Leh continues to grow on me. The longer I stay here, the more I appreciate its charms. This morning I climbed again to the rocky knoll that forms the attachment point for the prayer flags from the monastery (the red building). I'd beaten the crowds and was rewarded with the sight of a pair of chukar making their way along the ridge in the early morning sun. Shortly after, a kestrel circled overhead, the sunlight through its wings and tail making it seem as if the bird had been illuminated by its own intensity.
I made my way back down the gritty track, though cool shade and burning sunlight, towards the old city where the smell of bread baking in tandoor ovens hundreds of years old drifted up the mountainside, with the dust of Ladakh on my shoes and the memory of birds in my heart.
(I leave tomorrow for several days in the Rumbak Valley-Namlang La-Stok area on the edge of Hemis National Park. Nothing more from me until I'm back in Leh.)
All content © 2014 Pete McGregor
Oooh.
ReplyDeleteHave fun in the Rumbak Valley.
Kia ora Pete,
ReplyDeleteSafe travels e hoa...
Robb
So beautiful. I thought the flags, too, seemed illuminated by centuries of prayer. I'm so much enjoying your pictures and blog posts, Pete. And even though it's so cold here, I can feel the heat :-)
ReplyDeleteEC, Robb, Lisa -- thank you. Got back this afternoon, hot and dusty and full of memories. Will get something posted soon.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful, the contrast in colours bright and soft, the wind in the flags and the wind in the clouds. And all filtered by that mountain air.
ReplyDeleteVJ, Leh's marvellous -- a very different feel from the other places I've been in India (not that they haven't been marvellous too, but this is somehow more familiar yet just as strange. I love it.
ReplyDelete