December 11th 2006

As their had been cloud over the Lawari Pass our flight to Chitral was postponed by a day and so we took a trip up the Khyber Pass.  The journey took us along the Jamrud road to Jamrud Fort and the gateway to the Khyber Pass.  Foreigners are required to obtain passes and have an armed escort for the journey.  The road winds its way through the hills passing picket posts and small forts before reaching Landi Kotal, a bustling town a short way before the Michni Check post which is as far as we were allowed to go.  We could see the border down in the valley.  It was a clear day and we could see the snow capped mountains of Afghanistan. 

 

December 12th 2006

Off to the airport early for our flight in a Hercules C130 aircraft to Chitral.  The aircraft owned by the Pakistan Air Force was the type used for parachute  jumps and delivering supplies by air.  We sat in webbing seats in four parallel rows down the length of the aircraft.  Snack boxes were passed down hand to hand together with plastic cups and large bottles of drinks - it was self service.  It was very noisy and you could just stand up but it was impossible to walk about as we were very cosy sitting knee to knee!  We landed in Chitral after 45 minutes to a snowy landscape.  There had been eight inches of snow earlier in the week.  After lunch at the Mountain Inn we set off for our first attempt to see a snow leopard in Chitral Gol National Park.  We walked along the river side and saw a cave where there had been previous sittings of a snow leopard but all we saw was the wild Markhor goats.  It was very cold.  There was no sign of a snow leopard. 

 

 

December 13th 2006

In the morning we drove in the jeeps high up on the valley side to a communication tower and walked in the snow and ice along a path.  Two of our party had decided to walk up this valley to spend the night with some scientists and a film crew hoping to see a snow leopard.  After lunch we went back to Chitral Gol to try once more to see the snow leopard.  As we arrived the BBC film crew were waving at us to come up to the view point.  Why?  As we approached we heard someone say 'she' and we knew they were talking about the snow leopard.  It was difficult to be able to see her as she was so well camouflaged.  She walked about the hillside about two hundred yards or so away, sitting and looking at times.  After watching her for two cold hours she made a chase for a Markhor goat and went over a ridge and out of site.  She had made a kill!  We were all so very exited at seeing her but sad at the thought that two of our group were down in another valley and had missed her.  May be they had seen another snow leopard?

 

Snow Leopard Photos

December 14th 2006

Our two overnighters rejoined the group at lunch time after we had walked down to the Fort and been shopping.  The main group then made there way to Ayun a little further down the Chitral valley while I joined the two overnighters on another visit to Chital Gol.  With some difficulty we climbed up onto a ridge so that we could look down into where the snow leopard had made the kill.  We could see the carcass and several Golden Eagles but no leopard.  Then it was time to travel to Ayun where we stayed at Ayun Fort, the home of the Prince of Ayun.

Snow Leopard kill photos.

December 15th to 19th 2006

These days were spent in Rumbor valley with the Kalash people. 

There were times when we were not involved in the festival and we spent time walking in the valley, visiting homes and photographing the Kalash.

Non Chamos Festival photographs.

Chamos Festival photographs.

 

The Kalash Festival of Chamos

December 15th 2006

We left Ayun at eight o'clock and drove up the valley to the village of Balanguru arriving at ten o'clock.  The ladies in the group then had to wash one another (the Kalash ladies were washing in the river when we arrived) and then to put on Kalash clothes.  During the morning the men of the village made walnut chapattis in Jastakhan temple.  At the temple the ladies had water poured over their hands and given six of the chapattis.  They then stood around the fire where they had blazing juniper twigs passed over their heads and were required to eat some of the walnut chapattis.  They were then cleansed.  During the rest of the day and evening their was dancing in this village.

December 16th 2006

Now it was the men's turn.  At breakfast time the men showered and then the men of the village gathered and waited for men from the other villages to arrive.  While we waited their was dancing of course.  The men walked up the valley to Sagigor Temple, located in a coppice of holly oaks, walnut and other trees, where only men are allowed.  The path was narrow and very icy in places.  At the altar a fire was burning.  The 'butcher of Rumbur' then started to slaughter the 45 goats as a sacrifice to the God Mahandeo.  Throats cut the head was placed around the fire and the tip of each ear thrown on the fire. Some of the blood was then thrown on the fire and on the altar.

Then it was back down the valley with a member of each family carrying a goat back to their home.  When the men reached back down to the village the men made a long line and walked three times round the women.  The young children were then given new clothes in the Jastakhan temple and their were large bowls of grapes and fruit.  Everyone then had Shuman placed around their necks.  These Shuman were really colourful woollen belts made during the year by plaiting or weaving. 

After lunch the men of each family went to the family cattle shed on the hill side.  We joined the men going to Saifullah Jan's shed for the ceremony of Istngas.  Another goat was sacrificed and the blood thrown onto each man and boys face with blazing Juniper twigs passed over our heads.  We were now purified.  Back down in the village their was more dancing.

December 17th 2006

This morning we again walked up the valley to Sagigor Temple.  So that the God would know how many Kalash people were in the valley a willow stick for every male was thrown onto the altar and a representative of each family placed a piece of a walnut chapatti on the fire and on the altar for each member of the family.

In the afternoon some of us visited a family in Grum before the celebration bonfire in the evening.  Other villages arrived with blazing Juniper torches which were thrown on the fire and the dancing began only to finish in the early hours of the next day.

December 18th 2006

Mainly a rest day after the night before.  Jonny went up to his house high up on the hillside and I walked up the valley with him before walking with a few of the group back up the valley to see the mountains and villages in their snowy beauty.  In the afternoon I went up to Grum to deliver some photos I had taken on a previous visit.

 

December 19th 2006

In the morning some of the men dressed as women and some of the women as men, both with their faces covered.  The couples danced in the middle of a ring of dancers and another man from outside would attempt to steal a 'women' where upon the 'man' would give chase to recover 'his' partner.  We followed the group up to Kalash Grum for more dancing before we made our farewells and drove back to Chitral.

 

December 20th 2006

Back in Chitral we made another visit to the fort and the town before another trip to Toshi in the Chitral National Park.

December 21st 2006

There was no flight out available for us so in the morning we visited the Chitral Scouts Officers Mess.  Some of us walked part of the way to Tushi in the afternoon and were picked up by the Jeeps along the road.  Saw many Markhor.

December 22nd 2006

All packed and ready for a flight to-day.  The problem is four of us only have stand by seats!  Five minutes before the boarding we are given our passes and we board the Hercules C130 for the flight back to Peshawar.  Because we were a day late we had to drive straight to Islamabad.

 

December 23rd 2006

We boarded our flight for Heathrow mid morning after what has been a very busy two weeks.  What a trip not only were we privileged to be among very few westerners to have ever seen the Kalash Chamos in the Rumbur valley but we were among the few people in the world to have seen and photographed a snow leopard in the wild.