Persistence Pays! Sure it may sound like a
cliché, but if there was any proof that the saying holds true, it was fulfilled
this year, 2016.
On our the first visit to Ladakh in 2013, while
trekking the Markha Valley, our guide, Namgyal had shown us videos on his phone of
the fabled Snow Leopard.
Julie and I had looked around hopefully, as we walked
the shady valleys of Rumbak and Yurutse, but to no avail. We were only passing
through anyway. We did see some old scratchings and scats in the valley but
that was all. Even those small signs were enough to raise our interest in
returning, but it was obvious that to have a chance of sighting this legendary
“Grey Ghost” of the mountains, a dedicated trip would be needed.
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| Nun/Kun from the flight to Leh |
After my Kun trip of 2015, it was hard to
believe that here I was again, flying the spectacular flight over the snow
peaks from new Delhi to Leh. Nun and Kun loomed
in the distance, and Kang Yatze was literally under the wings of the jet liner…
I was now among familiar summits!
Ladakh was
no longer a mystery!
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| Flight to Leh over Himalayas |
We spent a few days for acclimatisation
days in Leh, getting used to the high 3500m altitude.
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| Main Bazaar, Leh |
During that time we paid
a visit to the very humble headquarters of the Snow Leopard Conservancy. It
contained a souvenir shop, and a small
museum with an assortment of wildlife exhibits and other paraphernalia for wild
life spotting. And also a rather sad little stuffed snow leopard, which we were
assured was a fake (it didn’t look very real anyway).
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| Inside the Snow Leopard Conservancy |
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| Inside the Snow Leopard Conservancy (the stuffed leopard is not real!! ) |
But the young girl who showed us around was
very polite and helpful, and it was
clear that there was passionate support to save this rare mountain animal from
extinction. We bought a little hand made leopard toy as a mascot. We knew we would
need all the luck we could get!
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| Our lucky mascot, Rumbak |
A
day later, it was a pleasure to meet our guide Namgyal again. He was to lead us
into Hemis National Park, to Rumbak again where the leopard ranged. Hemis was created to preserve the habitat of the Snow Leopard, and there has been a lot of work to educate local people in co-existing with the animal. We saw enclosures to protect villager's livestock, and heard of an insurance scheme, where a person who loses stock to a leopard will get compensation for the loss of their animal, rather than seek revenge to kill the leopard as once was common practice.
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| Our camp at Rumbak, altitude 3700m |
Our small group consisting Namgyal, Tsiring,
nicknamed “The Ibex”, and Gyalpo our cook, plus a pony man, ventured up the
valley from Zingchen to Rumbak where our base camp would be located.
Another small group were there, some bird
watchers on an organized tour from the UK. They too hoped to see the
leopard.
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| Wildlife spotters at the observation site, Rumbak |
In September, I knew our chances were
slim. The leopard is normally best seen in March, in the dead of Ladakh’s bitter
winter.
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| Rumbak valley looking towards Yurutse. Note the leopard proof enclosure for the villager's livestock. |
But that time did not work for me for a vacation, so I guessed this
time was a possibility, with mild weather that was cooling towards winter. Perhaps
the cat would want to come down to the warmer valleys?
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| Namgyal and Chris looking for clues... (photo courtesy of Julie Small) |
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| Namgyal and his prized spotting scope |
So after setting up camp, the daily routine was
thus... get up early, scan the rocky mountainsides for a few hours, then have a
bit of a scout around in the middle of the day for other wildlife, return to the field above camp
for more scanning , then have dinner. We did see quite a range of other animals including a very cute Mountain Weasel, Tibetan Red Fox and a Pika or two.
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| Mountain Weasel |
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We even met "Yak Tashi", a
friendly yak who frequents the Rumbak Valley. He apparently loves people
and will let you ride him (we didn't try!!)
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| Yak Tashi, Ladakh's friendiest yak! |
Each evening was usually clear and star studded so we
could use the spotting scopes to also look at the heavens!
The blue sheep were a promising sign. Maybe not
so good for the sheep…as they are the primary diet of…you guessed it…the Snow Leopard!
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| Blue Sheep |
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| Blue Sheep |
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| Rumbak woman roasting barley for making Tsampa |
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| Locals of Rumbak |
On Day 4 we paid a visit to Rumbak village and met with locals. We saw barley being roasted in preparation for making Tsampa, a staple food of the Ladakhis. Julie & I spun a prayer wheel in the local village for good luck.
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| Julie spins the prayer wheel at Rumbak for good luck |
Later, in the
afternoon, I decided to try going up a nearby hill adorned with prayer flags, to
do some observing from up high. It was about 300m above the camp. On the way up
I found a very nice quartz crystal. Another omen maybe?
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| The view of the spotters from my hill just before I had to come down. Yes, I ran down this hill! |
And there I was looking down
on the camp way below. I could see the group with their telescopes looking about as usual. Julie
was sitting on the ground, scanning with her binoculars. Then all of a sudden
she ran towards the group with the scopes. They were all trained
on a ridgeline about 1km away! I knew immediately only one thing would cause such a commotion! And here I was 300m up a steep hill! Namgyal was frantically waving for me to come down! Easier said than done!
I found a direct way down the ridge but had
to take a lot of care. A fall here would not end well. Halfway down I heard a voice. What the…?
I turned around and to my surprise, there was Tsiring, who had been sent by
Namgyal to get me.
“The Ibex” indeed!
He gave me some help as we rushed headlong
down the 60 degree slope, raced over the small river then up the slope to the
location of the spotting scopes.
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| Snow Leopard looking right (taken through spotting scope) |
My whole body felt like a giant lung! At
3700m running hard on slopes is not
something I recommend.
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| Snow Leopard (taken through spotting scope) |
But I made it in time to look through the spotting scope and see
the Snow Leopard, as it climbed the rocks , its large tail swaying, walking with
a confident swagger only the top predator would have.
It then did some territorial scratching on the ground, just like the marks we had seen in Husing.
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| Snow Leopard (taken through spotting scope) |
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| The Snow Leopard climbs up the rock (taken through spotting scope) |
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| Snow Leopard making scratchings (taken through spotting scope) |
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| Snow Leopard (taken through spotting scope) |
I gasped, almost not believing
what I could see! It climbed the rocks
and then made it’s way across the ridge. I began to take pictures with my
camera but I was aiming at the wrong ridge!
At this point I do wish to apologise for the quality of the photos! They were taken with what ever would fit down the eyepiece of the spotting scope , be it an iPhone or whatever else! Then my long 200mm telephoto lens was not long enough to create National Geographic style images of the leopard. But I'm happy that we have a record of seeing this rare, magnificent animal, in it's own habitat. Considering there are many books like Peter Mathiesson's "The Snow Leopard" , with tales of the lengths people have gone to, to see this "Grey Ghost" , I feel incredibly lucky to have seen one within only 4 days of arriving at Rumbak.
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| Snow Leopard walking to right, between red bushes, centre left (taken through telephoto lens) |
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| Snow Leopard climbing over ridge (taken through telephoto lens) |
Namgyal took my camera and snapped away
getting what pictures he could. as I watched on. It was pandemonium amongst our group of wildlife spotters.
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| Snow Leopard climbing over ridge (taken through telephoto lens) |
The cat then disappeared over the ridge,
and we all began running as fast as we could up the valley towards Yurutse. Not
so easy up a goat track and crossing a rocky river while carrying a telescope, but at this point no one
cared much. The chase was on! Julie momentarily saw the cat silhouetted on the ridge
line for a moment, but then it went behind it again and was gone. This was the only time we would see it, even though we kept looking for 4 more days afterwards.
But what an afternoon!
Perhaps it was the prayer wheel we spun on a
visit to Rumbak village at lunchtime...
Or perhaps my discovery of the crystal? What ever the reason for our good fortune, it
was hard to believe what had happened. Some people who came here have never seen it, and then returned
year after year…hoping to see the legend that is the snow leopard. Even a man
we met in Delhi said with great conviction “Oh you won’t see one in September!”
But indeed we did see one, after travelling
halfway around the world, and taking a massive gamble at the "wrong" time of year, just with the faint hope of getting a glimpse of one of the world’s
most endangered, elusive, secretive and beautiful creatures.
In this case, persistence
really had paid off!
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