Friday, October 20, 2006
9 October, 2006
We woke up to the clean fresh mountain air and it was so quiet. The horses were eating, the birds were chirping (more like crows), and we had a great breakfast on our little pedestal (rock). The weather was lovely and warm, especially since we were quite high up. The hike today was very enjoyable. We had uphills and downhills and it was a fairly easy day of trekking. We arrived at Gangbal Lake in the afternoon where we would spend the night. The gypsies left us and took their horses back to another camp where there was a gypsy house. They would be back in the morning to fetch us. Our tent was facing the lake and we were under Harmok Mountain which is covered in snow. It was warm until the sun set and then it got quite chilly. Our guide Showkut told us that normally at this time of year they don’t camp at the lake because it is too cold. But, we were lucky with the weather and it was possible. Rich had a headache and I had no appetite. I think we were struggling with the altitude. Nobody could quite tell us how high we were but they estimated about 4500m. The air did feel thin and we did feel short of breath with every step. Perhaps we were REALLY unfit?!
We couldn’t sleep again and I was freezing cold. We were so spoilt with 4 blankets over our sleeping bags and hot water bottles, but it was still so cold and uncomfortable. We couldn’t get the bedding arrangements right and we didn’t feel very comfortable getting into some strange sleeping bag and blankets that smelt hectically of horses.
We woke up to the clean fresh mountain air and it was so quiet. The horses were eating, the birds were chirping (more like crows), and we had a great breakfast on our little pedestal (rock). The weather was lovely and warm, especially since we were quite high up. The hike today was very enjoyable. We had uphills and downhills and it was a fairly easy day of trekking. We arrived at Gangbal Lake in the afternoon where we would spend the night. The gypsies left us and took their horses back to another camp where there was a gypsy house. They would be back in the morning to fetch us. Our tent was facing the lake and we were under Harmok Mountain which is covered in snow. It was warm until the sun set and then it got quite chilly. Our guide Showkut told us that normally at this time of year they don’t camp at the lake because it is too cold. But, we were lucky with the weather and it was possible. Rich had a headache and I had no appetite. I think we were struggling with the altitude. Nobody could quite tell us how high we were but they estimated about 4500m. The air did feel thin and we did feel short of breath with every step. Perhaps we were REALLY unfit?!
We couldn’t sleep again and I was freezing cold. We were so spoilt with 4 blankets over our sleeping bags and hot water bottles, but it was still so cold and uncomfortable. We couldn’t get the bedding arrangements right and we didn’t feel very comfortable getting into some strange sleeping bag and blankets that smelt hectically of horses.
# posted by Heidi & Richard's travels @ 7:19 AM 
