Seventeen

Neve and Gustaveson have been hard at it, preaching and doctoring in the little pavilion on the polo ground.
Tomorrow (Friday) we start for Kapalu (“Khapallu” as Neve spells it) over a high pass, then 2 days march over a still higher pass to Kartukshu (Khapallu?) on the Indus, on to Kargil and Dras and so back to Srinegar, about Oct 5th.
Gustaveon is coming with us as he knows the language and will preach in the villages. he also has a boy who can interpret for Neve.
My plans, after getting back to Srinegar, are uncertain. If it is a case of going to Africa, I must get back as soon as possible to England, in which case I should be able to spend Christmas with you, which I should much like to do...we have had no news of the outside world since August 10th.... I have not shaved for a month. My beard does not seem to be getting very long, but I haven’t looked in a glass to see for a month or two. It feels rather thin, and yesterday Neve found a flea in it. Must knock off as dinner is ready.
With best love. Your loving brother George W. Tyndale-Biscoe.

Shigar Friday, 13th Sept. Turned out at 5.10 while yet rather dark. Got things packed and the 13 coolies off by 6.45. The Wazir was about as usual to see us off and took our letters to send to Scardu.
Neve, Gustaveson and I started at 7 o’clock. The Rajah’s brother met us in the village and had a talk with Neve.
Our way was east, past the great rock and up the gorge from which the stream came. Three miles up there was a grove of willows and camping place where we found the coolies eating their half-cooked flat barley cakes.
The valley, which was very narrow, must have been filled up to a good depth with moraine, through which the stream has cut its channel, so the path in many places was cut along a cliff of conglomerate stuff.
We crossed and re-crossed the stream several times, and at 7½ miles by a bridge just below a fine cascade.
Stopped for breakfast at 11.20 after marching 9 miles. Not too hot now to sit out in the sun.
A little way on, the valley divided, we taking the right-hand fork, going S.E. Very pretty here with, on the far side, steepish slopes covered for some distance with pencil cedars and other small trees, and above covered with scrub which was gorgeously coloured, green, brown, crimson, and deep gold. On our side a gentle slope alternating with rocky moraine protruding from side nullahs. On this side, too, pencil cedars and crimson-leaved bushes and rose bushes covered with hips.
The ascent was very easy. At above 12,000 feet we passed some ripe wheat fields and other cultivated ground. There were ponies and donkeys coming up the nullah with us and a flock of sheep, and we met a good many men carrying loads of firewood down to Shigar.
A head, a snowy ridge began to come into view, which further up formed the right side of the nullah, and was a wall of rock about 5000 feet high, with a very jagged top, with corniced snow slopes in the hollows, the whole rough face being sprinkled with fresh snow.
Six miles ahead it curved round the head of the valley, and our route led over it somewhere.
The valley, wider now, ascended in gentle grassy plains towards the snow ridge, and all around rich with autumn colours. A delightful walk through the pleasantest scenery we have seen for a long time.
About here we camped at a height of about 13500 feet, 5000 feet above Shigar.
When the sun sank behind the hills, it got very cold, about at freezing point by dinner time.
Gustaveson, as before, had no tent and was going to bivouac but we made him sleep in our tent, which he did, sleeping on the ground between our camp beds.