Trekking on the Trachycarpus Trail

(page 4)

The view from our occasional resting places was incredible: snow capped mountains seen beyond mile after mile of tree tops. The higher the altitude, the thinner the atmosphere, and Wilko and I were both gasping. Our two guides, however, seemed to take it all in their stride, and I think were faintly amused at these two weak westerners, panting for breath. The sun was hot, but the air was cool and provided a welcome chilly breeze. Every so often we caught a glimpse of the summit and its temple through the thickening forest. Nearer and nearer and then suddenly there we were, at the top. More handshakes with each other and the guides.

The temple itself was an open stone cabin, and inside was a small statue of the goddess Shiva to whom it was dedicated. There were flowers, candles and incense, and, hanging from the roof beams, hundreds of brass bells, some just a couple of centimeters or so in diameter, some half a metre or more across. Our guides rang them loudly and their clear notes rang out across the surrounding valleys and echoed back from the distant hillsides, giving a scare to a troop of large silver-backed monkeys which went crashing off through the treetops. Here we really felt as though we were on the roof of the world, and close to heaven, both literally and metaphorically.

We stayed here for an hour, prepared and ate a meal, and took long drinks of water from our canteens. After all of our hard work, the water was like nectar to us, even though the purification tablets made it taste of swimming pools. As we were leaving I was distressed to see Hareesh take all my carefully collected litter, and before I could stop him, hurl it into the forest below. Oh well, food for the monkeys I suppose.

We set off down by the same path but soon broke off onto a side track, and began descending the north side of the mountain. It was noticeably cooler, and damper, as the sun doesn't shine much on this face. The vegetation also was different. It grew in thick, rich, moist humus, and generally looked more green and lush. We came across a pretty species of bamboo with many tiny leaflets giving it a fox-tail appearance.

We had been descending for only a few minutes when Hareesh spotted a tiny palm seedling growing by the side of the track. Definitely Trachycarpus. Then we saw another and another, and we left the path, more or less following their direction. They became more numerous and larger: up to about a metre and a half tall. Our excitement knew no bounds as we slipped and slithered down from one plant to another, which were getting bigger by the minute. It became apparent that they were growing in just this one narrow and steep valley, as when we strayed too far from its floor, the plants diminished both in size and number.

We just had to find the adult trees that produced the seeds from which the young plants we were looking at had grown. We could see down into the valley to an extent but much of the view was obscured by vegetation. We saw a fairly large plant on the other side of the valley, about 20 metres away, and resolved to reach it. Leaving the rucksack with Karen, we scrambled across the steep slope, hanging on to other plants, and occasionally, it must be admitted, the palms themselves, to prevent ourselves from slipping. It was quite dangerous in places; logs which seemed solidly moored slid away at a touch and went crashing down the steep face. Eventually we reached the tree, and with difficulty (simply because of the angle of the ground) posed with it for photos. The crown was covered in chestnut coloured tomentum, as mentioned in Beccari's description, written 100 years ago.

We made our way back to where Karen was anxiously waiting, and by this time I was really beginning to feel the effects of the altitude and my exhaustion, and I felt nauseous. It was bearable but I needed to rest every few minutes. By this time it was 4pm and as we had arranged to meet Amok and the jeep down at the bottom at 6pm, we had to get a move on. We saw many more small plants of Trachycarpus, but as we neared the track they became fewer and fewer, and soon we saw no more.

The descent was of course considerably easier than the ascent and in places the track was just a gentle slope. Even so it took 2 hours of quite fast work to get back to the village where Alook said he would wait. Our guides took it all in their stride; they were chatting away as though out for a Sunday stroll, leaving Wilko and I running to catch up with them from time to time.

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