India (October-November 2019): Trek from Thembang to Jang via Tse La (3/3)

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Reminder: The itinerary of this trek is drawn in green in both the map and the aerial image above. To see the aerial image in more detail click here to download the trek-ap.kmz file and open this file in Google Earth. The trek starts in Pangma, a hamlet located 5km north of Thembang and ends in Jang (red pins). The yellow pins (marked #1 to #8) point to the locations of the 8 successive camps of this trek. The other pins indicate the positions of various towns, villages, passes, and peaks.

 

It started raining during the night at Camp #6. In the morning of the 7th trekking day the temperature cooled down a bit and the rain turned into wet snow.

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The yaks were stoical under the snow.

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View over the Gorjo river from the steep slope toward Chera La above Camp #6.

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Stone hut just below the pass.

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Prayer flags at Chera La (elevation: ~4000m).

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Snow-covered rhododendron on the other side of the pass.

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Bodong and Tsering Wangchu during the descent from the pass into the gorge of the Dungma river.

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View across the gorge of the Dungma river.

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Dawa Sonam and his yaks during the descent.

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Magnificent forest further down during the descent into the gorge of the Dungma river..

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We established Camp #7 (elevation: 3440m) near a bridge across the Dungma river, about 1km east of the Mago village. These are views from the camp on the next morning.

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Dawa Sonam left us at this camp and returned to Thembang with his yaks, perhaps because he was out of his territory. Bodong hired a porter from Mago to help us carry a reduced load during the last two days of trek.

 

In the village of Mago, with our new porter in the photo. Mago is a brokpa village, with a large Indian military presence.

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Typical stone house in Mago.

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Other houses in Mago.

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Upper part of the Mago village

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In Mago the Dungma river merges with the Goshu river to form the Mago river (also called the Tawang river on some maps) that we will follow down to Jang. The deep and narrow gorge of the Mago river offers some of the most stunning sceneries of the entire trek between Thembang and Jang. Unfortunately, a road has already been built in the lower part of the gorge, and preliminary work to extend this road up to Mago was starting at the time of my trek. Once the road is complete, the gorge will have lost a lot of its appeal.

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Morning view from Camp #8 (elevation: 2670m), the last of this trek, which we set near a settlement along the Mago river, approximatively at the end of the road coming from Jang. image082

 

Natural beehive in a cliff.

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Woman with traditional Monga dress and hair style in a village along the road.

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The Mago river further down.

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Traditionally dressed women from a neighboring village doing some shopping in the town of Jang. Note their beautiful hand-woven bags and the way they carry them.

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The spectacular 100m-high Nuranang waterfall located below the town of Jang.

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View (toward the northeast) of the gorge of the Mago river, from the road between Jang and Dirang.

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Lobsang had come to Jang with his Mahindra jeep to drive me to Tawang. Our common friend Sonam Dawa (from Ladakh) was with him; he had come all the way from Leh to do the second trek with us (Lobsang and me). Our joint trek started on the next morning.

 

To directly access the two other pages covering this trek, click on the following links:

- Thembang-to-Jang trek via Tse La (1/3)

- Thembang-to-Jang trek via Tse La (2/3)

 

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Return to my mountaineering/trekking/travel webpage | Return to main India Oct-Nov 2019 webpage