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 DUSHARIN:
The caravan was moving by the same scheme as it was moving to the mountain.
Carlos had been nearly carried away at one of the river crossings. Everyone
had hard times. It was Fall already. The water in the rivers was really
cold. Each crossing was a hard job. A shortage of food began to tell. We
only had a little oatmeal left. All the guys were exhausted.
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 On the way back we felt hunger constantly. At the very beginning of trekking we had bought two rams. Those were very expensive. We ate the first one for breakfast and ate another one in a while. When we started throwing out the gnawed bones, Vadim Melnikov piled them up into a plastic bag and put it into his rucksack. We were teasing him. In the evening Vadim started gnawing the bones for the second time. In a little while the line appeared to ask him to share a meal. Vadim put the rest of the bones in a plastic bag again. There were no jokes about that anymore. By the end of the next day we scraped and chewed up the thin pellicle that covered the bones. The bones had got as white as if they were over-boiled. Checking carefully, Vadim let us throw the bones away. |
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Another day when we were sitting at the campfire Carlos said quietly that he had a very strong medicine, something like steroids. It could help, but only after the doctor's permission. Everybody got anxiously tense. Luba said that she had to have a look at that thing. Carlos took out the huge pill from the metal box, broke it in pieces and showed... It was a delicious home-made Scottish cookie. He reserved it till the very end of the expedition. That was cool! |
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The main event of our trekking was the so-called "Hamburg counting". We had done the same thing after the Everest. Everyone was to grade each member of the expedition (including themselves) according to their contribution to the work of the expedition. It allowed to make comments. Carlos followed our request too and wrote informal characteristics for the people he worked with. The gang took all the things seriously. The results were amazing, they exactly coincided with Ivan's and mine opinions. Carlos' estimations also corresponded with what I had thought about people I had known for a long time. |
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DUSHARIN:
We had serious problems connected with Carlos. The cameleers leader was
pushing Carlos hard, bleeding money from him and threatening him with imprisonment.
It was a serious threat and it was real. Thank God, we were able to go
over that. In Yecheng civilization started again. Finally, we bought enough
food at the market. In Kashgar we were preparing all the necessary documents,
including the painful responsibility to register the death of Igor. In
the hotel the Chinese officials presented us with the summit certificate.
It was made in Chinese emperor style: gold on red velvet. What an unexpected
pleasure! It was a sign of attention that is so unusual for China. |
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