In search of Snow Leopard and other wildlife——Chapter II

June 24 On the way to the Camping Site
Today it is cloudy. After breakfast, we drove to Remy’s hotel, picked him up and drove toward our destination. Once we leave the downtown area, we drive into a land of grassland. White and black tents dot the both side of the road surrounded by flocks of yaks and sheep. Suddenly we see a Tibetan fox running away only about 30 meters from our car and disappearing  on the mountain slope. Looking closely on the side of the mountain, you can easily find Himalayan marmots here and there.



Upland Buzzards and Himalayan Griffons are souring in the sky in search of their food. Now it is early summer, the grassland have already become green. Alpine flowers are staring t to bloom. Red-billed Choughs also make their noisy presence known. The scenery in front of our car is just a gigantic landscape painting spreading out while we drive on, river, gorge, grasslands, nomads, yaks, sheep, mountain peaks and distant snow-capped mountains.





Soon we arrive at a town where we enjoy a very delicious lunch. We drive on toward our camping designation , which is  about 3 hours away. Now with the increase in elevation, the scenery also start to change, we see the peaks coming closer to us and the river become smaller. We leave the main road and now mobile phone signal fades away. So I send some short message to my family and get ready for the real wilderness. Upon arrival at our camping site, we are amazed by the beautiful scenery. Our camping site is just located by the side of a beautiful river. There are bare rock cliffs on both sides of the river, and it appears to be an ideal habitat for snow leopards. We take out our two tents and set them up , one for Remy and one for me and my friend, along with one mini-cooking tent. I started preparing for dinner as soon as we finish unpacking, air mattress and sleeping bags for sleeping tents and cooking utensils for cooking tent. My friend Tsebtrim and Remy already are searching for snow leopards , checking the mountain rocks with binocular and then further checking with a spotting scope at  every suspicious spot. While they are searching, I start making our dinner. Since I have worked a lot with camping trips in the past, it doesn’t  take long for me to finish the dinner preparation. By the evening, we have enjoyed a very delicious dinner by the side of stream under golden evening light. Then we go to bed for our first night stay in tent in this high elevation.



July 25. First day search
 
I got up at 5:30 to prepare the breakfast which is a western styled breakfast. After working with westerners for about 20 years, now I know their dinning habit pretty well. It did not take long for me to prepare. After breakfast, we close the tents and put the food box into our car and lock the car, and start our first day search. We climb up along the slope, and see herds of Blue Sheep grazing on different parts of the slope. We split up and go in different directions to search so as to increase our chances. I climb to higher place to get a better view. Due to high elevation, the climbing is pretty slow. Standing on the ridge, I get a very good view of both sides of the mountain. Suddenly I see two white-lipped deer standing in distance looking at my direction. Deer are very sensitive to motion and smells. Then I see two herds of Blue Sheep grazing at the bottom of a cliff. I move quietly toward them. The reason is that I think that the snow leopards may find these Blue Sheep tempting. Here I get some incredible shots of the Blue Sheep. The males show their distinctive horns with pride, looking at my direction on great alert. The young kids are running back and forth in excitement. After some nice shots, I moved gently toward the place where I had seen two male White-lipped Deer. I firmly believe that are still hiding somewhere. Once I get on the small ridge, I may be able to get some great shots. On the ground, I see piles of scats from different animals, as well as several Robin Accentors and White-rumped Snow Finch flying around. As I get  close to the ridge, the deer smell become stronger and stronger. As soon as I reach the platform on the ridge, two white-lipped deer run away from their hiding place. Without any hesitation, I aim my camera at them and take some shoots. The ridge gives me an even a better view. I search the rock peaks closely with my binocular, but unfortunately I do not see any suspicious Snow Leopard spots. Now it is already 11:30, I have to climb down to prepare for lunch.



After lunch, we take  some rest, as the mid-day sunlight is too strong, even for Snow Leopard. At around 3:30 pm, we start our afternoon search and  we decided to climb up from other side of the valley. Slowly ascending, we see large flocks of raptors soaring above us, Golden Eagle, Upland Buzzard, Lammergeyer and Himalayan Griffons. Suddenly we hear the loud roaring of Snow Leopard coming from distance. It is not common to hear this sound in this season. They normally make this sound during the mating season. However they do make this kind of sound occasionally when they find some rivals stealing their prey. The roaring sound is from the top of the mountain. Now it is already too late for us to climb up to see the Snow Leopards. We decide to leave it for tomorrow. Snow Leopards have the habit of eating all their hunted prey before hunting for the next prey.
This is really a good sign for us. We slowly descend the slope and return to our camping site, leaving the hope for tomorrow.