Mick Canning

Dawn - over the desert somewhere between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. A long, golden red swathe of fire across the horizon, picking out solitary clouds that rapidly become more numerous, standing up like mountains and castles, or icebergs, in the morning light. When did I last see sunrise over the desert? Too long!

At Dubai we get off and then get back on again, so that the plane can be refuelled, and I am reminded of Muscat. It is quite hot already, although early in the day.

We follow the coast down towards Oman for a while and then turn across the Gulf, over the Arabian Sea and down to Karachi, circling over the mouths of the Indus. When we land it is hotter than Dubai (Could be a song title?).

We change planes, after being hassled by security, whose motto seems to be 'give 'em a bad day', and set off on the last leg to Nepal. We rise up and head NE across Pakistan, the temperature outside now 107F, across the Thar, which rapidly becomes a rocky, sandy waste. All signs of agriculture disappear within minutes of take-off. Although there is no cloud, the haze masks the ground and the horizon can only be guessed at.

Village near Manang (posibly Mungji), on the Marsyandi River, close to the Annapurnas. (Photo Ne1). In many ways, a typical Nepalese mountain village, it is built on man-made terraces, up steeply sloping mountainside, to avoid using any of the precious farmland available in the valley.

 

View from Poon Hill (Photo Ne2). Poon Hill lies a little to the west of Ghorapani on the river Ghora (pani being water), west of the Annapurnas. Sunrise there consequently occurs behind the Annapurna peaks, including the spectacular Machhapuchhare, or 'fishtail' peaks. That said, this shot was taken towards the west, looking across the Kali Gandaki valley.

 

This is dawn, though (Photo Ne3). Machhapuchhare and it's double peak are shown clearly on the left.

 

Mountains and glacial lake from the village of Manang (Photo Ne7).

 

Lower down, the land is heavily terraced, fertile land being at such a premium that every available bit is used. These rice paddies are near the village of Chepe Ghat, on the Marsayandi River (Photo Ne9).

 

Chorten. (Photo Ne11) Chortens, or stupas as they are also commonly known, usually contain relics of saints or priests. The original stupas held relics of the Buddha, such as at the Temple of the Tooth, at Kandy, Sri Lanka.

 

Mountains near the village of Muktinath (Photo Ne6). In the rainshadow, here, the landscape is that of a high altitude desert.

Mani stones on the Annapurna trail (Photo Ne10). Mani stones may be carved, painted or both, and serve a similar function to prayer flags, in that they either have a prayer or mantra carved on them (typically 'Om Mani Padme Hum' - from which the name 'Mani Stone' comes from - meaning 'Hail to the jewel in the heart of the lotus' i.e. The Buddha) or they may have a picture of the Buddha himself. Although they may be encountered singly or in small numbers by shrines or at Gompas, at times they make up huge walls containing many hundreds of stones, some of which may have been there for hundreds of years. These walls, like shrines or any other Buddhist relics encountered here, are passed on the left.

 

 

Houses at Manang (Photo Ne8).

 

The Upper reaches of the Marsayandi, looking down to Manang. (Photo Ne12)

 

Snowed in below Thorung La (Photo Ne14). Not an unusual occurence. Thorung La is at 5415m (17,700ft). We arrived at our campsite early afternoon with the ground clear of snow and the sun out. This was the scene a couple of hours later, delaying our crossing the pass ('La' is Tibetan for 'Pass') by 24 hours.

 

Heading up towards Thorung La (Early morning) (Photo Ne15).

 

The long march...(Photo Ne16).

 

More Himalaya...(Photo Ne17)

 

Finally, Thorung La (Photo Ne18). On the day we crossed the pass, we left camp just after 4 in the morning, and were down the other side by late afternoon.

 

Looking west (and down!) from Thorung La (Photo Ne13). On this side of the pass there is far less precipitation and the land is noticeably drier. This is looking towards the location of photo Ne6, above.