Himalayan rain

Rain

We woke to rain: the steady dripping of water on the tin roof outside, water flowing down the earthen footpaths, and the hills on the other side of the valley shrouded in cloud. Some time in the early hours of the morning, the fireworks of the Dusshera festival had given way to the thunder and torrential rain of autumn. It may be outside the monsoon season, but these high valleys can still capture the huge downpours as the thick clouds of the Northern plains climb up the steep slopes of the Western Himalayas.

Our first two days in Manali had been dry and clear, giving us wonderful views of the valley and the mountains beyond, complete with a fresh covering of snow on the higher peaks.

 

The dangerous beers of Manali

After our long bus journey, and revived by a welcome breakfast, shower and late morning doze, we had taken a stroll up above the town through climbing orchards abundant with apples, up and up to the thick forests beyond. It was a steep climb, and we took it gently as we gradually adjusted to the thinner air. Eventually we came to a clearing and a fork in the path – one way seeming to go back down to the river above Manali, and the other carrying on up into the forest. We were about to take the higher path when we heard someone behind us frantically calling us and gesticulating to us not to go that way: ‘no, no, you must not go there, there are beers. I have seen beer shit. They like the apples and they are very dangerous.’ Eventually when he started talking about the ‘brown beers’ and ‘black beers’ we clicked that he may be referring to the furry, four-footed creatures that live in these mountains. So, reluctantly we took his advice and, after a short rest, made our way back down the way we’d come. On our way down we did, indeed, see evidence of the bears, remnants of their apple feast clearly visible in their deposits on the path.

 

The next day, too, was spent relaxing at the Aadisha retreat house, enjoying the peace and quiet of the place, sitting half-way up the hillside overlooking Manali. We did take a stroll into the town and round the little ‘wildlife’ park, but didn’t encounter any mammalian wildlife other than a few cows, some stray dogs, and a monkey. We did however spot a yellow-billed, long-tailed magpie and some dippers by the river. And a variety of Himalayan pheasants in rather sad-looking cages.

 

Encounters with a stove

Our plan for today had been to retrace our footsteps of the first day and go further up (defying the bears) into the forests. But those plans were scuppered by the steady, persistent rain. We resolved to spend the day quietly instead: reading, knitting, and relaxing. Half way through the morning, we were all starting to feel quite chilly, sitting in the large main room at Aadisha. So we decided to light a fire in the wonderful iron stove. We found some kindling, wood and matches and confidently lit the fire. Gradually the room filled with smoke. Smoke was billowing out of every gap in the furnace and metal chimney. Fortunately it wasn’t long before the housemaid arrived and showed us how to separate the stove from the flue, whereupon we were able to extract the solid Mynah’s nest that had filled the whole of the long metal pipe. The fire started to draw and soon was generating a wonderful heat to counteract the cold draughts we had needed to blow away all the accumulated smoke from the room.

 

What may or may not come to pass

Unfortunately, the clouds that had brought us Himalayan rain, higher up had brought further falls of snow, including a thick covering blocking the road at Rohtang Pass. Laji had planned for six of us (Lois and me, Laji and Sheila, and two other friends of theirs) to be picked up at 6 the following morning, to drive up to the Pass (3,978m) and on down the other side for breakfast at the little village of Chattra, before continuing up to the Kunzum Pass (4,551m) and so to the Spiti Valley.

With the Rohtang Pass closed, we have had to change our itinerary. Currently Laji’s plan is to take the longer Southern Road through Kinnaur and the Rupa Valley and so approach the Spiti Valley from the East by Tibet. Whether that will come to pass we wait and see.

Still, even Himalayan clouds may have their silver lining, as we won’t be heading off at 6am tomorrow.

 

 

Night bus to Manali

Indira Gandhi International Airport

I flew in from Birmingham to Terminal 3; Lois, having spent a week with her daughter and family in South India, to Terminal 1. Miraculously, both our flights arrived on time and we managed to meet up – without the benefit of mobile communication as, being a Sunday, I couldn’t get an activated local SIM card – at 3pm as scheduled, outside the arrivals’ hall of Terminal 1C. A taxi ride across Delhi brought us both to Mandi House and the bus terminus for the Himachal Pradesh express.

The restaurant served meals from 12-3 and 8-10pm, which wasn’t particularly helpful as our bus left at 6.30, but they did manage to provide us with a coffee and later an omelette sandwich while we waited.

 

The night bus

The bus was comfortable enough with reclining seats and enough leg room, though the back of the seat had a ridge in the wrong place for a 6’2” person, sitting just below my shoulders, and the helpful leg rest had a nasty habit of suddenly breaking free of its catch to swing up and catch me unawares at the back of my calves. Still, we were together, and we were on our way.

As we crawled northwards through the Delhi traffic, I delved into my George Eliot novel, trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to ward off sleep for now. The juxtaposition of early 19th century rural England with 21st century New Delhi was somewhat incongruous. Though, perhaps not too outrageously so, as Eliot’s descriptions of her characters’ corrupt and intimidating electioneering tactics wasn’t too far removed from some of the events I have previously seen reported in Indian newspapers in the run up to their elections.

As I nodded off and Lois helpfully rescued my Kindle from my knees, we gradually broke free of the congestion of Delhi to the somewhat freer-flowing highway north. Two hours in and we stopped at the ‘70 mile’ Dhaba for a toilet break and a delicious and sustaining Masala Dosa, before settling once more into our seats and surrendering to a fitful, jolting sleep.

Sometime after midnight we started climbing out of the plains and I sat up for a while, watching the lights of the towns below us recede to be replaced by those of scattered dwellings in the villages above. One has to marvel at the courage and tenacity of these Indian bus drivers as they career along the roads, dodging (or not) potholes, wandering cows, slower trucks, motorbikes and tuk tuks, and the blazing full-beam headlights of the oncoming traffic. They bring a new meaning to the concept of the double-blind experiment as one would, honking loudly, swerve to overtake a heavily-laden truck, overtaking another heavily-laden truck as all three veer round a hidden bend in the road. Perhaps it was just as well to re-cover my eyes with my eye shield and trust that ‘all shall be well’ as I gently dozed off again.

By two thirty we were bumping and winding too furiously to sleep as we started to climb higher into the mountains. I sat there listening to the cacophony of snores filling the coach, the part-empty water bottles rolling backwards and forwards across the floor with each new hairpin bend, and the frequent honking of a horn as we overtook, were overtaken, or met something coming the other way in a narrow stretch of the road. I must, though, have dozed a little more, as the next thing I knew it was starting to get light and the dark shadows around our coach gradually emerged into a deep, wooded valley, our coach traversing a precarious rock-hewn highway, with a wide and eventually cobalt-blue river far below us. The remnants of landslides and fallen rocks, the ongoing patches of road maintenance and the road works for a new, faster highway all added to the interest of the journey, and our driver deftly negotiated them all. The towns and villages sprawling along the length of the road were gradually coming to life, with several Dhabas open for business, numerous processions of young men carrying local deities down from the mountains for their annual re-consecration, a large flock of goats and sheep being herded by their shepherds, with pack-ponies carrying their goods and some of the younger baby kids. On the other side of the valley isolated dwellings, terraced fields, and the occasional monastery or temple stretched up the steep slopes, connected by defiant swing bridges or cable baskets.

 

Manali

And so, at eight-thirty we pulled into Manali’s muddy coach park near the head of the beautiful Kullu valley. The town with its packed-in jumble of buildings meandered up both sides of the valley and, high above, our first glimpses of Himalayan peaks shifting into the clouds.