Markha Valley Trek Day 4 - Skiu to Markha

With hindsight this was the day of the trek I enjoyed most. I was healthy. The trek was along the valley so while there were short steep stretches where the track had to climb away from the river it was not arduous. And after 3 days of trekking my body had adjusted and could cope with it.

Skiu Thursday 29 July 2010 5:45am 371om
Damn squat toilets. I had a small problem aim this morning and now I need to change my shorts.

It is good to be at low altitude again. I can breathe easily.

I have found the party that owns the 23 horses I saw at Rumbuk. It is a group of 9 high school children an 3 teachers from Bournemouth. One of the girls has knee problems and from party way down Ganda La has been riding a horse. She is getting taken out to the road at Chitting today.

One of the interesting things about Skiu is that although they have mains power the street lights (or should that be called path lights) - bot of them - are solar powered. A solar panel feeding a battery since you don't need street lights when the sun is shining.

Nakdi 10am
I forgot to mention the most important thing. It rained last night. So today the sandy dust is nicely wet down and it is much more pleasant. There was a brief shower 15 minutes ago but not enough to make me put a jacket on. Its is overcast so while we might get more rain it also means it won't be baking hot.

I'm taking a rest at a tea tent - more mountain dew. Seems that Pepsi have a marketing monopoly on soft drinks in Markha Valley.

Chelak 11:50am 3560m
The cloud has gone and it is getting hot. I'm having lunch in a tea tent just across the Phoche Chu (a large stream) from Chelak. It is about 6km to Markha. The last field of Chelak had a scare crow in it but it was a long way from the track and very hard to photograph. The horses are going past so they will definitely beat me to Markha.

Markha 2pm 3850m
I arrived here about half an hour ago. The last hour was very hot and I slowed down a lot. I ran out of pens to give away in my backpack just before Markha. There were 2 boys waiting when I finished fording the river. I gave them the last 2 pens in my backpack. A few minutes later their sister came up but all the other pens are on the horse so I ha nothing to give her. I took the box of pens out of my bag when I got to Markha and all the horsemen and some of the guides queued up to get one. Seems it isn't only children who treasure pens in Ladakh.

I had an apple core and mango skin left from lunch. When I gave one of the horses the apple core 2 more came running up. I ha to quickly divide the mango skin before it was grabbed by the second horse so there was something for the third one.

I had been told horror stories about the ford at Markha being waste deep and freezing cold. While the water wasn't warm it was only just deep enough to get my shorts wet.

I had imagined that Markha was a village with buildings all gathered together. Instead it is a number of houses spread out across the river flat - about 2km long. There is an old castle above the camp site that is rapidly crumbling away. Funds from the camp site go to the monastery fro restoration but it looks in fairly good condition and it is the castle that I think urgently nees some stabilisation to preserve the ruins - I think ti is too far gone for restoration.

7pm
The orginal of the entry above (edited a bit as I typed it into the computer) was written with a 14 year old boy practicing his English by reading as I wrote. I asked him if there were any words he needed help with. He said no but I think that was more about his pride than reality. After that he read the photo captions in the guide book. I don't think he had ever seen a Markha Valley guide book before and was delighted to be reading about his world. I did note that having finished with the photo captions he didn't attempt to read the text of guide book.

Tomorrow I am not allowed to leave early as there is a tricky ford about 40 minutes up the track and if I leave early it will still be high and difficult to cross. I have to leave camp with Pema.

Momo's for dinner tonight (see Monastery Visits 25 July).

8pm
In a moment of stupidity I use river water to clean my teeth at Skiu and I suspect I am now paying the price with a nice bout of diarrhoea. I have heard rumours there is a guy riding up Markha Valley on a unicycle. He is supposed to be staying at a home stay next to the other camp in Markha but I couldn't find him.