Last flight out of Ladakh: Chapter 3 - Day -1

Last flight out of Ladakh: Chapter 3 - Day -1

A day before 

They were doctors, dental surgeons, husband wife, the Nayaks – Arun and Ahilya. They had been long into trekking. Through high passes and treacherous crossings, through dense forests to knee deep icy lands, they had waded all of it together. Both hailing from Mumbai, their passion for the mountains had been the permeating thread in their life and both of them actively kept finding and planning more trips. They were in their tenth year of marriage when they decided to go for the Chadar trek. That’s brought them to Leh, about to join the second batch of IndiaTreks going for that trek. This was their third time in Leh, having done Markha valley and Hemis valley trek before, but first time during winter month. And that was true for most of the trekkers there. 

Arun had two passions, trekking and photography, especially wildlife photography. Having won many accolades in local and national magazines, he always had a keen untiring eye and patience to wait for hours to get the perfect shot. In his last trip in the Kaziranga, he had got some rare clicks of baby rhinos and National Geographic had paid him a hefty sum for a picture storyline. He knew he was getting quite good and lucky as well, but still liked to retain his day-job as a dental surgeon as that was something he could always bank on. He kept on thinking of taking photography more seriously but kept shrugging the idea off no sooner had it come. But this time was different. Arun had stumbled upon something that had been the stuff of legends and old mountain tales. Something that had only been talked about but never been proved. No, it was not the Himalayan snow leopard. He was after something far more elusive. He knew that this being his first trip there in winters, might not give any concrete results but he still wanted to give it a try. Even a small proof like a footprint might keep him hooked that his pursuit was not futile. After much thinking he had let in Ahilya on it as well. She had initially doubted, but knowing how passionate Arun was and how much he needed such a chase in life; kept the doubts to herself.

They had arrived three days earlier to the departure of the group, and were getting acclimatized to the heights as well as the cold. The other day they had gone on a sightseeing trip to PangongTso Lake, seeing it frozen in winters and driving an SUV on it is a thrilling experience in itself. Just layer of ice having questionable thickness separated you from the depths of hundreds of meters of icy cold blue waters. Upon returning in the evening, Arun told Ahilya that he needed to get a package, some additional equipment that was coming via flight and would be going to the airport. She was a little curious, and he had agreed to show her when he gets back.

He waited in the biting cold on the runway; the temperature was fifteen below zero degrees, and a small chartered flight was going to land. It was not the Leh airport but a private airstrip a little bit out of the city. In precisely three minutes it made a touchdown, took a much shorter time to slow down but the engines kept running. The plane hadn’t come to an absolute halt when the door opened and a man, tall dark and bald peeped out. He shouted over the sound of plane’s engines whirring, “Dr. Arun I have a package for you from the Chief”. Arun replied, “Yes, I am Dr. Arun, I will take the package from you”. The man tossed out an orange colored bag, it was quite heavy around ten kilos felt Arun as he caught it. The man made a small salute sign and closed the door, the engines gathered noise and the planet started moving. In another five minutes it was back in the sky. The time was quarter past six o’ clock in the evening.

Arun was sitting in his room with the orange colored bag, thinking how to tell his wife while he waited for her to return from bathroom. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Arun got startled for a bit but then got back into his usual calm, “no one knows, not yet”, he told himself and answered the door. A middle aged man, well-built stood there. He told Arun that he was from IndiaTreks and that he was leading the first group to Chadar trek that was about to leave tomorrow. There had been two drop outs in the group because of poor health issues and if Arun and his wife would like to join his group and leave a day before. Arun wasn’t able to answer right away so he asked if he could tell in sometime. Rahul, the group leader told Arun that he can take his time and tell him even by tomorrow early morning.

By the time Arun closed the door, Ahilya was out of the bathroom. Seeing the orange bag she had figured that this what her husband had gone out to get. She expected that he would tell her the truth, and made no attempt to open it herself, but waited. Arun walked in and told her the first news, which Rahul the trek leader just now told him. And then got down on the floor and opened the bag. In it was cage made of transparent fiber and which had reinforced metallic frame. Two small green cylinders were fitted inside on the corners, and the rest of the space was empty. Before Ahilya could fully understand what this was for, Arun lifted one more object out of the bag, a tranquillizer dart gun pack. More ammunition cases lay in the bag. He explained her that the last person to see what he was after had described it to be small enough to fit in the case, but powerful enough which required the case to be strong. The dart gun was for the hunt, to catch a specimen alive. Ahilya protested, but Arun pacified her telling that getting a specimen was not mandatory, even a photo would do for a start. But if in case, just in case there was a possibility then it could change their fortunes. Ahilya was silent and thinking.

The next morning there was a knock on Rahul’s door. Arun was standing and he told that they would be going with him. The first batch had more chances of coming across things unseen, Arun thought. At around 9AM Arun and Ahilya left the Leh city, and started towards Zanskar valley with the first group.