The Case of the Drowning Yak

The stuffed yak is sodden, rotting, its back slumping under
the weight of the damp straw that has been plumping it out
for the last 13 years. Its existence as centrepiece of the
Antelope Guest House's garden is looking under threat as
climate change takes its toll.

It has rained every day for the last week-plus, and rained
harder than anyone here can remember. Ladakh generally
has four inches of rain per annum - we have had about a
foot in the past week, causing flooding and the washing
away of roads. A couple of nights back the rain fractured a
glacier up the valley, causing the release of a great deal of
water, which rushed down the small river, damaging and
destroying bridges in its wake. Huge boulders were thrown
metres high onto the bridges higher up the valley, while
lower down people were evacuated from their homes. In
Zanskar Valley there are reports coming through of lives
lost.

Here at the Antelope we had a mini-drama of our own when
at around 10pm water burst through the up-side of the
building and cascaded into the garden, where it couldn't
escape due to a five-foot retaining wall that had no drain
hole (why no drain? 'It never rains'). I suggested knocking a
hole in the wall, so a pickaxe was sourced and the two hotel
lads and I set about trying to make an opening in the three-
foot-thick, rock retainer. Working in the dark, knee-deep
and rising, it took about an hour to get through and let the
water out - another few inches and I'd have had to evacuate
my room. There was a fair bit of water-damage to the
'concrete', the garden was left deep in silt and the dead yak
began its slump.

The weather has put my trip up to Zanskar on hold for the
time being (I plan to try again in a couple of days). I don't
actually know if the road is open as Leh has effectively been
cut-off from the outside world - by road - due to landslides,
road collapses and the majority of bridges being knocked
out. The first convoy to make it from Leh to Manali in a week
made it through today, so things are improving, but it's still
raining on and off and landslides are constantly undoing the
bulldozers' work.

A few days back an English friend I've made (who has a tent)
and I set off to try and walk over to the Nubra Valley, which
sits the other side of a high range and involves a pass over
5000m. What a farce. We set off for the first leg using a
trekking guidebook with instructions such as: 'take the track
on the right side of the small, triangular mountain' and
obviously picked the wrong triangular mountain as a three-
hour warm up walk turned into a six-hour circuit back to
Leh. So with six days-worth of food in our packs we ended
up eating in a restaurant back in town, feeling a right pair of
chumps. And we haven't been able to get out since, as every
river crossing, of which there are many, is impassable.

Leh is packed with tourists as treks have been cancelled and
many people have returned from the hills - though some are
still stuck out there by high rivers. I met a teacher yesterday
who had been staying in a monastery which was hit by a
landslide. He was lucky to get out alive, his only remaining
possessions a pair of pants, wallet and his camera -
passport, air-ticket and everything else gone.

A couple of days back I witnessed the collapse of a bridge in
upper Leh. It happened as a guy was sprinting across. He
went down 20 feet into a raging torrent along with about ten
tons of concrete. I though he was surely dead, that nobody
could possibly survive, but by some miracle he managed to
clasp a fallen electricity cable and pull himself out.

I'd use this break in travelling to get on with some work, but
the electricity has been off for ages and when it is there the
required 24v to charge my laptop fails to show. So I'm
writing in an expensive e-cafe that has a generator, but
getting a little done. Overall there is bugger-all to do in Leh
and I, along with lots of potential trekkers, am finding the
place very frustrating. Tonight will doubtless see me
hammering the budget with a few beers...

In a couple of days the army should have a temporary bridge
up on the main Srinagar road and I will try and get through
to Zanskar. After that I will return to Shimla if the Leh-Manali
route is open, otherwise I'll have to take a massive three-
day detour through Srinagar in Kashmir.
Damon