We passed through our first village in the remote Lunana district, called Woche. Here we stopped for a break while a small group of local children and a couple of their mothers came to greet us. They had fun looking at the odd foreigners and posing for photos. Digital photography is great for them, because they love to look at photos of themselves on the camera's LCD screen. I guess they don't see themselves in photos that often.
In Woche one of our fellow trekkers, Mort, was almost a casualty to a feral yak that came charging through our group. Luckily he managed to dive aside at the last minute. This episode, along with a number of others in the coming days, taught us even greater respect and fear for the yaks. The yak herders would often laugh at the silly foreigners hiding in the bushes as the yaks came past! The charging yak incident was also the catalyst for many jokes at Mort's expense.
Moving on from Woche we trekked through some beautiful country and got to appreciate a magnificent storm over the mountains, from a distance for a change! We crossed the Keche La (4670m) to our night's camp.
The following day we passed through another small village called Thega, being told to stick together as a few years ago some local people had kidnapped some foreigners for a ransom. Hmmm, they don't tell you that in the guides! Still, we needn't have worried as the walk through the village was incident free.
We soon reached another village, called Lhedi, the site of a school and new medical centre. Here we disrupted classes as the kids came out to greet us and the teachers had a chat with our guide.
The afternoon trek was long and arduous as we crossed a huge pile of moraine that had been swept down the valley in a flood caused by a breached lake a couple of years earlier. It was hot and tiring work climbing over the rubble and we were relieved to finally arrive in the village of Chozo, our camp for the next two nights.
I have mixed feelings about town camp sites. There is something special about a remote mountain camp and although it's nice to visit the local communities, it can be difficult to relax when everything you do is observed by the local kids (no school in Chozo). I'm also not keen on toilet tents in the middle of the village. Sometimes some privacy would be nice! ...but I guess that's something you give up when you go trekking with a group!
Anyway, the rest day in Chozo was a chance to do a little washing and explore our surroundings, including a visit to the local Dzong. Built approximately 600 years ago, it is not in the best condition, but was quite photogenic and covered in ravens!
Next up we head for our highest and final passes on the way back to civilisation. There's still some amazingly spectacular mountain scenery to come.
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