CEI-Inde-Perou

On Friday morning, 5 a.m., three of us (all French) joined two indian friends in front of Dal Lake's house (1850 meters high).

From the left to the right : Diphu, Manu, Justin, me and Igor

We started walking in the dark with torches, all the way down to Ghera (1300 m), a small village built on the side of a river. From that village we walked up to Kareri Lake (2930 m), going through many small, poor and lost villages, like Noli, surrounded by jungle.

On that photo you can see the way the farmers dry grass. It is indeed very humid and if the grass touches the ground it rots very quickly.

Here you can see the grass drying in the trees.

This work is mainly done by women. Here they work harder than any man. There is no "man's work". It is really a big difference with Western countries.

Cities monkeys (small and yellowish monkeys), Snow monkeys (big and white, sorry they were too fast for us, next time I’ll try to take photos of them) scorpions, bright yellow and red spiders, small black birds with a bright red tail and a thin white layer on the head were our companions during the trek, as well as two dogs which followed us all the way up and the way down. They even slept with us in Shiva’s and Turga’s temple next to the lake.

Diphu and Manu, our guides and friends made us Chai and meals during these two days. Maggi nooddles for Friday’s lunch time and rice, vegetables (cooked with spices of course) and Dal (Lentils steamed with spices) for dinner and Balau (vegetables, spices and rice all cooked together in a steam cooker) for Saturday’s lunch.

Dinner time

Skinny trees next to Nyund river, near the lake.

Shiva's temple on the left and Durga's temple on the right

Kareri lake and its temple and small sheds

On Saturday morning we left Kareri lake after a cold and stormy night and we came back down to Dal Lake, arriving at 5h30 pm. 52 kilometers in two days, walking durng 17 hours. We all slept well on Saturday night.