Part 83 - 22–23 June: Camp on Gyara Phu Chu and march to Gyara (Nepar)

1 page

SUMMARY:
Travel notes record heavy rain, difficult marching, and a camp on the Gyara Phu Chu, followed by a fine day reaching Gyara (Nepar). Common Primula species were noted, Lerwa with young were observed, and there is disappointment at few notable finds, with hopes to visit passes east of Lilung; transport delays prevent moving on to Pamse.

CONTENT:
Langong Trip has not been a great success (S. 647)

Last night and rain most of today with a few fine intervals. I have not been out much here yet, as we were late in, due to meeting a string of mules on a bad part of the path. The mules had come from Lhasa to summer in Langong for the grazing. I think this side of the Langong Chu must be a little drier than the south, though it does not appear to be much. Here P. hopeana, P. dryadifolia, P. macrophylla are very common, but we have seen nothing of interest.

To
22nd June. Camp on GYARA PHU CHU. 6 miles. BP. 191.1 T. 55° T. 3.0pm. Ht approx. 11832'.
Heavy rain last night, and very heavy all day today from 8.0am till 2.0pm. Then fine but cloudy. Our intention was to camp above the fir forest, but Chulla distinguished himself and came on another 4 miles. It did not matter as it happened, because we found no flowers to delay us high up. We saw Lerwa at 15,000 - 4 adult birds with a clutch of young. The adults all kept together looking after the young as if it were a joint family. On the N. of the pass P. kansuensis was very common, and some P. hopeana and dryadifolia. The forest was too dense on the way down for us to see much, and we could not see up any side valleys. The rain was really awful for two hours and soaked us through. This is a big river at the moment, and I suppose comes in from the Pacha Peaks. It is sad to think that the longest day is past, and I don't feel that I have got very much yet. It has been disappointing so far, but I hope for better finds further East, if only we can get where we want to go. There are three Passes East of Lilung, the Magu, Shoka and Namdo Las, each of which I hope to visit, but I feel that we will be lucky indeed if that all comes off. Ludlow and Sherriff will also I expect have found that this is not such a good area as that we visited in 1936. Or it may only be that everything in East Tsari is considerably later, due to more snow. Today was very cold indeed, and I don't remember any days as cold as this in Tsari.

To
23rd June. GYARA (Nepar). 4 miles. A really fine day at last, with a shower or two, but hot real sun in between. We have dried all our bedding and everything. I hoped to get on to Pamse, but transport changes here and at Pamse as well. There are no horses here, all are up the valley and won't be down till the evening. So here we must remain.