Flora of the Zanskar

When you hear "Himalayas", you could be forgiven for picturing mountains, snow, and not too much else. You don't generally imagine valley floors carpeted with wild flowers, with butterflies overhead, or scree slopes held together with thistles, geraniums, and other flora we get back in the UK. 

One of the science projects on the Ladakh expedition looked at the Amchi system of Tibetan 'medicine'. It is one of the most ancient living medical systems in the world, and until the early 60s was the only medicine available to Ladakhis. Locals believe Amchis to be representatives of the Medicine Buddha, so they are highly respected in both a social and spiritual sense. Many plants in Ladakh are becoming and have become endangered and rare because of their use in Amchi medicine. 

I was somewhat cynical and wasn't particularly interested in supporting the Amchi research. However, I found the plants fascinating, and enjoyed getting back to sketching and taking photos of the plants and flowers. 

According to the few books we had on the subject, which detailed the locations and elevations of most plants in Ladakh, some of the flowers we saw were at unusually high altitudes. Seeing the impact of global warming in such a unique way was incredible. As well as this, seeing the same plant at base camp going to seed but at a higher altitude only just flowering was also pretty cool to see.

Here are a few examples of the plants we saw and some of my drawings.

A sketch of Meconopsis aculeata, the rare Himalayan Blue Poppy

Meconopsis aculeata, the rare Himalayan Blue Poppy - endangered due to over picking by Amchis

Chrysanthemum pyrethroidas

A sea of Bistort - the flowers changed from pale pink through to deep magenta as they went to seed

A sketch of Bistort

I'm yet to identify most of these - please tell me if you know!

This was seen outside of the Zanskar valley, by the side of a river just before ascending to the Kanji La

Thymus serpyllum - Wild Thyme - we used this a few times whilst cooking at basecamp 

This was everywhere around base camp and the surrounding valleys

Journey to Base Camp

When you start to refer to a base camp as 'home', you know that you're in an awesome place, and that mountains are where you belong.

Our base camp home lay just off the Pensi La, up the valley from the Drang Drung glacier, in amongst the glacial lakes and surrounded by peaks reaching 6000m. It took the whole expedition team about three trips each from the buses and trucks to base camp, heavily laden with bags, boxes and barrels, whilst suffering from AMS, to get all of our equipment and supplies to our camp spot and ready to be sorted out. That made us pretty knackered as the walk was over hills, streams and rocks, but it was totally worth it.

A colourfully decorated Indian truck on the Pensi La

We split the camp into different areas for each fire, with a spot for base camp HQ in the middle, surrounded by Dras, Zanskar, Chenubra, Markha, Indus and Shyok fires. Each fire had a big blue mess tent, to cook, eat and socialise in, plus their own big stove, kettle and pressure cooker. Dras (the fire I was a TL in) ended up with crazy paving in their tent to stop the dust and sand from getting everywhere, and everyone had a rock to sit on - so homely!

Basecamp sunset - beats watching TV

The journey to base camp took us three days, bouncing and bumping along National Highway 1 (I'd love to see National Highway 2 or any of the others..) through tiny villages in stunning glaciated valleys and across rickety bridges over raging rivers. It was truly awesome, with breathtaking views around every corner and the excitement of reaching the Zanskar valley building every second. Our route took us northwest out of Leh along NH1, before turning south at Kargil onto road 301, which (after a long drive) turns into the Pensi La. Lunch on our first day was at the small hillside town of Lamayuru, where a medieval monastery towers over a tumbletown of mud brick houses built around and within the strangely eroded caves in the cliff face. We tried our first taste of what would be our lunch for the next 35 days - Amul tinned cheese; crackers (only slightly broken at this point, but after a day in a rucksack they quickly became fine cracker dust); apricots so dry they could break teeth; boondi and bhujia and other ridiculously spicy bombay mix type nibbles; 425kcal giant heavy flapjacks; we weren't impressed..  

Calum, Tim and Becky loving life at the glamping place

The first night's stay was nicknamed 'the glamping place' by us, as it was so idyllic. Small marquee type tents surrounded a vegetable patch / flowerbed, with bright red poppies growing right next to runner beans, and butterflies fluttering around. We knew the next few weeks wouldn't be as easy as this, but it was certainly a nice way to ease ourselves into it, sleeping on the carpeted floors and being made chai and given hot food. The next night was spent on a flattish patch of grass by the roadside, so it was everyone's first night in the expedition tents, eating a memorable (both for the location and for what they do to your digestive system..) ration pack dinner of chicken tikka masala.

Witness the cuteness! Awesome photo by Abel McLinden

Yaks and cows were one of our biggest problems at base camp, which says something about how care free life was and how little anything else mattered without communication with the world back home. The giant, fluffy, earringed, cute but ugly beasts would wander into our camp every morning at about 8am, then leave again before it got dark, directed by the local herders. They were unstoppable in their quest to drink every bowl of soapy water, apparently because as calves they'd been raised drinking washing up water, making the most of the leftover scraps of food. They would find their way into the stores tents and rummage around in the boxes before weeing on the floor, they'd walk straight through guy ropes and make tents fall down, and they'd pick our washing off the line and chew it up, before spitting it out again a short walk away. They did however sit nicely whilst we sketched and photographed them, and the young ones would even let us give their heads a scratch, so eventually they became an accepted part of base camp - part of the team.

Karl enjoying a freezing dip in one of the lakes

I have a new found love for wild swimming - we'd wash in the surrounding glacial lakes, spending ages standing knee deep in silty sediment, trying to psych ourselves up to throw ourselves in deeper, before reaching the drop off and plunging into the deep icy waters, instantly feeling clean and refreshed. Every time I went in my fingers and toes would go numb, leading to hours spend sitting next to a stove in my big down jacket, trying to warm back up again. Every afternoon the winds would pick up, blowing away the calm of the morning and placing sand in every nook and cranny of our kit. It left us no opportunity to lounge around in the sun to let ourselves dry and try to fix our t-shirt and sandal tan lines, so I just embraced them.

Great photo from Calum Matthews
Me, Cameron, Rachel, Monty and Becca, on a short walk out of base camp
Base camp lay amongst the glacial lakes in the background

Leaving base camp at the end of the expedition was tough - we'd worked really hard to make it a home, but we had to take it completely apart and leave without a trace. I was part of the Phase 5 trek team, who left a few days early to trek over the Kanji La and through villages for five days to meet the buses as they drove past, so I cheekily got out of the slog of carrying equipment back to the buses, but I still helped to dismantle Dras' camp. We threw the crazy paving back onto the scree, filled in the toilet and slops pit, took down our stove protection wall and outdoor dry stone kitchen, took down the mess tent.. so much emotion.

One day I'll go back, I'm sure of it.

Advance Party reaches Leh

Reaching Delhi, stepping outdoors from the air conditioned airport, the heat and humidity hit us like a brick wall. The advance party of the expedition had now arrived in country, but whilst dogs and people ran around us, the city's dense smog hung overhead like a thick barrier to the calm of nature and the beauty of India. Staying a few short hours in the city before our flight to Leh was more than enough for us - we craved clean mountain air and beautiful views.

Leh, the old capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh, is nestled high in the Himalayas, a green oasis in the harsh rocky mountains. We were to be staying a week at the Ladakh Ecological Development Group hostel in Leh; LEDeG for short. Food and equipment needed to be bought, stores loaded up onto trucks, and things generally organised before the rest of the expedition arrived and the drive to base camp began. We didn't have much time to feel sorry for ourselves and nurse our Acute Mountain Sickness headaches after arriving at high altitude - a quick morning nap and a cup of masala chai later we wandered down into Leh to get our bearings and prepare ourselves for the days of shopping ahead.

A beautifully shaped and painted wall in a back street in Leh

Small teams of TLs set out into Leh in the following few days to source random items such as eggs, watermelons, sponges, jerrycans and planks of wood. Our team of four was in charge of hardware, which involved searching the town for some very specific items, armed with a questionable Ladakhi phrasebook and lots of rupees. What an amazing way to interact with locals and get to know a town. Next time I'm travelling maybe I should search for 16 metal jerrycans again - I could repeat the surreal experience of ending up in a tiny, dark, windowless store room with a Ladakhi man showing me his 'new' (i.e. really old but apparently didn't leak) jerry cans and arguing over the price. Or I could search for four planks of wood, and end up being driven to the outskirts of town and wandering around a wood yard, chatting to workmen and clambering over hundreds of planks of wood to find the perfect one.

We tried out our Ladakhi on most people, but not much of it has stuck in my head. Shouts of "jullay!" could be heard constantly, everywhere we went - it means "hello", "yes" and "goodbye", and is said all the time, to and by people of all backgrounds, ages and religions. 'Balang' means cow, which you also see everywhere, wandering the streets and looking like they belong there, even on the main bazaar, eating the vegetables the women had travelled for miles from Leh's surrounding small villages to sell. "Kamzang le?" means "how are you?", and is replied to with "kamzang", meaning "yes, good". Our phrasebook also contained "where can one find a horse?" which was sadly too complex to remember, but could have come in handy at some point!

The main bazaar in Leh - prayer flags flying everywhere,
vegetable sellers all around, mountains in the background

Most of us probably pushed ourselves too hard in that week, and also in the weeks to follow if I'm honest. Splitting headaches and nausea were daily occurrences, but we forced litres of water down our throats to try to combat it. The alcohol ban on expedition led to a drinking game: drinking from Nalgenes whilst whizzing down a bumpy road - I love being a child. Our ascent profile for the trip was quite steep; Leh, at 3524m, was a high place to start from, so we had to be careful on our way up to base camp. When the YEs arrived we'd have to watch out for and monitor cases of AMS, and our ascent up to the Pensi La was deliberately broken down into three days to minimise risk from our 1km height gain.

We could feel the altitude as soon as we reached the airport - our lungs felt as though they weren't working quite as well, carrying rucksacks felt harder than before, and walking uphill felt like sprinting uphill. We walked up to a cafe just below the palace in Leh on our first afternoon, and really felt like we deserved the masala chai by the time we got there. We had beautiful views over Leh from the tiny windows, and enjoyed sitting on cushions on the floor, chatting about our expectations for the trip. Our hostel was just below Shanti Stupa, a white domed stupa on a hilltop, built to promote world peace and prosperity and holding the relics of the Buddha. It's a steep walk uphill, and felt like climbing a mountain the first few times we went up before we'd acclimatised - I'm sure I'm not the only one who was slightly worried about the real mountains to come after getting completely puffed out on the way up.

A surprisingly stunning view over Leh
from the toilet at the palace cafe

The food in Ladkh is incredible, and not what I'd expected from India. Because of Tibetan influences, the food is beautifully fragrant and fresh. Vegetarian stews such as thukpa, served with khambir, a soft flatbread, were exactly what we needed after a long day. In town we bought momos, beautifully comforting steamed dumplings served with spicy dipping sauce, and drank mango lassis from a rooftop restaurant overlooking a busy street and a monastery. Monks are everywhere in Ladakh - both obviously important wizened old men, ushered through crowds into monasteries, and young boys wearing trainers, jumpers and beanie hats, carrying iPhones. They welcomed us into their monasteries many times throughout the expedition, greeting us and helping us, spreading their kindness and generosity.

Dogs also run rife in Leh, as they do in Delhi (except these were much fluffier, hardier mountain dogs than those in the city). They're a real nuisance, and their population is getting out of control, but no solution has been reached by the governing authority. They bark and fight until 3am, making sleeping very difficult - and that's on top of the scary periodic breathing due to the altitude from whoever you're sharing a room with - and occasionally get vicious and attack people. Whilst shopping in town we began to be followed by Fluffy, who obviously didn't have any doggy friends; he'd be barked at and chased as we walked around the town, but he just wouldn't leave us alone. He was welcomed into our team at first, but when the other dogs wouldn't let us go up a path to a monastery because of him we decided we should probably try to lose him. About twenty corners and a few quick jogs later we were four again (and also slightly lost..).

Shanti Stupa in Leh - LEDeG hostel was just below this

Leh is a paradise for westerners attempting to 'find themselves' - the number of people wearing floppy hippy trousers with dreadlocks told us that - so there are a lot of yoga retreats held there. We attempted quite a few yoga sessions throughout the expedition, which at times felt pretty special. In Leh, we held some early morning sessions, involving lots of sun salutations and pose holding, but out at base camp and even on some of our long treks we managed to fit some in. Stretching out our backs after a long day of carrying our rucksacks, watching the sun go down and listening to the flow of the river beside us towards the end of the expedition will always stay with me, especially the comedic value of not being able to breathe and trying to hold poses in a down jacket and mountain boots.

Sitting outside in my garden with a cup of coffee and the dog at my feet, it's hard to comprehend how far from Ladakh I am right now. Fighting the post-expedition blues is harder than I'd expected. Time to pack for California!

Explore Ladakh (without leaving your sofa)

For this blog post, I thought I'd use some cool satellite images to make it more interesting and to show you the region we'll be exploring during the expedition.

If you're reading this thinking "what expedition?", take a look at this post: What's this blog all about?

We'll be approaching our base camp from Leh, along the Pensi La. Type 'Pensi La' (La means 'pass' in Tibetan) into Google Earth or Bing Maps and do some exploring of your own from the comfort of your sofa! (A great excuse for procrastination for those of you revising for exams..).

I love maps. Stuff like this makes me very happy indeed. (So does this, but that's not really relevant..)

The overall region we'll be in is Ladakh - as you can see, this region is in the sticky-outy bit (v. technical term) at the top of India, with Pakistan close by to the west, China to the North and the Tibetan Plateau to the east. We'll fly from Delhi to Leh, where we'll spend a few days acclimatising and sourcing food and equipment to take with us to base camp.

We’ll then approach base camp via the Pensi La (the Pensi Pass), which is nicknamed the ‘Gateway to Zanskar’. It connects the Suru valley (NW of Zanskar) to the Zanskar valley region, which is where we'll be exploring. The region is a high altitude desert, with many glaciers and un-summited peaks.

You can see the Durung Drun glacier flowing NNE from the bottom/centre of the image. Hopefully we’ll spend some time on this glacier (and others) measuring melt rates at different points on the glacier, its retreat rate, and take some ice cores. It’ll require technical skill negotiating our way onto and over the glaciers, so by the end of the expedition the whole team will be pretty proficient at ice axe and crampon use (hopefully we won't still be tripping over our own feet every couple of steps and ripping holes in our waterproof trousers!). The TL team will do some recces whilst the rest of the team makes their way up to Basecamp and acclimatises. We’ll explore the area for dangerous places to avoid, good tracks to follow and safe places to cross rivers. We’ll also have a good chance of seeing some of the varied fauna of the Zanskar, before scaring everything away with our presence before the other fires reach them!

The exact final location of our Basecamp is still undecided, as it'll depend on the ground when we arrive and what looks best. Our ~5 day expeditions out from Basecamp will explore the surrounding region - and these will be decided properly once we're out in country.

It's all getting very real and our flights are drawing ever closer... only 11 weeks, 5 exams, 1 half-marathon and a canoe trip across Scotland to go!

What's this blog all about?

This blog is to share information about my upcoming expedition to India, in July 2015, with the British Exploring Society (part of the Royal Geographical Society). The expedition will be to the Ladakh region of northern India, in the Himalayas.

My name is Anna, and firstly I'd like to thank you for visiting my blog! I'm currently trying to raise funds for this adventure, so I'd like to create an honest picture of what you're supporting and to get you involved in this journey. I'll also be posting about the training I'm doing, and after the expedition I'm sure there will be hundreds of photos!

This expedition will take me from my home in the South of England to the area around Leh, in the Indian Ladakh region of the Himalayas. I'll be on the Trainee Leader programme, so I'll also attend three training weekends over a nine month period prior to the expedition to India, where I'll continue my training as part of the wider British Exploring expedition. The expedition will be six weeks long, and I'll be going out as part of the advance party. I'll also have a de-brief/assessment weekend in the November after we've all returned to England.

The expedition will involve experiencing the unique culture in the remote and unspoilt region of India we'll be visiting, as well as scientific research at the third highest weather station in the world. We'll investigate the effects of climate change on the region, feeding data to the British Antarctic Survey. We'll also be trekking and climbing up to 6,000m and sleeping beside the Dalai Lama's palace!

Of course, exciting expeditions like this can't happen without financial arrangements. The expedition will cost around £3,700, excluding the cost of flights and kit, and the flight will be in the region of £1000. I've managed to raise £1000 so far, so I'm now aiming to raise the remaining £3,700 - no mean feat!

To raise money so far, I've been:

- working in London all summer as a consultant in a professional services firm (summer holiday sacrifice!)

- saving up all money earned through activities with the OTC (Officers' Training Corps) at university in Durham

- saving money on heating at uni and wearing five jumpers at once (actually that's probably the same as most students..)

- babysitting in my village at home

I'll keep posting on this blog with more information about the expedition and what I'm doing to fundraise.

Thanks for reading!