Trekkingday 3: Chogdo – The Horses climb a Mountain

29. June 2026

 

 

At night, the horses are either left to graze freely or they are picketed. When they graze freely, you have to get up very early to round them up again. Chamba had gotten up at 4:00 AM, had a tea, and set off – and by 7:00 AM, he still wasn’t back. That is quite a long time. Hopefully, we packed everything up anyway, and I slowly started making my way. Sidhar set off to look for Chamba.

 

 

We had camped at a place that looked like it was being used for something, but there was nothing to be seen. In any case, there were stone walls, barbed wire fences, and even more material for construction work.

 

 

 

In any case, the trail went up the valley, which was quite pretty. However, there were no horses and no Chamba to be seen anywhere.

 

 

At some point, I met up with Sidhar and we discussed what to do. If I kept walking a bit further and spotted the horses or Chamba, I was supposed to keep going. If not, it would be clear that it was taking too long and we should camp back in Chogdo. I walked as far as this spot, where there was a herd of dzo/cows and a nice rock where I lingered. And since I didn’t see anyone, I then turned back.

 

 

 

 

 

Back at camp, I met Chamba and Sidhar, who were waiting for me to have a quick talk. Then both of them immediately rushed off again to look for the horses. I waited. I pitched my tent by myself again, which isn’t that easy because it’s so big and I’m so small. A man passed by with other horses but didn’t look to make contact. After two hours, Sidhar arrived back. The horses had climbed up a mountain. Chamba had spotted them and was now bringing them back. We prepared dinner.

 

 

Chamba arrived with the horses around 3:00 PM – so he had been on his feet for 11 hours. He was completely drenched in sweat and very hungry. We cooked all the Maggi 2-Minute Noodles for him.

 

 

Then I went for another walk towards Chogdo, noticed that the river was completely red, and discovered a sacred tree.

 

 

 

 

 

So for me, the day was rather quiet. Because of the ‘lost day,’ we basically shortened the trek; instead of ending in Rumbak (which would have meant an extra day), we planned to descend to Matho later on.

 

As I was sitting in my tent, the full moon was just rising behind the mountain. It was beautiful. And I was amazed at how my phone camera pieced the image together.

 

 

 

In all my years, I had only experienced horses wandering too far away once before. I mean so far away that you can’t find them in time. For the next night, they were picketed.