles of stones with Tibetan prayers written on them, negotiating with nomads about tent fees (we ended up paying 50 rupees per tent $1.25), watching as herds of yak, goats, horses and sheep were navigated around our camp and strategically finding places to pee where the least amount of people would be able to see...
We left the lake and around 12:30 and had the most majestic ride yet. We had to drive over the second highest drivable pass int he world, nearly 18,000 ft!!!! At one point I rolled down the window and reached out to smack the snow! Amazing. We finally got back "home" around 5:30pm, just in time to take our bucket bathes and enjoy yet another fantastic meal in our guesthouse dinning room!

Missing everyone at home, Jeeni