As promised in an earlier post I’ll close my documentary of this snow leopard journey by trying to put it, at least for my own satisfaction, into some useful/helpful context. But before I do, huge apologies for the very long delay in completing this last post, the events of the last 10 or 12 days have been disheartening in the extreme and have temporarily hijacked motivation and enthusiasm.

I remind myself that almost exactly 5 years ago we were overtaken by a lifetime event, one that no one had foreseen, that took our world by surprise, one for which we had no rules…

When last heard from we were stranded in Leh after the first major snow storm of the season. I write this in Delhi after our experiences of leaving Leh, which follow.

Yesterday March 1, our departure from Leh can best be described in classic military parlance as a case of ‘hurry up and wait’.

You need to know that the two previous days’ flights arriving and departing Leh had been cancelled by the snow and the airport was in chaos. We were told that we had been re-booked on a flight leaving sometime in the afternoon so should not worry about leaving for the airport, 10 minutes away, until we were given further instructions. Three of our group were scheduled on an early flight leaving at 7:30 but we relaxed with our books in our room and waited for more information….

This is a long-overdue post but for the last 8 days we have been in the Rumbak Valley about 3 or 400 metres higher than Leh and about 90 minutes drive away, further up in the mountains and completely off-grid without access to cell coverage or internet. We returned to Leh yesterday and I write this in our hotel, snow-bound as our flight to Delhi has been cancelled by a blizzard until, with luck, tomorrow.

As I mentioned in my last post, our first two days in Leh were meant to be ‘rest’ days. The altitude protocol requires that we spend those days inactive and resting so as to acclimate to the altitude. However, we spent our first two days doing everything but resting…

This post and the ones following in the next few days have all been written retrospectively since for most of the time since our arrival we have been off-grid, with no cell or internet service.

We arrived in Delhi late in the evening of Sunday February 16 after a lucky escape from the weather in Toronto, a snowstorm that had begun in the early afternoon of February 15 and which was piling up heavy snow on roads and runways.

We have not been in Delhi for about 12 years and so had forgotten the insanity of Delhi traffic. Let me be not be judgmental…Indian drivers are a very creative lot. They add one more lane to the designated design of any road, so an eastbound stretch of road that was designed with 2 lanes magically contains 3 lanes of cars, as well as buses and motorcycles. It’s not that there is room for 3 lanes but rather that every inch of road is utilised as drivers squeeze in and out of lanes, slide by each other and tuck into any slight opening…

I write this as we get ready to leave for the airport on our way to Ladakh in the Himalayan section of northern India. Our goal is to track and photograph snow leopards, an endangered species who are only found at high altitudes in this region.   

Weather for the Toronto area is calling for significant amounts of snow overnight tonight and through Sunday and, as our flight leaves at 20:00 I worry that we may not get away before the flight interruptions begin. I’ve firmly latched on to this particular worry…

I have received a number of sharp email nudges from readers who wondered why I left everyone suspended mid-journey on my recent Patagonia trip. Not the first time I have done this I know, but in this instance returning from Argentina and right into the midst of the holiday scramble, my journal writing priorities were turned on their heads. So let me close out the trip and the year as we all launch ourselves into 2025.

When last heard from we had completed a 4 day stint in an eco-camp in La Posta de Los Toldos in the ReWilding Argentina nature reserve. After another long day’s 12 hour drive we reached our destination for our last four days on the road, Los Alerces National Park. As an aside and since I’m writing this well after the fact, when I returned to Toronto Hugh emailed us to let us know that we covered 3700 kilometres of driving on our trip…didn’t come as as even a slight surprise…

It’s been a long time since my last post, not for the want of trying however. From Lagos del Furioso onwards we have been in the mountains at eco lodges where wifi has been sporadic at best and laundry non-existent. I’m writing this in haste in a cafe in a little town on the way to the airport for our flight to Buenos Aires, wifi still not the best so hope this post is in reasonable shape when I upload it.

Rather than a blow-by-blow description of the last 10 days I’ll pick a couple of highlights and let the images speak for themselves…

Sunday, November 24 - Long day’s drive today, longest of our trip, approximately 800k’s. Left Islas Leones at about 7:30 and arrived in Lagos del Furiosas at about 19:30, straight run of 12 hours with brief pit stops for gas and bio breaks, snacking in the car as we drove. A mix of tarmac and dirt highways, so on balance we made very good time, original ETA was between 20:00 and 20:30.

Fascinating changes of landscape as we drove from the Atlantic coast to the foot of the Andes, flat coastal plains turning into rolling hills, back to a flat dry plateau and then into hilly country leading up to the mountains. Only characteristic shared by all terrains was dry, low shrubby ground cover…