More photos from Aru

At the height of the snowstorm

View from my bedroom window

Me by the bus that was completely covered

Up in the village - the snow behind me meant you couldn't go any further

Villagers clearing the road

Think its Bisma, Obed and Shoki in the snow (apologies for spelling)

Me with the guys who were the first people to make it to Aru from further down the valley after the snow had fallen

The old bridge over the river

Nazir on the cleared section of the road

Me with Rohilla guesthouse in the background

Iteeka, Magaban, Suzie and Mahabba

Stuck inside of Aru with Radio Kashmir again

Wednesday 14^th March

There was actually sun this morning so the villagers started to clear the road, as there was still no sign of the mythical ploughman. It was quite mesmerising watching them do this – and time just drifted by as I had no real concept of it as my watch had packed up a couple of months back and the mobile was on its last legs battery wise. The state of supplies this morning - no chocolate, no beer, 8 nice cigarette, 9 not so nice and no cold drinks. The snow started again around dinnertime – by this time the guys clearing the road were heading towards the army camp when it got just too difficult to continue – you could just see the tops of their heads as they walked back up the cleared section of road.

So it was back to lighting the fire and starting up the card school again – then a couple of guys were spotted heading along the road (not part of the road clearing crew) so we wandered down to meet them – from what I gathered it had taken them 3.5 hours to walk just over 1 kilometre so it didn’t look too hopeful for me walking out that day. Back at the house Mac said he had heard they had cleared about 6k’s from the Pahalgam but it wasn’t looking like we would see the ploughman today – so Nazir decided to ring up the local radio station in Anantnag to see if me being in the village would speed things up as we had heard that the roads were clear in Gulmarg and the snow had been heavier there. Luckily the reporter I spoke to spoke pretty good English but we did get in a bit of a pickle spelling my name and then where I came from – I just explained that I needed to get to Srinagar for Saturday for my flight but that I wasn’t the only one stuck up here – there were about 30 of us from Anantnag, Pahalgam and Srinagar all in the same boat. It was quite nerve-racking as the line wasn’t too good and I had to use an earpiece to hear what was being said to me but the guy whose name I’ve got down as MM Wani (but I’m sure it’s not correct!) said he would do what he could by contacting the magistrates and the local police.

Well I ended up making the 7.15 evening news on Radio Kashmir – they got my name completely wrong “Elena” but I wasn’t too bothered (had been tempted to say it was Janis Joplin) but they did get that I was British and just said that I along with 40 others had been cut off in Aru for three days. I thought at the time they should have been a bit more bothered about the villagers as if anyone fell sick it would have been very difficult if not impossible to get medical attention up here.

Later on we went up to the big house for dinner – I did find it a bit hard as I was sat with the women in the kitchen who were really nice but didn’t speak any English whilst Nazir and the other guys were in another room – and eating 3 pancakes whilst all eyes are on you can be a little unnerving. Cigarettes finally ran out this evening so it was case of trying out the Hubble-bubble pipe, which brought about a lot of laughs.

Then it back to the fire for more games of cards with Nazir and Rafi – no beer tonight but it does make you appreciate things more when you haven’t got everything to hand like electric, running water and central heating.

Thursday 15^th March

Gorgeous sunny day today – a brilliant blue against the whites of the mountains. The view from my bed was stunning – just pull back the curtains and I could see right down the valley – the snow was just like creamy icing sugar spread down the mountains.

Breakfast this morning was chapatti and Marmite before headed up to the village to find some beadies – I did feel a little bit famous as people were smiling at me – though I hadn’t wanted to become the most famous British tourist in Kashmir for a day that’s why I tended to say I was from Wales as a way of distancing myself from what had gone on with Bush/Blair and Iraq – Nazir said the villagers were really happy to have me staying as at least something would get done now – but it shouldn’t have been like that in my mind.

More hard going phone conversations with the police and road clearing crew then followed – both spoke limited English and we got more complications with the spelling of my name – it was quite funny as the guys around me were all shouting out the letters of my name as they couldn’t understand my accent and were spelling Clare in a real peculiar way.

Back to the big house for lunch of dhal and white radishes (which were gorg and I broke my unwritten rule of not eating stuff that wasn’t cooked) before everyone started talking about politics and the state of the road – so I came back to the guesthouse to listen to BBC World Service which I could pick up now and again and another radio station which played half an hour of Western music thought the DJ did seem to have a bit of a thing about Roxy Music.

We decided to try and leave early tomorrow as the walk would possibly be only 3 to 4 kilometres till the cleared stretch – we could have tried today but it was really difficult to walk on the uncompacted stuff and I decided that I would rather set out early so that we would be able to reach Pahalgam in daylight – though it did mean that I wouldn’t get my room with a bath, balcony and colour telly or to see the baba who was going to sort out my weird dreams in Anantnag.

Went for a wander in the afternoon down to see how far the villagers had got clearing the road – it was quite amazing as they had gone past the army camp and it just makes you think that the little snow we get at home and everything falls apart. The melted snow in the village unveiled a car as well as the bus – both had been completely buried – though as pretty as the snow was even with a dodgy pair of sunglasses it was so brilliant white that it kept setting off my migraines.

Potatoes and Onions a la Kashmiri style (used to be fav meal at home when I was at school) for dinner as all the pasta had gone followed by gorgeous custard with apples and walnuts, which was to die for. I just wished I knew more Kashmiri as it was difficult to follow the conversation – though I did gather the man from Srinagar was having issues with a lazy daughter in law. As much as I loved in Aru I did sometimes have my western cravings mostly involving dreams of chocolate cake and Chianti – but I did say I would try and come back in September so that I could go trekking to the places that I missed because of the weather.

Aru photographs

Me, Bisma, Razia and Iteeka

Iteeka, me and Bisma

Bisma - she was 3ish - Mac and Iteeka's daughter
Razia(Rozy) and Iteeka

Magaban and babe and Iteeka

Bisma, Obed and Fareem - Mac and Iteeka's children

The old bridge in the way to Pahalgam

Rohilla Guesthouse - Aru

Bit of hike down to this but in the background it's an avalanche

Nazir by the river that runs down to Pahalgam - could be the Lidder

Now I did think this quite high snow - little did I know.......

On the way to Pahalgam

Mosque in Pahalgam

And then it started to snow......

Outside the Guesthouse having fun in the snow
Nazir and Rafi

This is two days after the photo I took of Rafi and Nazir walking up the road - cars and buses are under this little lot!

Gulam , George Bush the Snowman and Nazir

Rafi, Gulam, me and GBTS.

You could deffo say it was snowing at this point!

Winter Wonderland

Monday 12^th March

Today it snowed like I had never seen it snow before – woke up and found the whole of the valley was carpeted in it – it hadn’t stopped all night and was about a foot deep when I got up for breakfast. It was a bit of a struggle to get out of bed as it was so warm – realised I hadn’t had a proper shower since Udhampur nearly two weeks ago – the bucket ones were really nice and hot though I did get really disappointed when I got down to the last jugful.

The snow that was falling was the real dangerous stuff that caused roofs to collapse – by 10 in the morning one stable had already collapsed in the village but the animlas were okay. Nazir went out to find some cigarettes as we were down to one bar of chocolate (mine), 29 cigarettes and two bottles of beer – he returned empty handed as there had a been an episode of panic buying up town.

By dinnertime the snow was two foot deep – we ended up lighting the stove in the room and I did some washing as I was heading for a knicker crisis and the stove was better than any tumble drier at drying stuff. Rafi dropped by to play cards in between having to go out and knock the snow off the trees – I’m sure both he and Nazir were cheating. Pancakes mid afternoon – I only wanted one but three turned up – I was sure someone was on a mission to fatten me up.

There was one other person stating at the hotel who shall be forever known as “the man from Srinagar” – he was a building contractor from said place and was afraid of tigers and bears. He was a little worried the first night he stayed in Aru because of wild animals that could be alledgedly found roaming about and with the sight of mountains of snow was even more of a nervous wreck now.

Gulam Rafi’s dad managed to procure some rather disgusting filterless cigarettes – apparently his source only had beadies left and he expected those to be gone tomorrow. As dusk fell I became mesmerised by the sight of this guy attached by a rope on a neighbouring roof trying to dislodge the snow that had fallen – it was so deep he was up to his waist falling about in it. By the end of the day the road was blocked, 4 roofs had caved in with the weight but Rafi did say they were very old and not well built.

It was quite eerie chilling in my room writing and listening to the snow falling off the roof with a thundering crash – outside it was as black as coal with millions of stars twinkling in the night sky.

Tuesday 13^th March

It was still snowing this morning – I’m a bit rubbish at estimating but I would have said it was between three and four foot deep outside my window. At one point it did look like it was clearing as you could finally see the tops of the mountains but that didn’t last long. It was porridge for breakfast this morning as all the toasting bread had run out and it was noticeable as each day passed the water got browner and browner for my morning shower.

Rafi came round and let me know that the man from Srinagar was currently praying for it to stop as he had never seen anything like it – he then went on to give me far too much information on the state of the tin roof that I had to tell him to stop or I would be joining the man from Srinagar in his prayers. One person in the village died in the night through old age so they would have to try and bury him today as per Muslim custom. Nazir came back from the big house where he had been listening to the news on the radio – there was two foot of snow in Srinagar, the main highway was shut again and seven people had died in Katra through cold on the Yatra which was really sad.

We were going to try and walk out to Pahalgam this morning but as time went by it wasn’t really possible and it became exceedingly unlikely that the plough would make it up here today. It was really unusual to have snow this bad in March – normally it was January/February time when they had the worst of it – but I did find that I was a bit of a Jonah on this trip when it came to the weather.

The supplies dwindled further to no chocolate, one bottle of beer, 13 nice cigarettes and 18 horrid ones but I did have the most gorgeous pasta for my tea (such a welcome change from rice!!) and took to imagining a nice bottle of Chianti and garlic bread (it’s the future!!) to go with it – sometimes back home you do take things for granted and thankfully I am blessed with a very vivid imagination.

Went off for a walk up to the village in the afternoon – it was so difficult to walk in the snow – a path had been cut but it was at least a foot off the ground so if you veered off the packed ice (something I did frequently) you just sunk so far down. It stopped just above the village shop where because the snow had all piled up the drift was well over six foot tall. Called into the big house which was full of people and had some tea with corn powder in it – I was quite so difficult to finish off that I needed a spoon.

In the evening Rafi came round and we all listened to the radio – it was the opening match of the cricket world cup for Pakistan who were playing the West Indies – luckily for me it was bilingual commentary that faded in and out – cricket on the radio in a language I don’t understand would have been hard going – and more card games – final bottle of beer was cracked open a very prized bottle of Kingfisher which Rafi had a taste of – he’d never had beer before and said it was quite horrible!!

Photos Srinager to Aru

Saffron fields near Pampore

on the roof of the jeep - Anantnag

Wasir Bagh Park - Anantnag

On the road to Pahalgam

Aru village - mosque to the the right of the picture

Taken from my bedroom window - Rohilla Guesthouse

Nazir and Rafi walking up to the village

Aru village - to the left is the village school where the children are outside having lessons

Above Aru before the snow came

The little hill in the middle is where we were heading for

Gypsy girls collecting wood

And then it started snowing

Was hard work getting up them hills!

View down the valley towards Pahalgam