Don't kill the donkey

16.07.-26.07.2010: Trekking to Zanskar-Valley

Imagine, you are lying in your tent, at 4.600m in the base camp of Sengge La. You are packed in your sleeping bag and it is darkest night. There is complete silence, nothing to hear except of the river with lots of glacial water spilling down the valley.

And you hear yourself breathing slow and steady. You are feeling good, although the altitude is something special for you. And all of a sudden your heart almost stops. It's not the altitude, which takes your breath, but short heartbreaking screams.
You sit just upwright in your tent (if the tent is high enough) and now you recognize the sound. It's the screaming of a donkey, which explodes into the silence.

Somebody must be killing a donkey just next to our tent. It couldn't be anything else, could it!
This donkey was killed about 10 times this night. But in the morning it was still alive. What made this donkey screaming like hell?

It soon was quite clear - The donkey was just terribly alone. The donkey men had fixed him right next to our tent to a pole, while his fellows were grasing in the area.

Some days later we meet the poor donkey again. This time also fixed alone on an isolated range. We think the donkey had problems with his hormons. When near female donkeys he could be very pushy and also could be screaming even louder.

Normally the donkey should have had more reason to scream at daytime. It is incredible how much baggage such a small animal has to carry and all this just to make trekking in such regions possible. There is only nature, so everything starting from tents and gas-bottles to food and cutlery has to be taken there by animals.

It's getting really funny, when big groups of 15 to 20 tourists and staff (donkey men, cook, helpers and so on) are forced over the passes. You can really talk about forcing because per person you almost need two donkeys to carry all the necessary things. We met two of these huge groups. But at the end it was really wonderful to watch those little donkeys doing their business. But also the donkeys had there own personality. So we didn't want to do the job of the donkey men. They had a lot work to do and a really long way to go.

We were five tourists and staff. At the beginning the agency told us about also having donkeys, but at the end we had 7 horses, which were a bit easier to handle. The donkeys maybe, were all booked for the big groups.
But we also managed to do the trek. Every pass was a special challenge, but when we reached the top we were rewarded with breathtaking landscapes.