Markha Valley Trek: Hankar to Tachungtse

This was the day that the trek became more mountainous as we left the main Markha Valley behind and branched up into the steeper Nimaling Valley. We were entering snow leopard country, and had frequent sightings of large herds of blue sheep skittering up and down precarious slopes.

A highlight of the day were some impressive ruins perched on an isolated knoll rising 200m above the trail. Our guide Santosh described them as the remains of the King of Hankar’s palace; they were marked on my app as the Palace of Shey Kingdom. We put down our packs and walked up the knoll on a narrow path which clung precipitously to its side. The ruins were amazing and occupied the whole ridge line at the top of the hill. Little remained of the various outbuildings apart from a few walls, but a tall tower on the needle-like summit of the hill was almost intact.

For a trip report see: https://www.markhorrell.com/blog/2022/markha-valley-trek-a-perfect-reintroduction-to-trekking-in-ladakh/
For related photographs see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/markhorrell/albums/72177720302212632/
Music: Firefly Memories by Rewob (c) copyright 2020 Licensed under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Sampling Plus license: https://dig.ccmixter.org/files/rewob/62213
Thank you to Edita Horrell for additional video footage

Видео Markha Valley Trek: Hankar to Tachungtse канала Mark Horrell