In the lake edge of the eastern fret

After a rather tiring way from Nughar to Lech with the intersection of five passes through the high ridges of the Western Himalayas (see the previous article in the Trav-hunger No. 182 of June 30, 2015) By the evening of June 16, we arrived in the city of Lech-the capital of the ancient kingdom of Ladak, and now the administrative center of the District of the state of the state of the same name by Jamma and Kashmir. We stopped in a quiet green corner, in a small hotel next to the city center. The next day went to the registration of passes in the border areas and rest.

Having reached Lech, in accordance with the initial plan, the expedition was divided into three groups. One of them went to the west of Ladaka, and the other two to the east, to the great lakes on the western outskirts of Tibet. In its upper reaches, the Great Indus is a relatively small river, bystrins and rifts flowing among close gorges and canyons. In the extensions of the valley, green oases are huddled, and monasteries are picturesquely located on the rocks. Here and there the river banks are connected by shaky suspension bridges.

The route of our group was lying to the southeast, along the top of the Indus to Lake Tsomoriri. This is the lake, like other large lakes in the upper reaches of the Indus, lies outside the developed tourist routes of Ladaka - the territory, which is already inaccessible.

On the many -hour path to the goal, we made a short stop in the village of Chumathang (Chumathang, 4040 m). Here the shore of Indus is formed by the foot of a steep slope. Small geysers beat directly from the pebble shore. Their temperature is 70 ° C - it is quite enough for boiling at a given height. According to our measurements, the water temperature near the keys reached +35, at the distance of three to five meters from the shore +20, and in the river itself-only +8 ° C. On the warm shallow water, the jambs of small fish were worn, and the sore bottom was covered with a mass of small belly mollusks.

Near the village of Mahe ( Mahe ), indoes were crossed along the narrow, overgrown with Tamarisks by the gorge of the Paldong Chu River (Paldong Chu), they began to rise to the hollows of lakes Tadsang Karu and Tsomoriri [1] . On this path, a couple of grazing Kiangs ( Equus Hermonius Kiang ), Capra Ibex , and a small colony of Himalayan surkings ( Marmota Himalayana ) were met on this way. Behind the gentle passhang La pass, a view of the spacious basin of a small salty lake Tadsang Karu (Thadsang Karu) was opened. On her deserted gentle slopes, numerous herds of sheep, Jacob roamed. Here and there, the shepherds and shepherds themselves were on horseback on the horses were visible. Here we found ourselves in a special geographical area of ​​Ladak, called the Plaire Rupsu (Rupshu) and Khampa populated by the cattle breeders, a special ethnic group of nomads of Tibetan origin. Their distinctive household feature is pointed white tents, often covered with a black canopy.

Soon, an even more extensive basin of Lake Tsomoriri was visible behind a wide mountain range. In 1875, the Russian painter Vasily Vereshchagin visited here, who, as recognized as historians, was not only a famous artist, but also a military intelligence officer. In the era of the confrontation between the Russian and British empires in Central Asia, its appearance in this, which is inaccessible even in our days, was most likely not accidental. The rivalry of secret services of both empires in Western historical literature is called the Great Game - The Great (Grand) Game . Count Nesselrode, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, called this confrontation with shadow tournaments.

The British "horrors" of the Russian threat remained in the distant past. Exactly 140 years after Vasily Vereshchagin on the shores of Lake Tsomoriri, the Indian military patrol met us. Having checked the passes, polite people with automatic rifles inquired by the number of cameras, the number of navigation receivers (GPS), topographic cards, ground and satellite phones that we have. Of all this list, only the use of satellite phones is strictly prohibited by foreigners in India; We did not have them. Satisfied with the answers received and having learned that we were from Russia, the military raised the barrier: the path to the only tourist open, the village of Korzov was open.

The village-the only center of sedentary of the Khampa nomads-is located on the left-bank slope of the gorge open to the lake basin with a gentle surface of alluvial origin. Despite the fair height of the terrain (4560 m), this slope is carefully plowed and planted by farmers. Family sites are separated by stone hedges, a groove of the irrigation system is brought to each field allotment. The desert slopes of the mountains, with the exception of rocky and very steep areas, are occupied by pastures. Except for several new buildings - guesthouses - and a tent town for tourists, Korzov himself retained the original appearance, involuntarily returning the traveler in the Middle Ages. Square gray one- or two-story buildings made of raw brick with flat roofs decorated with horned skulls of Jacob (local symbol of well-being) and Tibetan flags are observed.

Houses and outbuildings are connected by narrow streets sufficient for the passage of a cow, yak or donkey. Locals and lamas in crimson robes that met along the way, amiably welcomed us with Julley's exclamation! On the side of the road, sitting at the weaving machine, an elderly woman wove a carpet. A little at a distance already finished and washed carpets were dry on hedges of poles and barbed wire.

Having examined several houses, we chose a two -story building in the Tibetan style for the overnight with the proud name Goose House . Having received such enviable guests, her mistress rose, which was unpaid and proudly walked with us along the only street in the village, not without joy catching the envious glances of her less successful neighbors - the hostesses of the Indian Crane and the Lake View.

The owners lived on the ground floor of the hotel, a kitchen and a living room with a rich set of kitchen utensils were located. The second floor is “numbers” for guests with a ceiling from poplars and talnikova vine. In the corridor there is a square hatch and a staircase for reaching a flat roof. In this part of Lada-ka, the bulk of precipitation falls in the winter in the form of snow, and there is no need for a more complex design. On the roof of the Tibetan dwelling, you can find everything you need for the everyday life of its inhabitants: a supply of firewood and “environmental” fuel, in abundance produced by yaks and other ungulates and dried in the form of “cutlets” with a diameter of 30 cm. There are cans of combustible, hay coat, a platform of satellite communication. In recent years, solar panels have become widespread.

It quickly got dark and cold. For dinner, we settled down in a cool living room. An attentive mistress kindly invited us to go to the kitchen - into a smaller but rather spacious room, where it was much warmer. Tukpa was cooked on an ancient primus (lappsho lamb stew), a kettle warmed on the stove. In the corner under the bulb sat the mistress’s mother. It was an elderly woman with a dark, tanned face, who, after a mutual greeting, led a calm, full of dignity in the conversation. A calf was warmed on her knees, her neck was decorated with a coral necklace, silver earrings glowed in her ears.

From a leisurely conversation (our driver Ali-Muhammed was a translator from Ladak), we learned that the village from October to March was covered with meteric snow, the lake will completely freeze in December, by spring the thickness of the ice reaches one and a half meters and a small fish is found in the lake. Note that Tibetan residents do not eat fish.

The vast salty lake of Tsomoriri (literally “high lake of the goddess”) lies at an altitude of 4540 m among the vast intercontal basin, surrounded by snowy rowing of the mountains, lifeless rocky scums, deserted foothills and gorges. The peaks of the mountains reach a height of 6210–6650 m. In the rays of the rising sun, the golden tops of the ridges contrasted with the reddish-brown and hoarse slopes of the mountains, reflected and transformed into ultramarin, if not a purple-black mirror of lake waters. I wonder if Vasily Vasilievich Vereshchagin managed to capture this incomparable palette in his studies?

The length of the lake is 19 km, the width is 3 km, the depth is 105 m. A lot of streams and rivers flows into the lake, with their mouths, deltas, braids and marshy areas that attract near water birds are formed. At the dawn of the new day (June 18) along the coastal line went and swimming of mountain geese ( Anser Indicus ), brown-headed seagulls ( Larus Brunnicephalus ) and Tadorna Ferruuginea flew.

About a week ago, chicks appeared in the mountain geese. The broods of yellowish-gray gun gushes are kept with parents near the coastal line of the lake, and single birds fly to feed on barley fields near the village. In the company of geese, red -circuit clubs ( Pyrhocorax pyrrhocorax ) and rocky pigeons ( Columba Rupstris ) roam on fresh green greens; From our sizari, they are distinguished by wide white bandage on the tail.

If before sunrise the air temperature dropped to –2 ° C and streams flowing into the lake, were covered with a crust of ice, then by noon the air was heated to +25 ºС, and on the soil and stones it was already 30–35 ° C. One of the tasks of our trip to Lake Tsomoriri was to detect the so -called Tibetan round -hay ( Phrynocephalus Theobaldi ) - the species described in the middle of the 19th century from this area. From here, the British traveler and commercial agent William Murroft, in 1812, was described above Kiang - an amazing animal, akin to wild donla and horses. In the basin of Lake Tsomoriri, both of these species are still prosperous.

Our further path lay north to another mountain lake Tso-Kar (TSO-KAR, 4500 m). The road to him took half a day, turned out to be quite tiring and almost deserted. She crossed the solon-shaped valley and the thermal Pug Field (Puga Thermal Feld), overgrown with the karagana pass of Polo-Kongka La, 5000 m), separating the sources of the Paldong-chu river from the water collection of Lake Tso-Kar. On the descent to his basin, the road went through sand hills hot under the sun, dry channels of watercourse, piles of boulders and rocky scum - the landscape as a whole lifeless and gloomy, but not for naturalists.

The fact that on the map was outlined and called the lake on the ground looked extremely unusual. From the hills framing the southern part of the Tsokar cavity, a plain landscape, consisting of white (salt), green (grass) and gray (lons) stripes and spots, opened our eyes. This mosaic surrounded a relatively small space of open water. Its contours were dissolved in a blinding sultry haze. Here and there the pillars of dust vortices circled. On the western side, the Tsokar basin is covered by the snowy mountain chains of the Zanskar ridge, a gentle, desert plain leaves to the north. In the afternoon, herds of sheep graze on it, and after sunset, Kiangs appear.

From the euren part of the lake hollow, it is occupied by a hilly surface, folded with loose sediments of pale gray coloring. This dusty thickness is cut by winding ravines with a depth of 10-12 m. Their bottom is occupied by wet meadows, lakes, puddles and streams flowing towards the lake. The deposits of this hilly surface are most reminiscent of a thawed “united”-alluvial-eol accumulations of the primal areas of Yakutia. Apparently, here it was not without the participation of glaciers and strong winds. Along the border of the desert foothills and the “Himalayan eater” there is an uneven strip of wet meadows, shallow reservoirs, loose remains and salt fields - an ideal habitat for near water birds. And in fact, trains ( Tringa ) kept here, flocks of mountain geese grazed and the roasts that we already knew. These species of birds are characteristic of the whole of Central Asia, such as Kyrgyzstan and Pamir. Among this "trifles" a pair of black -headed cranes ( Grus nigricollis ) roamed. This bird is a special attraction of incense, it belongs to vulnerable species.

At the sunset, we were forced to leave the place that we liked so much - in this village there was no overnight for foreign tourists. But it was not easy to start. Our car was surrounded by a crowd of curious men in various robes and with very diverse faces. Among them, a warlike type of bearded in camouflage clothes with an expressive nose stood out. For some reason, this “field commander” expressed the greatest interest in our affairs, and we were not without difficulty to leave his excessively annoying questioning.

Meanwhile, the sun was hidden behind the snowy ridges of the ridges, the nomads gathered herds of yaks, sheep and herds of horses near their tents. The road went steeply to the Tanglang La, 5300 m). Having passed it already in deep twilight, the car quickly declined by the serpentines of the northern slope of the Zanskar ridge. The stars flashed brightly in the sky. In the distant depth of the gorge, rare lights of villages shone. There we hoped to find an overnight stay.

Om Mani Padme Hum!

TRV-hobby-information partner of SPBCU on the Himalayan project.
All photos - A.V. Andreev

1. TSO-Lake Lake, la-pass.