I had already done the Markha Valley Trek on my previous trip to Ladakh but it is a good short trek and easy to do without camping equipment so it was the trek I decided to take Karin and Jeff on. In addition we would finish at Hemis in time to catch the Hemis monastic festival. Just so I had something new for myself we hiked into the valley via two high passes the Stok La (4800 m) and the Ganda La (4870 m) neither of which I had been over before.
Unfortunately our trek got off to a rough start, and our ambitious entry route didn’t help matters. Jeff was the first to get sick. After crossing the Stok La we descended to the small village of Rumbak. It was at this time when Jeff began to feel ill. It seemed to be a combination attack, a bacterial assault on his stomach manifesting itself in frequent loose bowels and a mild case of altitude sickness causing headaches and fatigue. I wasn’t feeling very strong myself but figured it was just not having trekked in a few weeks, but something was brewing in my stomach as well. Karin came down with the stomach illness in the morning. We decided to take a rest day in Rumbak in order to get healthy, pop the cypro (antibiotic cyprofloxin) and head over the Ganda La the following day. We all slept most of the day in our room at the home-stay in Rumbak. The next day both Karin and Jeff were feeling better enough to head over the pass. Unfortunately I was in rough shape, it was the sickest I’d been in a while. Florescent yellow fluid was squirting out of my rear end and the cypro I was taking seemed to be having little effect. But I tried to hide the extent of how lousy I was feeling and we left for the pass. I didn’t hide it very well, I had to stop for frequently to both rest and drain the florescent fluid from my bowels. Any doubt as to my state of health was gone when as we approached the pass, not having the energy to find a more discrete location to let loose, I just told Karin and Jeff to turn around and I squatted where I was. As I rose from my squat I immediately threw up. Seeing my state of misery Karin said we should go back. I vetoed the option and we made it over the Ganda La staying at a home-stay in the pleasant hamlet of Shingo. The hike from Shingo to Markha, although a relatively flat walk, was a long hike. I was feeling quite a bit better but none of us were a 100%. Fortunately we had a short day the following day from Markha to Hangkar, we were now getting to the most scenic part of the trek and the cypro was finally kicking in for all of us, after popping it like breath mints for a couple days. Jeff was always struggling with his appetite throughout the trek and I think he was getting more calories from the inert ingredients in the cypro capsules than from the little food he was eating. The following day hiked up to the high alpine grasslands of Nimaling at the base of 6400 m Kang Yatse. I had initially planed to take them on a day hike from here but having already spent a rest day due to illness and with not everyone at 100% we just stay one night at Nimaling and went over the highest pass of our trek, the 5100 m Gongmaru La, the next day arriving in the late afternoon to the road head of Shang Sumdo.
