Ladakh - The Donkeyman

The majority of trekkers in Ladakh go with a local tour operator from Leh. Somewhere I got the notion that it was doable to organise yourself.

I found another traveller to go trekking with in Leh and together we organised our supplies (which turned out to be fun). We got the bus to Lamayuru where we asked out guesthouse owner to help us find a ponyman. We got Tashi, two donkeys to carry our backpacks and a foal to make even numbers. ;-) The route from Lamayuru, a monastery town, to Chilling, would be five days, but we also had to pay three extra days for them Tashi and the donkeys to get home again.

On the way out of town, we stopped at Tashi's house to collect the kerosene stove we'd need to cook on, which was great because otherwise we'd have missed a close up view of his poor little house.

Two little boys from the village, aged about 10 or 11 accompanied us on our first day. They had to bring back some donkeys from the next village.

The first night we camped in a village. Tashi got drunk at both lunchtime and dinnertime and caused us some mild annoyance so we just went ahead without him when he didn't show up on time. His stove was extremely difficult to operate and without him around we almost didn't have dinner. The villagers did their best to help us with the stove and so we didn't go hungry.

The following day we followed the river as much as possible while Tashi moseyed on along the road with the donkeys according to his own pace. The river was green and cool. Yak drivers - one female, one male - caught us up at different times. We met a monk.

We gained altitude by the end of the day and noticed the temperature dropping significantly in the evening. Next day we hiked up to our first pass at 4940m. It was a long and slow ascent for me. I was not particularly fit, but this helped me avoid altitude symptoms as i was forced to take it more slowly. My partner experienced a headache and had to descend quickly while i hung about and enjoyed the view from the top and rested.

To be continued...

All Ladakh Entries:

2007.05.30 - Ladakh - The Donkeyman
2007.05.22 - Ladakh - Harvest Time
2007.05.16 - Ladakh - Doors & Walls - Leh, Lamayuru, Thiksey
2007.05.15 - Ladakh - Mountains - Lamayuru to Chilling to Leh
2007.05.10 - Ladakh - Lamayuru - Shangrila
2007.05.05 - Ladakh - Things to do