October 1997 - The 'Shipton/Tilman' Route - Day 10 - October 20

 Monday 20th October

I'm on my own in the tent so when the warm water arrives at about 7am I make sure I have already abluted and have a full wash in the tent.

It has rained overnight so my summer boots (Karrimor KSB3) are donned for the first time.

Breakfast consists of chua - mild chickpea curry, with paratha, plus acha sauce - a mixture of green chillies and lime pickle out of a tin.

Enjoying a final cuppa at the Ghunni camp, with the ponies enjoying their own breakfast

By 8:50 we are on our way to JhiJhi. We head directly from camp, up a zig zag path, on a seriously cloudy day. A relentless climb takes us through mature oak and rhododendron. There are summer pastures here, with shepherds' huts with thatched roofs. It takes us 2½ hours to reach the highest point, at around 3400 metres.

The ponies are well behind, having not got going until 9:30. We soon descend, together with Anil, Pawan and Bagwan, to the pass at around 3200 metres, Ramni Pass, otherwise known as Binayak Top. We spent some time here despite the lack of the (spectacular) views towards Kauri Pass and to Trisul.

Anil and John check the map

A view from the path to JhiJhi

There was a little lake like that found in an ornamental park, surrounded by rhododendrons. 

I continued, in light rain, whilst John, Julia and Richard returned to the pass to inspect graves and a pile of branches in memory of someone who died there. Apparently, every passer by chucks on a branch! There was also a little cairn with some flags flapping in the breeze.

Anil walked with me. He explained how dim children from good homes make it in India - there is a percentage weighting in exam results to take account of breeding, connections, etc - all very corrupt. We also discover that the local teachers are on government postings - 3-year postings - and in order to move to a location of their own choice they need to find a 3000 Rupee bribe. The teacher in JhiJhi would not do this as a matter of principle.  Anil also commented on the ongoing border war with Pakistan, a country he would like to visit but can't. Every day soldiers are killed in the jockeying for position. What a waste. Anil is a Hindu, with Indian mother and Nepalese father. He is to marry a Shiite Muslim - very unusual - she is also from a mixed background.

The descent is quiet, in contrast to the early part of the ascent where sound travelled far and for a long time the sound of children could be heard far below.

Views from the trail

Today there was lots of cotoneaster necrophilia and potentilla frutiosa. Also lovely meadows with no flowers, but lots of leaves of silverweed and similar, and old thistles standing like brown sentinels in the green meadows. They must be full of flowers in spring.

The trees are very beautiful at this time of year, with many varied autumn colours. The oak forest has trees with brown ferns drooping from their trunks and branches, rhododendrons wrapping the trees, and mosses hanging from branches and clinging to trunks.

I lunch alone on the north side of the pass where there are tumbling streams and small meadows amongst the trees - ideal campsites. As on the day from Wan, when only one other person was seen, we find no one else about - no villages here - until we suddenly enter JhiJhi after passing through mixed forest including walnut and sycamore as well as the oak and rhododendron. There is a thick brown carpet of leaves. These have been piled up in places. In Ramani they were being used as fertiliser - industriously being spread on the fields.

The local people pay no taxes and exist primarily by bartering goods raised on the fertile land.

There are vetch like flowers and other small blue ones.

The four of us reach JhiJhi at about 2:30pm, as the rain thickens. Anil and I get tea from a rest house (no charge) while Pawan and Bagwan seek out the campsite. The ponies pass half an hour later and soon Bagwan (who is 30 and has been married for 25 years! - this is his first trek as assistant cook) returns to tell us camp is being set up in the school grounds as the old site has been ploughed up.

We wait in vain for John and Co and eventually go down to the school to find our three tents set up in cramped grounds. No room for the dining tent, no need for the kitchen tent as the school room is being used. The teacher is brilliant - a very nice man from the Nanital area whence Anil hails. We wish the pens and paper which (courtesy of Withington Hospital pharmacy department and others) had been given to the teacher at Ramani had been kept for this man, who allowed us into his room and was very sociable. He had a lovely, coloured blanket which he wore as a cloak. We gazed up to the east to snow capped mountains (the rain had stopped) past a chequered coloured house.

The campsite at JhiJhi

At JhiJhi

Ponies at JhiJhi

Dinner was consumed in the draughty veranda of the school, under a brilliant starry night:
• tomato soup
• bija
• macaroni and tomatoes
• goat with cabbage and onions
• stuffed tomatoes
• mashed potato
• suji - semolina with almond pudding

Adjourned to tents after whisky, due to coolness, early.

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