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…

As has become depressingly normal, we now begin a new travel adventure without having competed documenting the last one. When last heard from we were leaving our ship in Hokkaido and on our way to a week in Tokyo, which turned out to be the highlight of our trip. In fact, we enjoyed Tokyo so well that we are planning to go back next year. We had added it on to our boat trip around Japan in a classic ‘since we’re there we might as well..’ moment but unfortunately that was as far as our thinking took us, the boat trip captured the majority of our attention. Fortunately we had sufficient forethought to make a hotel booking but our, or at least V’s, normal research and planning for our week’s Tokyo sojourn was conspicuous by its absence. Nonetheless we had a fabulous time and unhindered as we were by any commitments, with the exception of a couple of restaurant reservations, we wandered, discovered and thoroughly enjoyed…

This will be a short note, given our schedule there really isn’t much time for more. In my next lull I’m planning to describe a day in a safari camp but this will have to suffice until then…