Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
filled with snow. This was part of what Tim and I had come for: mountaineering.
We'd brought crampons and ice-axes. Ray and Brendan had not.
We returned to our camp late in the afternoon, and after a short investigation,
Ray and Brendan discovered that they had not brought enough food to last the trip.
With all our camera and video gear, our tripod and climbing equipment, Tim and
I were on lean rations already. Our packs weighed close to forty kilograms each,
and we had no food to spare. The Poms sortied off towards the hut to see if they
could buy food from our friends and returned a couple of hours later, lugging a
large plastic bag. They made sure they had our attention, then opened it to reveal
half a carcass of a freshly slaughtered sheep.
It is quite difficult to do, but I nearly choked on the last mouthful of my de-
hydrated mash potato. 'What the bloody hell are you two going to do with that?' I
asked, utterly amazed.
'Wha'd'ya think, mate?' Ray asked me, chuckling. 'I thought you colonials
were meant to be good at this bush-tucker thing or something, like?' They
sniggered to each other. 'Seriously though, we're going to have to spend most of
tomorrow here smoking and drying this meat, so we're not going to be able to go
on in the morning.'
We sat up into the evening, talking. Brendan and Ray sliced up their meat and
hung it to dry on a hastily lashed-together wooden frame over the fire.
Ray and Brendan had a dream of travelling together on horseback across the
steppe, from Mongolia to Europe. It was much the same idea, incidentally, as the
one I'd had when first deciding to leave university and head to Russia. Tim and I
laughed and told them that if we were anything to go by, then they could probably
expect a fair amount of 'interpersonal conflict' along the way. We gave them some
stories as evidence and they seemed amazed that we had made it this far.
'So what you're saying, Chris,' Ray joked, 'is that after living with Tim, married
life is going to be a breeze!' Everyone burst into uproarious laughter, but try as I
might, I couldn't for the life of me see the joke. To me, Ray had just pronounced
the most blaringly obvious fact in the universe. How on earth could anyone com-
pare the trials and tribulations of living with Tim to the joy I was expecting from
being married to Nat? I shook my head, confused, and they laughed all the more.
I got up early the next morning and made a quick breakfast of instant porridge
with Tim. He had decided that he would carry on ahead for a day, walking fifteen
kilometres down into the next big river valley, where he'd wait for us. I was going
to take the opportunity to climb the towering mountain I'd first seen on arrival in
