October 1997 - The 'Shipton/Tilman' Route - Day 11 - October 21

Tuesday 21st October

A short day that could have been combined with yesterday. A cloudy start, then brightening.  Usual routine and usual excellent breakfast - porridge, omelette and chips (lots), toast and marmalade.

I tried to educate Bagwan into the use of a J-cloth but failed. He prefers to wipe the table with a plastic bag and thought the J-cloth was rubbish.

Schoolchildren arrived. The class of 17 five- to ten-year-olds is from 10am to 4pm, but by 8:15 there was quite a gathering. Photos were taken and John wrote his name in Hindu on a small sort of blackboard. Bamboo is fashioned into a pen, and ink is a sludge from local rocks - to write on these boards.

Women work in the fields as the children study

Soon after we depart for Kaliaghat we encounter many sheep and goats. We seem to have to wait for ages for them to pass by. They are presumably being brought down from high pasture due to impending winter.

Across a fine suspension bridge I pass a party of Bengali trekkers. 

We also meet two Austrians today, coming the other way. Near the Birchi Gorge we find some Snake Flower - a sort of giant Lords and Ladies with red berries.

I stop to do some washing (very unusual) and change to shorts and sandals. There are lots of woodpeckers around here, as well as the ubiquitous miner birds.

After a steep climb out of the gorge we all four congregate for a biscuit stop. 

A new plant is spotted - Prenanthes brunoniana, with red flowers.

After passing through a section of dense forest we reach what looks like an idyllic campsite, by the path at Kaliaghat. On the way we see the bare rockface where a massive landslide occurred in 1898, causing the Gauna Lake to burst and flood the whole of the Ganga Valley as far as Rishikesh.

The bare rockface caused by the 1898 landslide is in this picture

There are many curious children at this campsite, and dogs, all of which Richard feeds, thus encouraging them to beg for more. Our HK briefing discourages this but is ignored by Richard.

Soon after we reach camp (1pm), it rains, but not before we've enjoyed our lunch.

Diary writing takes a turn and I am hopeful of catching up (I'm generally averaging three days in arrears). However, John suggests a trip to the snowline, which I can't resist. We plod steeply through grass, then a thicket, then even steeper grass. A small rock band about 700 feet above the campsite halts my progress, but John continues briefly before calling it a day in the persistent rain.

I've reached the snow line

So we descend for tea/coffee in the cooks' tent, then cards in the mess tent, which further distracts my efforts to diarise the trip.

John seems to magically win everything at 'Switch', with a score of 117.

Another excellent dinner:
• vegetable soup
• veg and goat chop suey
• fried rice with spring onions and more
• sweet and sour vegetables
• spring rolls
• goat in tomatoey sauce
• caramel cake.

Adjourn around 9:30 and sleep well apart from the constant barking of the dogs, sometimes right next to the tents.

Richard uses his bivvy bag as well as his sleeping bag, inside the tent! I thought I was well equipped, but he seems to have brand new looking (he says most is old) gear of the highest quality. He seems to have loads of clothes, which are washed daily. We had a huge array on a washing line in the tent tonight - none of it dried. Even a fleece has been washed. In contrast, so far on the trip John has washed one t-shirt and pants after seemingly wearing them for well over a week!

The rain eases and we have another lovely starry night.

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