Mt.Sinai is well known for a place for “Moses’ Ten Commandments”. This story is about Moses’s hear the Ten Commandments from God during Mt.Sinai in Old Statements of Holy Bible. There is also “Saint Cathrine’s Monestry” known as the oldest Orthodox.

So far in Dahab, I enjoyed some snorkeling, and just use wifi at cafe. This is all I did in Dahab so dar. 2 days from arrival in Dahab, I was already feeling like stuck in here. I gotta move. I mean join some more activities. So I decided to go to trekking to Mt.Sinai with my Japanese friends. We left 10p.m. at night, and went to see the sunset.

It was way harder than I thought… trekking…

After arrived at the foot of the mountain. We start trekking to the summit in the dark way. We needed to use lights. The sky was so beautiful with so much stars but if I look up, it was a bit dangerous. So I didn’t have time to enjoy the beautiful sky. It took about 3 hours to get to the summit. And the sun was already coming up a bit, so stars in the sky were getting less and less.

We waited for an hour until the sunrise. It was so dark when we started trekking, and the sky is getting brighter and brighter. Now I realize where I am. There were just mountains. No greens or houses around.

And finally the sun is coming up!!!

I don’t know what to say… when I went to the desert camping in Cairo. The sun itself was beautiful. But in Mt.Sinai, it’s different. Mountains brightened by the sun were so beautiful. Orange mountains are all over. I think I said something like this before but let me say again, “it was like in some planet, not in the Earth”. If I see “Piccolo” of Dragonball Z. I would have no doubt about it.

By the way, the fee for the one day trip to Mt.Sinai was 75 pounds. I paid another 25 pounds for the entry, so 100 pounds total. Left 10p.m. at night, trekking to see the sunrise, and see the Saint Cathrine’s Monestry. You can buy lights here but I recommend to bring your own. It’s better to take a long nap before the leave. But I couldn’t sleep…

You can enjoy not only snorkeling and diving, but also some trekking. It worth it.

I was planning to go to New Delhi, Rishikesh, Varanasi, Kolkata, and Darjeeling. But people told me about a lot of more attractive places in Delhi and Rishikesh. I decided to chang my route, and I didn’t go to Varanasi, Kolkata, and Darjeeling.

But I have no regret for this decision.

I didn’t swim in the Ganga in Varanasi, I didn’t watch Bollywood movies in Mumbai, and I didn’t drink the real “Darjeeling tea”.

But I have no regret for this at all.

Instead of doing that, I went to Himalayan trekking and realized myself as a nature-lover. I went to some small village and tried some hot springs. All things worth a lot for me.

Sometimes it was hard to reach some places by bus or jeep, and it was hard when trekking. But I think it was one face of “local” and “nature”.

So I was kind of tired of looking for more world after trekking. My curiosity was full already… you know what I mean right? That’s why I was just being lazy and doing nothing in Rishikesh for 2 weeks.

Before I come to visit India, “Taj Mahal” was on my top list, but I decided not to go there for this time. I can go there for one day tour from Delhi. I can do that. But if I go there now, I feel like I’m gonna see it like just checking on my ToDo list. That’s not good. So Taj Mahall, see you next time.

My impression of India was “incredible”, and now, I can truly tell that it is “incredible country”. I really think it is.

If I say “incredible”, that means “nature”. But some people can mean it as “Hinduism” or “mediation and yoga”. There are infinite variations of “incredible” in India.

Now I really understand what American guy told me in Bangkok.

‘Even if I stayed 6 months in India, I couldn’t see anything.’

My favorite place in Japan, is “Kyoto”. But I only stayed there for 2 days. So I guess I didn’t see the real side of Kyoto.

I haven’t been to much places in my
home country, Japan. And How could I see something much much bigger than that in 2 months? This is impossible.

But that 2 months, changed my value of senses a lot.

I think I might change my style of traveling…

Let’s say goodbye to India for a while.

【something to say】
I had a bad experience about my passport once. I almost lost it. Bu it was my fault.

I was buying a SIM card for my phone in Delhi. In India, you need to show your passport when buying SIM card, this is government rule. So I gave my passport to the guy, and because I was busy listening to price plan thing, I forgot to get back my passport from him.

3 days after, I realized my passport wasn’t in my jacket. I was keep on thinking how I lost it. And there was only one moment, when I gave my passport to the SIM card guy. I called him immediately.

Let me explain why I realized 3 days after. I mean this is slow. Well, I usually wear a Scottevest jacket with plenty pockets inside. And I put my passport in the inner pocket. I always zip up my jacket. Therefore, it’s almost impossible to “pickpocket” my passport. So when I realized the inner pocket was unzipped, I just thought the moment I opened it myself when buying SIM card.

After I get the SIM card, I realized few missed calls on my phone. But I ignored it. Because there are many wrong number calling and company’s ad mails in India. But this “missed call” was from the SIM card shop trying to tell me ‘you forgot your passport sir’.

I just thank that the shop’s owner was so kind… really…

After that, I set the iPhone reminder saying ‘is your passport there?’ every morning.

Don’t lose your passport, always keep it with you, and remind if there is everyday. (warning to myself…)

First time I thought ‘I want to stay here more!’…

thanks Himalayan mountains! thanks to my guide and the cook too!

We went all the way down from Kulara (3,200 meters) to Tapovan (1,850 meters). I think last time in Tapovan near Gangotri was more dangerous but for this time, I need to go down the steep hill for almost 3 hours. There was too much pressures to my toes and I felt some blisters on my feet… Try not to give too much pressures to my toes, I had to walk like sideways… This made me so tired. The guide goes further and further, but he waits for me sometimes. Even when some children wave their hands with big smile, my mind was filled with my toes… but tried to wave back with smile.

alright…

And finally Tapovan is on my sight! ↓

There are still more to go to the temple with hot springs. a little bit more… Walk sideways to give less pressure to my toes… walk sideways slowly slowly… And arrived in the temple! First, I need to thank that I got here safely.

Hot spring!!!

It is much clearer than the one in Gangnani near Gangotri. And with comfortable temperature…

But for this time, I tried the other one with feet. ↓

this feet hot spring was pretty hot… Rest my damn tired toes in hot spring. relaxing time… I don’t know why I didn’t try the whole body. Maybe because the guide said ‘let’s try this one!’. I should of tried the whole body…

Then, headed to Joshimath by jeep.

The 3 days trekking to Kuari Pass mountain is finished.

So this was my second trekking in my life (first time in Mt. Fuji in Japan, second in Gangotri in India), and I really think that this was so great experience. I realized myself as a animals and plants lover, and I felt so confident that my choice was right. I quit my job and started traveling, and now, it really worth that much. My traveling is just started and not even half of it is finished. But I really feel thankful for this great nature from my heart.

India showed me a face which I didn’t imagined before.

India is too much deep… not enough time…

【something to say】

The ESKIMO ADVENTURE arranged all my trekking this time. The owner of this company speaks fluent English and the guides. I asked him a lot of questions about India. I’m pretty satisfied with this company.

It looks just a tour company from outside but they also run their guesthouse. On the first day I arrived in Joshimath, the owner talked to me ‘cheaper room here!’. He just told me ‘how much you want?’ for the price… The average price for hotels around was 250 rupees, so I told him 200 rupees. great deal.

Pretty big room. notthat dirty. ↓

But if you are staying here, that means you are taking some tours from them. They won’t say it but it’s like a manner. If you can speak English, it would be great because you can ask a lot about Indian cultures and everything here. Like me, I asked him to arrange the ticket to Rishikesh.

For the second day, we put all the stuffs in Kulara, and if the weather is clear, we can go up to the Kuari Pass mountain during the cook is taking care of our stuffs near tent. Out of the forest near Tali, there was a wide land in front. In one hour from there, arrived in Kulara with an altitude of 3,200 meters!

It’s hard to see from the picture, but Kulara is full of flowers! carpets of flowers!

White, yellow, red, pink, sky blue, purple etc… there are a lot of flowers with many colors! This is the most beautiful spot for this trekking! I just realized that I really love nature… the trekking to here was so hard, but it really worth to come here. Put my backpack away, then look for more flowers!

What a massive diversity of organisms! This is what I love… I love animals and plants and flowers… I am 10 times as excited as the Tapovan trekking last time. I couldn’t find any lizards or frogs but plenty of plants and insects. Kulara is home for these organisms. Even when I saw a spider which I hate most in the world, I could think ‘wow! there is another insect there!’. In Kulara, there is a clean river like in Tali. I can get water from river any time I want.

Nature kitchen in the big tree. ↓

It rained several times but it was clear after 12 o’clock, we decide to go up to Kuari Pass mountain. It wasn’t a hard trekking because I left my backpack in the tent. I saw some bulls and ponys, arrived at the top in 2 hours! (about 3,640 meter high)

There were still carpets of flowers all around. Just green and green lands all around me.

In this vast lands, I saw only one “Blue Poppy”. ↓

oh… a lot of needles in stems and buds. I didn’t know that wild Poppy is like this… I think now I know a little bit of the feeling when some scientists came to find a rare plants and they found…

A dinner for the second day was Thali with lady’s finger. Did some camp fire and slept in 9.

I am happy to be here…

Continues to the second day.

【something to say】

“Naan” and “chapati” are very popular in Indian foods like “rice” in Japan. But there is some other thing called “Parantha”. It is thicker than chapati, and sometimes vegetables and cheese are inside. It comes with sauce sometimes.

Few days ago, I was looking for Thali and went to local restaurant. And they served me Parantha Thali! It tasted so great… and just 45 rupees…. (less than $1) Chapati, naan, and parantha are like “rice” in Japan. If it tastes good, that means other foods taste good also.

So this time, I’m going to Kuari Pass trekking instead! I just want to do some trekking!!!

I am renting tent, sleeping bag, and all stuffs for camping this time. Me, guide, and cook will be the member for trekking. The fee is 2,000 rupees per day (= 6,000 rupees for 3 days). twice as the price of Tapovan trekking last time… a bit expensive… but I guess it worth! camping and natures are waiting for me! The first day, we went to the ski resort Auli (now closed) by car which is with an altitude of 2750 meters. From there, we started trekking with our backpacks.

by the way…

Let me explain roughly the difference between Tapovan (last time) and Kuari Pass trekking (this time).

1.) I take my backpack with me, not a guide.
2.) no huge rocks or glaciers this time, but a lot of green mountains with plants.
3.) there are no guesthouses or ashrams, so we need to camp.

These are the 3 differences. Especially for my backpack, it is including the sleeping bag which I rented. I guess it weigh more than 10kg… same “trekking” but big differences.

The view from the trekking from Auli. ↓

The monsoon is covering the sky but I like it with plenty of clouds surrounding Himalayan mountains. It is so hard to do trekking with backpack… I was so tired trekking, trying to follow the guide. Last time (Tapovan), the guide was walking so quickly that sometimes I couldn’t even follow. But this time, the guide walks step by step to make the comfortable pace for me.

The most of the cloths guide wears are outdoor brands, but the cook wears a leather jacket and slipper. slipper? wow… and he carries a big bag which weighs more than 15kg for sure. The way he carrys the bag is interesting. He uses a rope to make the bag stick to back of his head, and carries it with his forehead. His hands are holding his head to support his neck. He looks totally okay with it… tough… what a tough guy…

It started to rain so I took out the down jacket which is the first time to use since my traveling. I didn’t bring any rain jacket, so I hope this will protect my valuable stuffs inside. The only thing I didn’t rent this time was rain jacket. The guide is wearing Goretex jacket and the cook is wearing a poncho. I’m the only one without rain jacket…

By trekking about 2 hours, we went inside forest, and reached to the temple.

The God of mountains lives here, so I prayed for the safety for this trekking.

Going further more, out of forest, there were just vast green lands. ↓

Taking small break, and looked for some flowers, we went further and further…

Now, we are trekking at the edge of mountain.

The moment I thought ‘I’m in the cloud now’. ↓

I saw views like this in the movie “Princess Mononoke”. ↓

2 hours trekking from the temple, we are
now going into the forest which is the camp site for today, called Tali. ↓

4 hours trekking from Auli, arrived in Tali with an altitude of 3,100 meters!

The clean river with drinkable water. ↓

so tired… but look! forest! lots of moss and many green plants… This is what I wanted! yeah!!! There were beautiful snow peaks and glaciers in Tapovan, but I prefer to look something like this!

I forgot my tiredness right away, and looked for some flowers and other plants there.

oh… such a India-like view… ↓

These bulls are not wild, they have a place to go back. The keepers will let them free only in the season with plants. The bells (on the neck) ring every time the bulls come or move around.

I love forests…

Since it’s rainy season now, the rain is making the plants even more green. I suddenly thought ‘there might be some lovely lovely frogs around!’ but couldn’t find any… The cook gave me some chai and coffee at great timing. I never thought of having a personal cook when camping…

The first day, I ate a instant noodle called “Maggi” and dal, chapati, rice for dinner. Thali (name for standard Indian dish) in camping!

I really realize that purpose of camping is “be thankful for all the foods around”. The foods front of me comes from the big nature around me… thanks for the foods…

Finished dinner, brushed my teeth, and slept in 8 p.m.

Continues on second day.

【 something to say】

Since I read “Kafka on the Shore”, I love to read books now. When I was in Japan, I loved to go to cafe and then cafe, just for reading books in day off. Stay 2 or 3 hours for one cafe, and move to another. Sometimes I take a walk around but mostly just stay in cafe and read books I like. I thought this was a best way to spend my day off. But I think few people would say ‘I love that too!’. I guess this is a minor way.

On the other side, I love cycling. Sometimes I spend 10 hours to go to certain spot. I love looking views during cycling. I am also a outdoor guy.

What do you do on your day off?

The altitude of Gaumukh was 3892 meters, and Tapovan is 4453 meters. This means I’m going 500 meters more
higher from where I am.

So… on the way to Tapovan from Gaumukh was seriously dangerous. seriously… There was nothing like a “way” but just plenty of rocks and sands with unstable ground. Just rocks, rocks, rocks… sometimes glaciers under…

The hardest way was from where the guide said “we are almost there!”. It was like huge hill or small mountains front of us with Ganga flowing from the top saying like “Do you think you can reach here?”. This is what I just mentioned, 500 meters!

I totally understand what Indian guy said “Oh it will be a difficult journey, wish you a good luck!” when I told him about Tapovan trekking.

I climbed up this hill all the way to top. (glaciers under)↓

This hill was so steep and unstable. There was some traces which people walked, so I tried to climb there but sometimes slipped a bit and rocks fell down. But fortunately, there was no one after us, so no one got hurt by the rocks I made it fall down. (Most Indian people get satisfied when they reached Gaumukh.)

As the altitude gets higher and higher, I was short of breath every 2 or 3 min and took a rest for 5 min. I was just concentrating on my breathe control. Nothing was common with the way to Gaumukh, much harder.

and then…

I reached the top!!!

It wasn’t like seeing the top little by little when trekking. I couldn’t see anything until I reached the top. So I felt so accomplished when I finally reached the top.

No more hills, just plane land all the way around the area. “Welcome to the new stage of world.” I felt nature is telling me this. And great Himalayan snow peaks just in front of me.

When I was in Bhojbasa, the deers were too much far way to see in naked eyes. But now, deers are in front of me. (some people say it’s goats…) ↓

Seeing great Himalayan mountains which is in closest place in my life, walk further and further.

There was a ashram in Tapovan, and I met Israeli guy who met in Bhojbasa last night. Took some rest and ate Indian porridge called “Kicheri”. Tapovan is a land which is hard to produce foods, so some people bring foods from Bhojbasa for volunteer.

When I get foods in this kind of land… I just want to thanks for all the foods from my heart… so naturally…

Beyond this ashram, there is a cave where “Baba” lives. In the winter, snow covers all the land around, so Bana just stay inside for while winter. One Indian guy told me that, even now, the temperature goes below zero at night.

In Tapovan, the Ganga called “Sky Ganga” is flowing to the land. And there are many kinds of Ganga around.

There are two kinds of Ganga flowing in Tapovan, which is “Akhaji Ganga” and “Amal Ganga”. Akhaji Ganga with milky water, and Amal Ganga with clear water. (I’m not sure about the right spelling for Akhaji and Amal…)

If you go more further, you can see where this two Ganga mixes. ↓

Can you see the line between two Ganga? On the right side is Akhaji Ganga with milky water, and on the left side, you can see the Amal Ganga with clear water.

Also there is the Ganga called “Black Ganga”. Like the name, it is black with mud.

The Black Ganga when I was on the way to Tapovan. ↓

Many Ganga are flowing to the city like Gangotri, Rishikesh, Haridwar, and Varanasi.

I could of stayed in Tapovan but the plan was going and back in one day, so I just stayed for 3 hours and said goodbye to the beautiful nature there.

I need to be more cautious on the way back. trekking down carefully… and went back in Bhojbasa around 5 p.m.

I haven’t done any trekking since junior high school when I went to Mt. Fuji trekking with my family. And the second trekking in my life, I went up and down for 500 meters in single day, I actually had a bit of fever…

But after taking a tablet of “Kakkonto” which I brought from Japan, I was recovered in the next morning. thanks a lot! Kakkonto!!!

One Indian tourist who I met in Tapovan, told me about other place for trekking. He told me that it is located near the city, Badrinath, and totally different from Tapovan. Flowers and animals are all over the mountains. You know, I really love animals and plants, I can’t ignore such place like this!

Next spot, the city called “Joshimath”!

By the way, the guide told me that the fee for this trekking is 3000 rupees including accommodations and foods. But actually I paid for 2 days accommodations which was 600 rupees total. This already means not including accommodations… so when I finished trekking, I told the guide that I pay only 2500 rupees. And guess what he told me…

’2000 rupees for carrying your backpack.’

He just said it… of course I complained about it because he didn’t tell me that. ‘What!? that’s not fair! you didn’t tell me that!’ I told him with anger. Then the guide said ‘okay okay my friend’ to calm me down. ‘okay just 300 rupees’ what? what kind of compromise is that!? (same thing happened before with the taxi driver in Uttarkashi…)

Okay… without the guide, I couldn’t done the trekking to Tapovan. So I need to thank him… then I paid 3000 rupees total but not the backpack fee.

man… feels not good at the end…

but this is India… isn’t it?

【something to say】

I am still not sure about the right spelling for “Tapovan”. Because some map says Tapo”b”an, and others says Tapo”v”an… In the city, I found some misspelling for “restaurant” or “hotel”. It is sometimes “restarant” or “restaurent” and “hotal”. But I know what they are trying to say.

A lot of misspelling words around the city, this is also a taste of India.

And for the guiding fee, 1000 rupees per day which is total 3000 rupees for 3 days. This will include accommodations and foods. It’s a bit expensive but I don’t think I can go there alone. I decided to take a guide. (About this price, I had some argument at the end of trekking…)

The first day, we stayed in Bhojbasa which is on the way to Gaumukh, 14km from the city.

I bought some stuff (beanie, scarf, and gloves) for the colder weather in higher places. I spent 300 rupees for all. I can use these in other countries like Europe. Lucky I got these with cheap prices.

To see the beginning of the Ganga, and go to Tapovan which is higher than Mt. Fuji, left the city at 7 in the morning with my guide! Let the journey begin!

Even in Gangotri, it was pretty cold in early morning. I wore beanie and scarf. And I just carry my sub bag because the guide would carry my main backpack.

So about my guide, he speaks English barely enough to communicate about simple things. I wanted to ask him about many questions about Hinduism but that didn’t work out… He always says ‘No Problem!’.

While the trekking, he told me about the name of the peaks, and some plants. Heading to Bhojbasa which is the place for staying today.

I met many Indians with orange clothes saying ‘yeah bolle!’ every time. “bolle” means something like ‘hey man!’ or ‘have a nice trip!’ or more wide meanings. (I’m not sure about the spelling for “bolle”…)

The way wasn’t like climbing but crossing the mountains. There were up and down hills, many sizes and shapes of rocks on the way. Sometimes we cross the small Ganga using wooden bridge or just walk through for the small one which is flowing on the way.

The guide is carrying my backpack. ↓

Ganga is getting skinnier and skinnier, and Himalayan mountains are getting bigger and bigger. ↓

If I were carrying all my stuff, I would have been much more tired. But because my guide carried it for me, I didn’t have hard time to get to Bhojbasa. Here is my first day staying, Bhojbasa.

I paid 300 rupees to stay in the place called LALBABA ASHRAM. The fee includes for the foods also. There were some more places to stay like dormitory tents, but the price was same, 300 rupees per night. Bhojbasa is not a city, there are just some buildings in huge mountains. So you don’t really have much choice for the place to stay.

I really feel thankful for staying in LALBABA ASHRAM, because it was the most valuable moment for experiencing Indian cultures since my traveling.

The moment was for the dinner time. I thought I can order foods any time I want like restaurants but it wasn’t. The dinner time was set in 18:30 and many Indians starting to sit in a row looks like saying ‘where is my food?’. After passing dishes, rice, dal, and chapati, the owner of this ashram started to saying like ‘Do not eat yet.’ in Hindi with loud and clear voice. I don’t know what they are saying exactly because I don’t understand Hindi, but after the owner saying, they started to pray for the thanks for foods and etc… then praying for about 5 min, finally started to eat.

There are no spoons or folks, this means I have to eat with my hands only. This was the first time for me to eat foods with only my hands, I always used spoons and folks in Delhi, Rishikesh or Gangotri. But for this time, everyone, every single person was eating with their hands.

This is India, I am in India…

I didn’t expect to take this much time but finally, I ate foods with completely Indian style. It’s been a month since I came to India.

By the way, the room I stayed was mostly underground. Just one window was showing on the ground like when hippos show their nose when they try to breath in the pond. There was only one light, and they use solar energy to get electricity, and it ony comes after 7 p.m. for just few hours. No toilet in the room, use shared one of three outside. If you are reading this blog with your smartphone while eating, please forgive me to talk about this. There were no toilet paper in the toilet, also nowhere to throw away. This means I need to do a Indian style toilet. (Use my left hand to wipe my ass.)

Next day, we left 7 in the morning to head to Gaumukh, to see the beginning of the Ganga!

Today’s plan was like, go to Gaumukh and Tapovan, and come back to Bhojbasa to stay again. So I left my
main backpack at the ashram, and took my sub bag only.

Gaumukh wasn’t that far, only 4km away from Bhojbasa. And the way was same like yesterday, so I didn’t have hard time to get there. For one hour from Bhojbasa,
arrived at Gaumukh.

These are the glaciers in Gaumukh. ↓

Because it was dangerous to go more closer… I can’t tell you even a half of it’s scale from this picture…

There were many glaciers around. ↓

The glaciers in front of me were just a little part of it’s whole area. I thought it was all rocks and sands around me, but under that, there were a lot more glaciers hidden just covered by rocks and sands. I just can’t think of possibility if any frozen mammoth or undiscovered organisms are hidden in this glaciers… oh such a interesting world…

You can see rocks and sands covering glaciers at the bottom. ↓

At the site of Gaumukh, many Indians were pouring the holy Ganga water to their bottles to bring to their homeland.

And now, we gotta climb up to the place, Tapovan! Higher and higher place, Tapovan!

【something to say】

Ganesha, one of the many Gods in Hinduism, is well known in Japan for it’s elephant-headed body. Ganesha is son of God Shiva and Parvati. And there is a interesting story behind Ganesha’s head.

One day, Parvati was taking a shower and told Ganesha ‘Do not let anyone go inside home.’. And so Ganesha did, even his father, Shiva. Shiva came back from meditation in a forest, but Ganesha didn’t let Shiva go inside. So Shiva got mad and decided to cut off Ganesha’s head. And soon after that, Parvati came back from shower, and told Shiva that it was his son. He worried about what to do with his son’s head, and talked to some other Gods. And he brought a head of elephant from a forest near his house, and put it on Ganesha. This is the story behind. What a crazy story…

And there are always some animal depicted with each Gods like Shiva with a bull, Parvati with a tiger or lion, and Ganesha with a rat. You can always find it on their paintings or images. (I think mouse is too small for Ganesha…)

So when I saw a mouse in the room at Bhojbasa, I was keep on saying ‘this is God’s… God’s…’ in my mind to not mind about it.

Somewhere in Western-central Tibet

We drove 1,436 km (892 miles) from Lhasa to the small town of Darchen at the base of Mt. Kailash. This was not the shortest route, but it was the route we took. We drove for four days. The first day we drove south out of Lhasa to Shigatze. Just outside of Lhasa we crossed the Brahmaputra or Tsangpo-Brahmaputra River. It originates in Southwestern Tibet, cuts south through the Himalayas, runs through India and Bangladesh before flowing into the Bay of Bengal. This high up it was quite a small river, not too impressive. But this was also early in the season. By August it swells to several times this size due to the monsoon rains.

The Brahmaputra River a few miles outside Lhasa

We drove high into the mountains crossing three high passes, the highest of which was 16,500′. Tall heavily glaciated peaks, probably around 20,000′ high soared above the highway in places. On the way to Shigatse we stopped in the town of Gyantse and visited the Pachu Monastery, built in 1418. In Shigatse we visited the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. The next day we drove from Shigatze to Lhatse. The third day we drove to Sakya, then camped outside Saga. and the fourth day we drove to Lake Manasarovar and camped along its shores. On the fifth day we drove a short distance (about an hour) to the town of Darchen where we began our kora, or circumambulation around Mt. Kailash.

The first night we stayed in a hotel; the second night in a Tibetan guesthouse, and the rest of the time we camped out in tents. We would find a meadow on the outskirts of a small town and set up camp. Our party of seven had two Toyota Landcruisers, with two Tibetan drivers and our Tibetan guide.

The Landcruisers and our drivers outside Lhasa

Our Tibetan guide

Though Tibet is a bleak and barren land, it was stunning. We passed countless mountains, long straight highway, winding switchbacked highway, high mountain passes, lakes, dozens of small towns, truck stops, nomad camps, lush green meadows, herds of yaks, fields of barley and some wildlife. Below are my memories of this wild and lonely land. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Lhasa is below but out of sight in the plain below

Long straight highway

There are lots of yaks all over the Tibetan Plateau; they cannot live below about 8,000′

More yaks

Our camp outside the small town of Saga

Unnamed mountains above our camp

Nomad tents

Nomads herding yaks

Ploughing and planting barley

Tibetan woman walking along the highway; in rural Tibet, people do a lot of walking

Barley growing at 14,500′

Tibetan Mastiff; they are truly huge and imposing

Tibetans seldom eat fish, so the lakes are full of them

Mountain and lake

Truck stop in Western Tibet simply called Area 22

There are Sichuan restaurants literally in every city and town in Tibet

Billiards is popular all across the Plateau

Public transport in rural areas is piling onto the back of a tractor

The Tibetan Plateau is about 15,000′ high; the sun is very intense and it is very dry

A wild Tibetan donkey, called a kiang

Tibetan black-necked crane

Lunch break

On one of the higher passes, 17,096′

The Himalayan Range in Southwestern Tibet

Mountain above Lake Manasarovar

Lake Manasarovar outside my tent door at sunset

Sunset over Lake Manasarovar

Camp at sunset near the town of Zhongba

There are 2 towns and 2 lakes are visible in the photo which are Caldonazzo on the left and Levico on the right. Lakes have the same names as towns.

The sales tag for climbing Huayna Potosi is “the easiest 6000m’er in the world”. I would not want to try a harder one as it is easily the hardest thing I have attempted. The three day trip is briefly described here, but the pics tell the story best.

DAY 1

After about a 2 hour drive from La Paz we found ourselves at the low camp. From here it was a relatively short hike to a glacier where I was introduced to about 10% of the techniques I would need for the climb!

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DAY 2

Involved a 4 hour hike up the mountain to high camp (at 5100m), laden down with my large backpack which I reckon was about 15 kilos. For 140 quid you get a guide and a cook so we were greeted at the high camp with chips!

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DAY 3

The final ascent was to take place in the middle of the night, so after about 2 hours sleep we got up at 12:30am. The climb took 6 hours, arriving at the summit at 7:50am. The sun rose just before I faced the final ridge (see scary pictures), suddenly I felt much too inexperienced to be attempting it, but after brief moment of panic I cracked on and made it to the top!

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Would recommend mountains to everyone, but might wait a while before attempting another!

The best way to imagine this exquisite beauty is certainly going there to explore magnificent landscapes for yourself and if you want some inspiration, here is a slide show for you based on our recent Caucasus Trekking tour.

Hope you enjoy it.

Marianna

Pure, unknown and unbelievably beautiful, Tusheti is one of those places that has to be seen to be believed. The severity and beauty of Tusheti mountains, the wild nature and the evocative architectural monuments from ages past closely intertwine to leave no visitor disappointed.

Tusheti Mountains, Georgia

Tusheti is not that windy but a fresh breeze is always there.

Climate has its dramatic moments with violent rain or hail in the summer

but these are short-lived leaving behind a magical climate

One of our guests was well ready for the trip, he was checking the temperature on his watch and changing his outfit according to that.

He even had water-proof boots on for crossing the river.

During the trip, he was surprised at how strangers helped each other…

At first they transported the stranger to the place needed

Later on they brought stones for the church

We were surprised to be treated with tasty family lunch instead of a standard lunch-box

Let’s get active after such a delicious lunch.
“What do we take up first? River crossing or horse riding?”

An 11- year old boy say we should pick horse riding

…but horses want have lunch too

after lunch horses give us a ride-on.

Soon we find ourselves in a beautiful forest

with amazing flowers

funny animals

and mushrooms.

Our tour leader doesn’t like mushrooms, but they are so beautiful..

he couldn’t pass them by:)

Unfortunately, everything has a beginning and an end, our adventures too..

We are leaving Georgia and hope to come back. Once you`ve seen Georgia you will sure return.

A tweeting marmot

Contrary to general expectations, this marmot will not be whistling, but tweeting moving forward!

Follow @marmotpost for all marmot tweets.

Mount Toubkal, Morocco – January 2012

A lot of the topics covered in this blog are running and fitness related. Initially if you had asked me why I run, it would have been to keep fit for my mountain climbing adventures – something I am extremely passionate about. Now I’ve found that I enjoy the running and the fitness in their own right. They kind of fill a hole when I’m not galavanting up mountains as it can be quite depressing coming back to reality (we call it ‘low altitude sickness’). Having lots of running events, meeting other people, running club, fitness classes and even the exercise DVDs help to keep me focussed on my goals and keep me sane!

This year kicked off with an absolutely brilliant trip to Morocco in January with our winter climb of Mount Toubkal (if you’re going to do it – winter is by far the best and much more challenging than summer climbs!), and a weekend away hiking in March in the Peak District with the Toubkal crew. Next month I’m meeting up with the Toubkal crew again for another adventure. We will be climbing the Dolomites in Italy along the Via Ferrata.

Via Ferrata in the Dolomites – image from http://www.chamex.com

The Via Ferrata (“road of iron”) is a mountain route comprising fixed cables, steeples, ladders and bridges. They were originally built in the first world war to aid the movement of military, but are now used as a means of traversing the Dolomites for fun! I am really looking forward to this trip as 1) I have never been to Italy; 2) I fly in to Venice so I get to check out Venice; and 3) the Dolomites look incredibly beautiful and I’m really looking forward to the views.

Here’s a little video about the Via Ferrata in the Dolomites:

The next trip for this year is my Mont Blanc climb in September. I’ve done lots of trekking in the past and hiking, scrambling and I’ve used crampons and an ice axe, but Mont Blanc is going to be the real mountaineering deal. There’ll be high altitude, proper climbing, long and extremely tiring days of non-stop ascent, and there’ll also be new techniques to learn during the evenings.

Here’s a little video about Mont Blanc:

After Mont Blanc I’ll be able to take on some of the Himalayan mountains, such as Cho Oyu. Who knows eh? I’m justing enjoying learning new skills, meeting new people and seeing the world as I go.

We woke up to a beautiful clear day. The day we arrived in Darchen it was snowing and the pass got a few centimeters. The forecast was calling for more snow, but we lucked out and had clear skies all three days of the kora.

We got an early start this morning. Our Tibetan guide, Tenzin, said it would take 3.5-4 hours to reach Drolma La Pass. From where we camped it was about 6.4 km and 762 m higher. That doesn’t seem like much of a climb, but when you are starting at 16,500′ and climbing to 18,550′ it is pretty significant. Stephen, Brad, and I left together. Bruce, Susan, and Tenzin followed behind. Susan was struggling a bit with the altitude. We felt pretty good as long as we didn’t try to go too fast.

We began to see more and more Tibetan pilgrims heading up. Many of them do the kora in one day, which brings more merit than in the traditional three days. Bu the ultimate is to do full prostrations all the way around. This usually takes 14-16 days, but can be done in as few as 8 days as our guide had done previously. Tenzin had also done it in a day. This time with us was his 68th kora. He did not think he would make it to 108 as his knee had been bothering him the last few times. Tenzin was a very devout Buddhist. He always had his prayer beads in his hand, always, in the car, at camp, hiking. He never left them and they were well worn.

Tenzin’s well-worn prayer beads

Pilgrims hiking up toward the pass

Right out of camp we climbed a long series of switchbacks. At the top of this section the trail flattened out a bit, then descended before it turned into snow as it headed up toward the pass.

Trail heading up to the pass

Heading up this snow slope, we had our last look at Kailash, then it was obscured by other mountains.

Last look at Kailash

We pass several pilgrims heading up to the pass. Some of them were doing prostrations. I was blown away by the devotion of these simple, sincere people.

Pilgrims heading toward the pass

Prostrators taking a break on the way to the pass.

I was particularly impressed with this girl. She looked to be about 13 or 14 years old and was cruising up through the snow doing full prostrations. You can see the marks in the snow from her hands. They will mark on the ground the extent of their reach, then stand up, walk to that point and prostrate again. I have a short video clip of her on my Flickr photostream.

Young girl doing prostrations

Stephen and I would take about 30 steps, then stop for a moment to catch our breath. As we got higher that became 20 steps, then rest, then 15 steps and rest. We were certainly feeling the altitude. The highest I had been before was a mixed ice and rock climbing ascent of Mt. Meeker in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. That peak is 13, 911′.

Stephen heading up toward the pass

We finally arrived at the pass covered with prayer flags and the traditional Tibetan white scarves. Brad had arrived a few minutes before us. There was one other Western guy there as well as a few Tibetan pilgrims. It took us 2.5 hours from our camp. We felt pretty good about that.

Matt on Drolma La Pass, 5723 m (Brad’s altimeter read 18,550′)

Prayer flags on Drolma La Pass

Looking back the way we had come

We had first seen this pilgrim at Drirupuk Monastery. He had a huge prayer wheel that he was constantly spinning. He looked to be in his 60′s but was probably younger than that as Tibetans typically look older than they really are.

Old pilgrim on Drolma La Pass

The views on the other side of the pass were spectacular. The mountains really were amazing. The photos do not do them justice.

Unnamed mountains on the other side of the pass

The trail heading down from the pass was steep and very icy. It was pretty treacherous in places. I love the downhills and like to hike fast, so I left Stephen and Brad and headed down.

Heading down the icy trail

Pretty soon we were out of the snow and on very steep rocky terrain descending into another valley heading south. Where the steep section met the valley floor I decided to stop and take a break and eat a snack.

One thing that I did not anticipate on this trip is that with high altitude comes less oxygen to your extremities. We spent about 7 nights about 15,000′ and I had cold feet every night. I even wrapped my feet in my puffy jacket inside my sleeping bad and I still had cold feet. This was really strange because I seldom have cold feet, even ice climbing and winter camping. My hands were fine except for the day we hiked over the pass. I was wearing a pair of midweight windstopper fleece gloves and my hands got very cold. It was quite windy up there which contributed to it. When I stopped to take a break, I was down out of the wind and it was much warmer. When I took off my gloves I was surprised to see that my pinky fingers were a bit purple and swollen. After about an hour they were fine again.

Cold hands

Stephen, Brad, and the rest of our group including our guide showed up shortly and we walked a short distance to a tent guest house. We decided to wait here for the Serpas and yaks. Tenzin wanted to make sure they knew where we would be camping. We relaxed inside for about an hour until they finally showed up. We then took off down the valley. We were under the impression that it would be a short distance to our destination, which was the monastery at Dzutrulpuk, the sight of Milarepa’s cave. Milarepa was an 11th century poet and  Buddhist yogi.

The trail followed a gentle valley along a peaceful river, grassy fields, and clear streams. Our short hiked turned into hours as we trudged down the valley.

We turned right and headed down this gentle valley

Tent teahouse along the kora route

Hiking down the valley

Mani stones

We continued to encounter pilgrims also hiking down this valley toward Darchen.

Typical dress of women in Western Tibet

Pilgrims hiking down the valley

Footprint of an early Buddhist saint

In the afternoon the winds picked up and soon they were roaring down the valley. We came to expect this. It seems that every afternoon the winds would pick up. We experienced this all over the Tibetan Plateau. With the wind it got pretty cold. We decided to wait for the yaks as we were not exactly sure where we would be camping for the night.

Bundled up against the wind and cold

As we sat waiting it got pretty cold. I put on all my warm weather clothing, which consisted of a long sleeved base layer, fleece hoodie, Patagonia Nano puff jacket (a lightweight puffy jacket), and a hardshell jacket. I found an large rock, curled up behind it to stay out of most of the wind and took a nap. We ended up waiting about two hours for the yaks.

Trying to stay warm and nap

We got camp set up, ate dinner, and went to bed. Total distance for the day was jsut under 23 km. The following day was a short 2-3 hour (about 10 km) hike to the mouth of the valley where we were met by the Landcruisers and drivers. We returned briefly to Darchen, then began the long drive back across the Tibetan Plateau.

It was a very memorable trek. I was most impressed by the devout pilgrims making the circumambulation and the spectacular scenery. It really was breathtaking (literally and figuratively). I have newfound respect for high altitude mountaineers. It is really tough breathing up there and we were only hiking on a trail. I have spent most of my life climbing and I can’t imagine difficult technical climbing at high altitudes. Pretty amazing. The wild landscape and the people of Tibet left a deep impression on me and I hope to return someday.

The last stage of my Everest preparation was a trip to the South side, Nepalese, Base Camp and a few other trekking highlights partly to improve my acclimatisation and fitness and partly as a holiday with my girlfriend, Claire, the price of choosing to spend two months away from home.  We arrived inKathmanducourtesy of Jet Airways viaDelhiin time to catch up with a few friends, includingPembawho would accompany us on our trek and carry the portion of Claire’s stuff I couldn’t manage.  We knewPembawell from previous treks inNepal.  A 6am start for the flight into Lukla airport, which at nearly 2900m is deemed by some to be one of the most dangerous landing places in the world, signalled the start of the trek in earnest – although the main danger was the 13 Japanese tourists who accompanied us in the plane crashing it, as they all rushed simultaneously to take the same picture out of one side of the plane.

19^th, 20^th, 21^st, 22^nd – On Trek

The trekking day starts in a very civilised way (well civilised for me, as previous to meeting me, Claire’s idea of “roughing it” had been a 4-star hotel, she maybe had different views…) with Pemba delivering early morning “bed tea” with a gentle wake up knock on the door.  Packing and breakfast take the best part of 90 minutes before we are on our way in the clear blue skies of the morning moving along in the shadow of the mountain scenery.  The main difficulty is avoiding the trains of hairy Yaks, or their lowland cousins Zhous, on the trail.  The golden rules are a) Yaks have right of way, b) always stay above a Yak when passing, c) never attempt to pass a Yak on a bridge and d) the Yaks don’t know the rules.  By the 19^th we had our first view of Everest, by the 20th we had seen it clearly and decided even the bottom looked a long way away, let alone the top and on the 21^st we got sight of the famous Yeti skull in the Kumjung monastery, although I was a little disturbed that the apparently 100’s of year old Yeti skull had more hair than me.  By the 22^nd the novelty of what at first looked like huge satellite dishes, but are actually solar powered kettles, and human sized rotating prayer wheels had warn off.

23^rd, 24^th, 25^th – “Resting”

In order to ease the process of acclimatisation we had three “rest” days at Dingboche, 4300m above sea level.  Claire was a little disappointed on the first rest day to find out that “rest” actually meant go and climb up a steep peak to over 5,000m, something I was quite happy to do as I didn’t need to carry my 22kg pack.  Aided by Kendall mint cake, which I discovered was the only piece of equipment I had for my Everest attempt that had also been used by Hillary and Tensing, she however found it remarkably easy, although the difference between locals and westerners was clear as we realised that Pemba, even though he was walking as slowly as he could, was clicking his heels together after every step, so that we could keep up.  The second rest day was more of a rest, not by design but as the Dingboche equivalent ofDelhibelly struck all three of us includingPemba.  Three days certainly gave us time to experience the comfort of the tea houses we were staying in during our trek.  Most were a mixture in varying proportions of stone and plywood, although strangely one company “Suraya” seemed to have cornered the substantial market in plywood in the Everest region, with compact basic bedrooms and a lounge warmed by a heater powered by either Yak dung, wood or a combination of both depending on the altitude.  The simple addition of lighting seemed to be the feature that amazed the porters and guides the most as, inexplicably as they were all Buddhist, they crossed themselves Catholic style, whenever the lights came on successfully.

26^th, 27^th, 28^th – Everest Base Camp & Kala Phattar

Following our “rest” the main objectives were Everest Base Camp at 5350m and the view point of Kala Phattar at 5545m with a night a Lobuche, 4700m, before hand.  We got to Lobuche with no problems, enjoying great views along the way but were a little worried when it started snowing mid afternoon.  Fortunately the snow simply made things more scenic, although it didn’t bode well for our attempt at traversing the Tso La pass, 5350m, a few days later.  By our standards we felt we made pretty quick progress to Everest Base Camp, although the local wildlife didn’t seem to think so.  The small birds had an annoying habit of sitting smugly on nearby rocks watching our mediocre progress, until we approach closer and attempted to take photos when, clearly unimpressed with our stealth or ability to accelerate our movements, they merely hopped away without the slightest thought, or need, of bringing their perfectly functional wings into use.  It still being a little early for the South side teams Base Camp was mainly populated with small groups of tents placed largely for the purpose of reserving sufficient space for all the equipment and supplies making its way from Lukla on the Yak trains behind us.

Whilst Base Camp gives a great view of the journey up the Khumbu icefall towards Camp 1 you don’t get a view of the actual summit.  For that we would have to return to Gorakshep, the last group of tea houses and then ascend Kala Phattar, hopefully for some sunrise photos the next morning.  Having successfully “rested” by climbing to 5,000m above Dingboche the main challenge for the ascent was the cold.  Pre sunrise and with strong winds blowing even at 5,000m Claire was glad she had the benefit of my “Expedition” clothing.  The key things that Claire noticed at the “summit” were that a) she had got there and b) she was feeling much warmer than everyone else.  The key things I noticed was that Everest was being buffeted by at least 80 kph winds from the jet stream and had very little snow on it, neither good for climbing, but as I was about 2 months away from a summit attempt this was of little relevance.

We descended happily to Gorakshep but based on the wind and imminent arrival of snow in the afternoon decided not to risk the high pass to our next destination, Goyko, but take the one day longer, but guaranteed safe passage via Phortse.  After the descent from Kala Phattar we therefore had breakfast and descended nearly 1,000m to Periche, where it snowed all afternoon and all night, seemingly vindicating our decision.

29^th, 30^th, 31^st – Alternative Route to Goyko Ri

The route to Goyko was partly new to me and partly one I had travelled in 2005.  It was a sign of how things had developed in the region, and how many new “towns” of tea houses had sprung up that both parts of the route were unrecognisable to me.  The viewpoint above Goyko is famous for one of the best panoramas of 8,000m + peaks available to trekkers, but is best seen at sunset.  Unfortunately when we arrived in Goyko mid afternoon it had started snowing again and instead of climbing to the top we had little option but to sit the weather out eating Pringles.  This was still better than 2005 when I had climbed the 600m to the summit only to find I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face let alone any mountains.  Luckily the next morning at 6.10, 20 minutes ahead of schedule a smiling Pemba arrived laden with “bed tea” announcing “weather good” and by 6.45 we were up, off and up.  This fourth climb in less than two weeks however was proving a little much for Claire and only with the injection of a mid ascent Mars Bar did she manage a good pace to the summit.  On reaching the summit we were greeted with the surreal spectacle, more Benidorm than Goyko, of a German trekker informing us that the “summit” was “reserved” for a German trekking group photo.  Resisting the temptation to ask that if this was so, where were the towels, we proceeded slightly higher to the true summit and enjoyed the views.  The views were perfect, a panorama of high peaks including the 8,000m + giants ofCho Oyu,Makalu,Lhotseand Everest.

1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th – The Return

As soon as we had returned to Goyko, the weather was coming in again so we set off for the 2,000m 3 day descent back to Lukla.  In truth it wasn’t exactly all downhill, Claire did seem to think that too many mountains were getting in the way of her descent.  The weather however proved less pleasant than the ascent as bright mornings were replaced with10amrain and thunder storms.  We learnt as we passed trekkers going up that these storms were accompanied by high winds that had shut Lukla airport for 3 days and caused a huge back up in trekkers and climbers trying to get to the mountains.  Luck however was with us again as we left Lukla in the clearest weather I had ever seen, I hoped that my luck with the weather would continue on Everest.

Our trekking was to be 10 days in the Celestial mountains, with the starting point a 2 day drive east of the capital, Bishkek. Here we met Valerie our Russian speaking guide, grizzled, sun tanned and well into his 50s he looked like he had plenty of days in the mountain behind him. The plan as far as we could understand it was to drive to the pass at 3800m early morning, meet the horses and horsemen who would be transporting our gear mid morning, and then head off on trek. This sounded like a good plan and it even bore a passing resemblance to the itinerary we had agreed over email.

By midday there was no sign of the horses or horsemen so we put up the dining tent and had lunch. Those of you who have been trekking in other countries will picture a dining tent as a sturdy construction, often a single, but thick, walled tent with an internal frame and several strong anchors. This Russian made dining tent was thin plastic with a strange external frame and walls which didn’t reach the floor. I mentioned at the time it wouldn’t stand up to high winds, but luckily all was calm. After lunch Valerie disappeared to try and find the horses and the inevitable happened, the wind picked up and the rain started, the dining tent collapsed and Claire made herself useful as a human anchor by lying on top of it and all the gear it was protecting whilst I found the “client” tent which I hoped would be a proper tent and struggled to put it up in the gale force winds. At this point it became clear that our interpreter “cooker” knew little about camping, or putting up tents at least.

Unbelievably the horses turned up at 6.30 pm and our guide informed us, via the interpreter, that for some unexplained reason, the horsemen were late as they had walked rather than ride the horses. This didn’t seem to make much sense, or even adequately explain an 8 hour delay and why they didn’t seem to be worried that they were late but by this time we didn’t care much as we were well inside our tent as it had started to snow, to accompany the gale force winds.

We awoke early to clear skies eager to pack up and get going to make up for our lost day. The scenery and weather were fantastic and we settled into the trekking routine for a few days with the occasional knee deep river to cross, the Russian system for which was to all link arms and cross as a human chain.

After a few days we began to have concerns about our “cooker’s” catering. The traditional supper on a catered trek is soup, main meal and maybe some tinned fruit for desert. The traditional diet for a 23 year old girl in Kyrgyzstan seemed to be a little soup, no real food and lots and lots of chocolate. This 23 year old girl wasn’t going to let the fact she was on a trek ruin her diet. Every night we were treated to soup (containing microscopic pieces of meat or fish but significant quantities of cabbage) followed by a large bar of chocolate, accompanied by chocolate biscuits. I presumed the biscuits were main course and the chocolate dessert, but didn’t like to ask. Lunch was similarly balanced with one small sandwich accompanied by a large bag of nuts and dried fruit and 4 large “wagon wheel” style chocolate biscuits. Just when we thought things couldn’t get anymore bizarre we were served cornflakes with condensed milk and added jelly babies!

If we were concerned over Eve’s catering, we were equally concerned over Valerie’s activities. He had the disconcerting habit of stripping down to his Y fronts, red T-shirt and cowboy hat whilst walking so he looked like one of the village people in retirement. More practically he seemed to have forgotten we were walking and not skiing as he tended to avoid any paths that threatened to get us from where we were to where we were going, in an (unsuccessful) attempt to contour round every single hill without losing any height. On top of this whenever he spoke in English it was difficult to concentrate and take him seriously (even if he had his trousers on) as with his heavy Russian accent he sounded just like one of the meerkats from the comparethemarket.com adverts.

If Eve and Valerie had their own idiosyncrasies, this was nothing compared to their combined performance. Initially, we put some things down to the language. Russian is a harsh language and I am sure even “Merry Christmas” in Russian sounds like a death threat. We presumed therefore that their interchanges were nothing unusual and they laughed when we described them as like an old married couple (a thought that filled Eve with far more fear than Valerie).

Things weren’t helped by the fact that neither of them had thought to bring a watch or could be bothered to look at the time on their mobile phones. This made the daily briefings about the next day’s plan somewhat pointless (we had already departed significantly from the original itinerary by day 2), every leg was “2 hours” regardless of how long it would actually take and plans such as wake up at 7.30 pack and breakfast at 8.00 just meant cold breakfast when they had cooked it by 7.15 but not woken us up.

Everything came to a head on the penultimate day when yet again the deadly duo couldn’t manage to organise getting us, the gear and the horses on the same map reference (actually map references are theoretical as they didn’t bring a map). This according to Valerie (Valeries’s English mysteriously improved when he was complaining about Eve) was Eve’s fault and according to Eve was Valerie’s fault, although both laid part of the blame with the horsemen and both were keen to complain about the others to us. Inevitably the Russian became harsher and Eve managed to act as any tour leader experienced in managing the inevitable mishap would – she burst into tears, went off in a huff and stopped talking to Valerie. Presumably she also ate some chocolate. We felt like we were witnessing a playground squabble, not a trek crew in operation.

Still barely speaking the next morning they hatched a “foolproof” plan to ensure we were reunited with our gear at the final campsite. We would go with Valerie and Eve would go with the horsemen and both Valerie and Eve would have mobile phones to keep in contact. Unbelievably they couldn’t even get this right. After 12 hours of walking we were still “2 hours” from camp (which Eve had placed ridiculously too far down the valley, the phones obviously not having worked) but had hit a main road so we got in a taxi and very much enjoyed finding a restaurant serving meat kebabs without chocolate that evening.

The next morning we point blank refused to get involved in any discussion with Eve or Valerie about why it was the other one’s fault and asked for a suitable half day excursion. There was a nice walk to a waterfall, unsurprisingly “2 hours” there and “2 hours” back. Imagine our surprise when the route involved crawling under thorn bushes, a short belay and rock climb. Following a 12 hour day yesterday we were not happy that these elements of the route hadn’t been mentioned, particularly as Claire hadn’t exactly demonstrated any rock climbing prowess in the previous 9 days. We made our displeasure known and when the transport got back to town Valerie left without a word and Eve blissfully stayed out of our way for the rest of the trip allowing us to track down more meat and beer on the drive back to the capital.

Despite all the above we had a great time in Kyrgyzstan, the Celestial Mountains are well named as the scenery is excellent and whilst the problems above make funnier reading than descriptions of idyllic campsites and stunning scenery, they are part and parcel of visiting a place so remote that we didn’t see a single other tourist during our 10 day trek. So I would definitely recommend Kyrgyzstan, just with a different crew!

4×4 (Part Time Four Wheel drive)
Pada sistem penggerak 4 roda dengan fungsi Part Time atau sistem penggerak 4 roda yang dapat diaktifkan dan dinonaktifkan sesuai dengan kebutuhan. Sistem penggerak 4 roda ini merupakan sistem penggerak yang lebih simpel jika dibandingkan all time four wheel drive karena, sistem penggerak ini tidak menghubungkan antara sumbu depan dan belakang melalui diferensial, oleh karena itu, kendaraan dengan sistem penggerak ini tidak mengalami pengurangan torsi jika mengalami kondisi seperti yang dijelaskan diatas. Sistem penggerak 4 roda part time ini juga dilengkapi dengan kombinasi gigi reduksi pada transfer case (alat yang dapat melakukan perpindahan antara gerak 2 roda belakang ke gerak 4 roda), gigi reduksi ini menyediakan torsi yang melimpah pada kecepatan yang rendah dimana hal ini sangat penting digunakan pada kendaraan-kendaraan yang sering melalui medan off road.

Gambar tersebut diatas menunjukkan sistem penggerak 4 roda part time yang dianut oleh kendaraan-kendaraan dengan penggunaan heavy-duty, sistem tersebut menggunakan transfer case yang menghubungkan antara sumbu roda depan dan belakang.
Dari keterangan tersebut diatas, sistem penggerak 4 roda full time sangat dibutuhkan untuk meningkatkan handling kendaraan-kendaraan yang masuk kategori supercars dan SUV , sedangkan sistem penggerak 4 roda yang tradisional (tanpa center differential) lebih baik dan cocok untuk pemakaian heavy-duty seperti penggunaan offroad atau di jalanan salju.

picture & article by aki-massive.com
photo by Deni Pradana

TREKKU™

Summer 2011 on the Haute Route Pyrenees

Finally! The summer has arrived. After the rainiest April in 100 years followed by the coldest May on record we are due a great one. Last year there were many great posts (and even series of posts) flying about the Internet. Here are two of my favourites in anticipation of what this summer might bring. Plus, an amazing trip in the Dolomites from a couple of summers ago.

David Lintern: Haute Route Pyrenees

David Lintern’s planning, account and reports of the Haute Route Pyrenees were by far the most exciting thing on outdoor blogs last summer and definitely my favourite. This post showing the highlights of David’s trip along this 370 mile long beast connecting the Bay of Biscay with the Mediterranean is the best place to start.

Acacia: The Bomber Traverse, Alaska

This trip report stuck in my mind, because it somehow feels very different to the European trips I am used to. It has a whole different feeling of remoteness, isolation and roughness. The all pervasive grey rocks, hardly any vegetation and grey skies give it a solemn, serious air. It feels like it’s just you and Alaska and nothing else. Acacia has written 4 posts about this trip, starting with the first stage of her trip from Trailhead to Mint Hut.

DolomiteSport: Val San Nicolo ridge traverse, Val di Fassa – Italy

By all accounts, or well by the account of the Patituccis on their DolomiteSport blog, this is the trip to do in the Dolomites if you have a day to spare. It is a mammoth trip overlooking both the Southern and Northern Dolomites with views of all their peaks, two via ferratas, and a good measure of World War One history along the way. The Patituccis estimate that it is about 26-28 kilometers and about 3800 total meters of climbing. It took them 14 hours including breaks, so I’d say this would be a great weekend trip with sleeps in the huts on the way.

My personal best of summer 2011:

• Alta Via 1 trip report: A forcella a day keeps the doctor away
• Via ferrata Averau in fog and rain
• Happy days: Edale to Hope and back

What where your summer 2011 favourites? Share your wisdom in the comments section!

It’s my first birthday as a blogger today. Yipee!

Year one has gone quite well …

• 15 posts
• 2,498 total views
• 34 page views on my busiest day 20th February 2012
• 592 page views of my top post This year’s trek: Alta Via 1

Now the question is, where next?

With 15 posts in 12 months, I managed to hit my target to post once a month this year. Well at least on average. There were months when I didn’t post at all.

For year two my goal is to post every month at least once. From now on there will be a post in every last week of the month. And hopefully some more.

Next week I’ll look at some interesting trip reports from last summer. After that I’ve got a few more post ideas.

By popular demand, you can now find out more about What to pack for the Alta Via 1.

Is there anything else, I should write about or do differently? Please leave comments with your suggestions and thoughts.

Year one top 3 posts:

• This year’s trek: Alta Via 1
• Along the Alta Via 1 in six days: the route
• Hiking in the Dolomites