From Leh to Hundar is a little less than 100 km, but you have to cross a pass, Khardong-la at 5240 m altitude, as I have already written about [1]. You might have been surprised about the large crowd that waited for the pass to open again, and you'll find the reason for these inland tourisn here. Hundar is an oasis/village of about 1000 people at the banks of the Shyok river, famous for the sand dunes and camels [2]. The camels have been there for a long time as Hundar once had been part of the Silk Route with caravans stopping there.
Camels and sand dunes might have nurtured the idea of supplying tents in camps to produce a desert feeling for tourists. The tents are large and are eqipped with a bathroom. Lots of camps had already closed down late in September, when I've visited Hundar, and the nights have been cold. You remember that Khardong-la had been closed because of new snow. It was the first time I've used a hot water bag, which was supplied; no problems with the cold wind flapping the tent and entering it.
After the Silk Road wasn't used any more, many of the domesticated camels returned to the wild just by neglect and later were on the brink of extinction [3]. The residents of the Hundar village have started camel safaris in 2003. Since then the number of camels has increased. The bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) is found mainly in the cold deserts, like in China (Xinjiang), Iran, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan, where I have seen them, and in Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. Tourism brings revenues, but also problems. The camels damage the land of the local farmers. The tourists damage the dunes with ATV rides. Even the camel rides have an ecological impact. The tourist season in the Nubra valley doesn't last long, it begins in late spring and ends late in September or early October.
Let us stay with the bactrian camel for a moment. It is double humped in contrast to the single-humped dromedary and native to the steppes of Central Asia [4]. The population of two million is due mainly to the domesticated form. The name comes from the ancient historical region of Bactria, which means in modern day parts of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The wild Bactrian camel (Camelus ferus) is a distinct species from the Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus). It was first described by Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky (Никола́й Миха́йлович Пржева́льский), a geographer and explorer, who lived from 1839 till 1888. He died of typhus near Karakol at the Issykul Lake; the small settlement had been renamed by the Tsar to Przhevalsk and is now part of Karakol [5]. There is a museum now with lots of artefacts, script, passport and so on, which belonged to Przhevalsky.
Przhevalsky Museum at Karakol
Wedding party at Przhevalky Memorial
for photographs
Tourism is risky and nobody knows how the local entrepreneurs in the Nubra valley may survive. The tents may stay stashed away, but the camels need to be feeded.
Bactrian camels in Xinjiang (新疆)
A caravan in Xinjiang (新疆)
the leaderis of the Kyrgyzs minority
Links
and References:
[2]
Mattausch,
Jutta: Ladakh und Zanskar (Reiseführer) (Deutsch). 2017.
[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Przhevalsky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pristan%27-Przheval%27sk
.
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