Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Upon reaching the very popular tourist stop beside Karakul Lake – just off the Chinese section of the Karakoram Highway, between Tashkurgan and Kashgar – I understood the purpose of the horse and rider pictured in this series’ previous post.
For the moment at least, they were engaged in the tourism trade, rather than herding.
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Obviously, the pictured horse is not a “Merc”, I am sure that Mercedes is not its name, and there is no reason to believe that the rider’s other horse is a Porsche.
Still, I was greatly surprised to see a 3-star-branded steed.
When I took this photo we were only a few kilometres from Karakul Lake, in China’s northwestern corner, where several international borders are very much closer than is Beijing.
At 1.21 pm on 24 May 2024, I thought we were looking at one of a group of several nomadic/quasi-nomadic herders, and their horses.
However, I was puzzled by the apparent absence of sheep, goats or cattle…
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On 24 May 2024 we travelled from Tashkurgan (China’s westernmost substantial town) to Kashgar, aka “Kashi”.
For many centuries Kashgar – the third of our “expedition”’s three Ks – was a major hub on “The Silk Road”.
In the direction we drove, our route was the Karakoram Highway’s final 291 kilometres.
The Chinese section’s landscapes are generally less “vertiginous, on both sides” than are those along the Highway’s actually-Karakoram, Pakistan section.
From Tashkurgan through to Kashgar, vistas tend to be much wider, more likely to be rimmed by mountains rather than absolutely dominated by them.
Big mountains and glaciers are still abundant.
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I loved the little moment which the image captures.
Had I been in front of the mother and daughter – and thereby made my presence intrusive – the moment simply would not have happened…at that moment, at least.
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This post’s Tibetan Plateau location is higher and wilder than was true of #8 in this series.
The Chang Tang – also rendered into English as “Changtang” – is a very harsh environment, mostly grasslands at more than 4,000 metres above sea level, punctuated by mountains.
Much of it is protected in one of the world’s largest national parks, but climate change’s impact – here, mostly negative – is proving particularly extreme, rapid.
Goa – or Tibetan Gazelle – live here in still-considerable, but declining numbers.
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Dead yaks reputedly provide rather more than half of the food eaten by Gyps himalayensis, but many members of Homo sapiens have also been devoured.
“Live” humans, fear not!
These very large raptors are scavengers, not hunters.
For countless human generations – via so-called “Tibetan Sky Burials”, in which religious rites are meticulously conducted, but the recently-deceased are not buried – Himalayan Griffon Vultures have done high-altitude humans a valuable service.
Comments closedMeet Mustela altai.
Asia’s Mountain Weasel, or Altai Weasel is an absolute carnivore whose preferred habitat is 3,500 metres+ above sea level.
On October 12, 2019 my beloved and I had an uncommonly close encounter with one, on his or her “moving day”.
This occurred in a very pleasant valley, just off and below the Tibetan Plateau proper, but – at circa 3, 800 metres – still within this species’ allegedly-preferred altitude range.
One CommentThe featured bird is very tiny, very hardy.
“His” valley’s sparsely vegetated floor – the “low ground”, locally – all sits within 200 metres either side of 4000 metres above sea level.
If transplanted to the Tibetan Plateau, New Zealand’s highest peak would fail to reach this valley’s lowest point.
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…what does he/it look like?
The featured image offers a Tibetan Plateau answer.
In the White House – depending on one’s particular perspective – the result is “entirely different”, or, in essence, “much the same”…
3 CommentsMeet Ochotona gloveri – Glover’s pika.
This mostly-solitary herbivore is a high altitude specialist, to whom temperatures north of 26 Celsius could prove fatal.
Glover’s pikas live on and near to the Tibetan Plateau, mostly on/in steep rockfaces.
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