When I signed up to do the Sham Valley trek, also known as ‘the baby trek’, I expected a gentle 3-day amble along a river valley; a pleasant stroll through a Ladakhi Dovedale with stepping stones and shady willows.
I organised to go with a female guide from the Ladakhi Women’s Travel Company who I hoped would hold my hand and gently encourage my confidence to return after my recent brush with bad altitude sickness.
That’s not quite how the Sham Valley trek turned out. The ‘baby’ trek’s dusty rocky paths cross 5 passes in 3 days - and Lazes, my young guide, was blunt about telling me what to do.
But her advice - examples in italics below - about hiking and home stays in Ladakh was always good, and always good humoured.
With Lazes’ help, I was able to stay with locals in their home stay accomodation which put me in the heart of people’s lives in an authentic experience that most tourist don't get.
“You are going to need long sleeves”
The sun in Ladakh burns bare tourist skin very quickly, so Lazes cleverly rigged up my scarf to cover my bare arms and I wore my hat all the time.
“You want to have a drink of water.”
We carried and drank 2 litres of water each day because the dry air and the dust parched my throat very quickly. And drinking lots of water avoids altitude sickness.
“This is a busy time with the barley harvest - it is good to help out”
September is when every family with a field devotes all their daylight hours to harvesting their precious barley crop to see them through the winter. Every one pitches in - even me, the most useless tourist, spent a couple of hours head down bum up in the fields of our home stay hosts.
Sons and brothers flood home from the army on special harvesting leave (Hint to Pakistan and China: invade North West India during the barley harvest when all the defence forces are home in the fields.)
“You want more tea”
Because that’s how I spent my time with my home stay hosts - drinking endless cups of spicy masala chai while they threw spoonsful of tsampa (roasted ground barley) into their mouths. Drinking lots of chai meant I kept hydrated and became very familiar with the home stay composting toilets (see below).
“This is the last place to go to the toilet for 3 hours.”
Always useful advice from a local guide! There aren't always many trees out in the Ladakhi countryside so I got used to the efficient local composting toilets.
These traditional toilets are a little two-story separate shed. The top level has a neat slit in the floor, a box for toilet paper, and a pile of friable dirt/dust with a small shovel. After squatting over the floor slit, chuck a shovel full of dirt down the hole on the pile building up below.
Downstairs, the pile of manure and dirt composts until it is mature enough to be spread over the barley and alfalfa fields. Maintained properly, there is no smell, no flies and a constant supply of sustainable fertiliser.
“Look at the colour of the rocks!”
I had looked at Ladakh and thought it was just brown dust - but Lazes showed me the rocks and cliffs and stream beds we walked through were purple and maroon and white and green and ochre.
The Sham Valley gives you a glimpse of real rural life in Ladakh, and set me up for the next challenging hike: the Markha Valley.
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