Seven minutes in Tibet! Supposed to be a rest day but a big outing.

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Samdo – A supposed rest and acclimatisation day.

Got up pretty early to find the cloud cover down below the village and quite cold.

Had a leisurely breakfast and decided to go for a shortish tramp up the track towards the Tibetan border. Himal wasn’t sure how long to the border with estimates ranging from one to three hours.

The track initially follows the main Manaslu track out of the village and past the cropping fields. Interesting how while in the Tsum Valley they had ploughed and planted barley here in Samdo they hadn’t even commenced ploughing for the spring. Obviously the temperature don’t become conducive to growing until much later in spring here.

After about half and hour we branched of the track and climbed steadily for another half an hour or so until we came to a deserted village (I believe this is one of the original trading village that existed before China annexed Tibet and traditional trade in this area was severely curtailed).

In this village was a large herd of Yak and also a flock of the elusive Himalayan Blue sheep. Quite a spectacle, the sheep were pretty shy but the yaks allowed us to get quite close.

I had a discussion with Himal and suggested that after two hours those that wanted to go on to Tibet would and the others would either wait or return to Samdo. Not a lot of Tibet volunteers, just me!

After a short break for photos of the yaks and sheep we carried on. Interestingly while we were photographing Himal had scurried on ahead and by the time we left the deserted village was 1/2km or so ahead, a lead he retained all the way to Tibet.

After another half and hour or so the other guys said they’d had enough and I should carry on. So with Sumon (young porter) I trudged off in pursuit of Himal. I’m sure he was just teasing us but he stayed a long ways ahead and sometimes for up to half an hour we had no sight of him depending on the lay of the land.

We climbed steadily, up rock slips, through knee deep snow, over gravel, up and around house sized boulders for over three hours! Finally we caught up with Himal at the bottom of a snowy slope that lead up another few hundred meters to the Tibetan border. It was bitterly cold with the wind coming over the pass (I’d guess -5 or less with another 5 or 10degC of wind chill).

Now Arch has told me I need to come clean on preparation for this outing. Last time we embarked on one of these day treks (the ill fated Mu Gompa outing) I lectured everyone about the changeable nature of the alpine environment, how unforgiving it can be and how you need to take the correct gear and be prepared. So following my own advice today I’d left in shorts (I did have merinos under them), a merino base layer and a light fleece with a hood and my water bottle with a little under a litre of water. Not exactly following my own good advice, no gloves, no warm hat, no shell or raincoat, no food, actually more equiped for a day at the beach than in the mountains! To my defence no one told me the bloody border was at 5200m (17,000ft) or that it took five hours to get there!

Anyway, back to the story, when Sumon and I finally reached Himal the little bugger had his shoes off and was sitting in the cold trying to dry his socks a bit. He got up and sauntered over to me in the snow in his bare feet, I tell you they breed these Nepalese tough!

Once Himal got his shoes on the three of us trudged through knee deep snow up to the border, another two hundred metre or so but it felt like two km.

At the border was a fence across the valley with a closed gate in the middle. The snow was sufficiently deep that it became apparent that we could merely step over the border. I suggested this to Himal and initially he was reluctant but after I’d gone over and not been vaporised by a Chinese PLA rocket he decided it might be both safe and fun.

We took a number of photos before the cold got the better of us and we retreated back down.

If you haven’t see. It the movie “Seven Years in Tibet “ staring Brad Pitt was fabulous ,as was the book. The sequel “Seven Minutes in Tibet” staring moi and Himal Rai with. Support role from Sumon Rai will I am sure be equally compelling!

The trek back down was relatively uneventful. Sumon was worn out so Himal and I had to stop for him a few times. A first for me wearing out a Nepalese guy!

Took us only about 3.5hours back to Samdo which was a lot quicker than the hike up.

The other guys were starting to get worried about us, said if we weren’t back by 5.30 (we got back at 5.25) they were going to tell someone we were missing so felt pretty bad about that but without any communication up here and time estimates just so wrong it’s impossible to know how long some of these little adventures might take.

Anyway all’s well that ends well and how often in life do you get the chance to be an illegal immigrant in Tibet!

So all in all a really tough but fabulous day.

Once we got back I had lunch and dinner essentially as one meal and crashed into bed.

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Photos

A fine specimen of a blue sheep
We were fortunate enough to see nearly a hundred on the way back from Tibet.