Looking back to Ghangaria
Sunday 26 October
Usual 6:30
tea, 7:30 breakfast seems very leisurely. Lovely omelette and spicy rissoles.
By 8am we
are off up to the
There are
crisp autumn leaves on the well engineered path, and just a few frozen snow
patches. As yesterday there are occasional clouds of insects, but these are not
as much of a problem as the seeds which stick resolutely to everything,
especially socks, and find their way into boots.
An eagle floated overhead on the thermals
The stream
crossing is accomplished with just one wet foot for Julia, and we wait again
for Richard whilst burning some of the rubbish which abounds here. Eventually Anil
decides to continue to wait, whilst Julia, John and I continue along a thin
stone path. After a while this comes to an end and we proceed across rough
ground through giant hogweed, giant knotweed, and rhododendron, etc.
There are
several gulches which also make it hard going. Julia falls behind and sits on a
rock, whilst John and I head the full 5 km up the valley to round the far
corner and get a splendid view of Nilgiri Parbat (6474 metres). Rataban (6166
metres) has been in sight, dominant at the head of the valley, for quite some
time. (See yesterday’s map.) We are beside the river, and further on there is
glacial moraine. It's not clear where the ice starts, but far above is a big
hanging glacier.
We find a gentian which we conclude is a local variety of Gentiana depressa. Nothing else is in flower.
There are remnants of lots of different types of flower,
including orchids, thistles, lilies and asters - which at time of flowering turn
the valley into a big spread of purple (according to photos).
Above: Valley of the Flowers using Olympus 110 camera and Konica VX100 print film.
Prints scanned using HP Envy 5020 printer.
Below: Valley of the Flowers using Canon EOS500 camera and Fujichrome Sensia 100 slide film.
After
lingering here until 1pm we return along a narrow indistinct path which wasn't
obvious on the outward trip. We later discover that Julia also found it, and it
takes us satisfactorily back down this beautiful valley, on a lovely day but
with increasing afternoon cloud as usual, to the stream crossing where Anil was
left.
John and I
have collected rubbish from the path (which makes John very angry) and burn
this by the stream.
Soon a
heavily laden Anil, and Richard with no rucksack, appear. It seems Richard had
a headache and returned to bed, later to recover sufficient for him to get to
the Valley of Flowers if Anil took his rucksack! (That's Anil's abbreviated
version - Richard's full explanation is a lot longer and is very involved as he
is a doctor and worries.)
Anil, John
and Richard return to the valley to look for a grave (Mrs Smith) which Anil
says is there. They fail, but they do find the grave of Mrs Legg, which Julia
also found. Anil's story of a Mrs Smith being laid to rest in the valley after
she killed herself pulling up a flower is discredited.
There is a
lot of sensitivity about the
I amble down
to Gangaria by about 4:30pm. The room is already dark and cold, but a pleasant
hour and a half is spent in my sleeping bag chatting with Julia, before the
others arrive, in darkness (having wasted much time in the abortive search for
Mrs Smith's grave), enabling further tea and welcome battered nibbles to be
consumed.
Pawan's
final meal for us is quite a banquet, with vegetable soup, fried rice, chop
suey, spring rolls, crispy noodles and tomatoey sauce, cheese and tomato paneer,
mixed vegetable (mild curry), and a tomatoey dish with potato, followed by
ginger cake and coffee / ovaltine. Another excellent meal, with some more of
John's vodka rounding things off.
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