SONGPAN - CHINA

After a rather sedate few days (compared with the previous week) spent in Chengdu, Rich and I continued to the north of Sichuan province, stopping firstly in the small town of Songpan. Having left Tina in Chengdu, we were joined by Monika (Germany) and on our first afternoon in town, we checked into our very basic acommodation and then booked ourselves onto a 3 day horse tour before embarking on a 'short' climb to the top of a nearby hill for views of the city. After only about 2 minutes we made a wrong turn into a local persons front yard where a rather angry dog halted our progress, causing Monika to backpeddle quickly and then to fall a few metres down the embankment we had been skirting. Thankfully she was unhurt by her fall (although at the time she was more concerned with the predicament of her camera than her personal safety) and so we continued upward and upward, quickly realising that this short walk was not really very short at all.

After about 1 hour, we arrived at the top and were greeted by some friendly local ladies and also some great views of the city and surrounding mountains, many of which were partially covered with snow. Thankfully our descent proved considerably easier although I was somewhat hindered by an upset stomach, a condition which worsened over the remainder of the day.

After a pretty uncomfortable nights sleep, it was another early start and after a quick breakfast we made tracks to our tour agency, where we were kitted up with our horses and then set off in the very, very cold conditions. Despite the almost sub-zero temperatures and very chilly wind, I was still kitted out in 'typical Australian attire', namely thongs and a few shirts. Unfortunately, this proved particularly innefective at keeping out the cold and after about 5 minutes I could no longer feel the majority of my feet. Somehow I managed to avoid losing my toes to frostbite by tucking them under the horse and after a few hours, one of the guides was kind enough to lend me his gumboots, which were somewhat of a godsend. Nonetheless, being cold and feeling absolutely terrible meant that I didn't particularly enjoy this first few hours of the ride. Thankfully Monika was very good at making sure I ate the right things (rice, bread and that's about it) and that I was taking in plenty of water.

After reaching the highest point of the mountain pass, we were required to walk down so as to avoid the horses slipping on the rather muddy trail. This break from riding certainly helped to ease the severity of my stomach pains and now, kitted out in my gumboots I was able to avoid having my shoes completely covered in dirt (the others were not so fortunate). After about another hour or so of riding, we stopped for the day (which I was very relieved about) and after setting up our tents, the guides cooked up a tasty lunch and we spent a few hours playing cards, listening to music on our IPOD and speaker sound system and getting to know the other members of our group.

Around 5pm the sun crept behind the mountains and things got very cold, quickly. We huddled around the fire for a few hours, ate some dinner and then were pretty much forced to go to bed around 8pm because of there being nothing better to do. Covered with quite literally 10 or so blankets and still wearing all of our clothes, we somehow shivered our way through the night and managed very little sleep. I didn't really sleep at all, mainly because the whole night my stomach was experiencing internal explosions about once every minute.

After another early start the next day we rode for around 4 hours over some steep terrain until we reached our destination, 'Ice mountain'. Although quite impressive, the mountain was really nothing special and we were given only about 20 minutes to take the views in before having to walk back down the steep pass we had just ascended. Still suffering, this took me quite a while and I certainly didn't appreciate the guides making us trot for more than half of the return journey as this really didn't help to settle my stomach. Feeling absolutely rubbish, dead tired and certainly not in the mood for talking or interacting with other people, I had a brief but worthwhile rest in the tent and then joined the other for some more cards and music before yet another early departure to bed.

Thankfully I awoke feeling much better on the last day of our tour although we were somewhat startled by one of the guides comming in to brush off the 20 or so centimetres of snow covering the outside of our tent !!! After grabbing some great photos and having a quick snowfight (fun but very cold) we made tracks back for Songpan, this time covering a different trail to that which we had covered on our first day. Still very cold, we ascended up into the clouds but after reaching the summit, the cloud and fog began to dissapear as the sun came out and only a short while later it was actually quite warm. The return journey was quite enjoyable and we passed through some more great scenery before finally making our return to the town where we road down the street in almost the same way as the Mongols must have after returning from a succesful battle.

This 3 day of horse riding adventures was probably the most enjoyable activity I undertook not only in China but over the entire course of my travels this year. I met some great people, saw some amazing scenery and had a fantastic time. Despite feeling pretty rough(thank goodness I had Monika to make sure I was looking after myself) for the majority of the trip and having to endure some absolutely freezing conditions, I enjoyed every minute of the tour and would definitely like to return to the area sometime in the near future.

Photos 1-4: Shots taken from the bus on the trip from Chengdu to Songpan.
Photos 5-7: Views of Songpan and the surrounding countryside.
Photos 8-20: Day 1 of the horse-trek.
Photos 21-33: Day 2 of the horse-trek (trip to Ice mountain).
Photos 34-43: Final day of the horse-trek (return to Songpan).