Entry 17

July7th

Shandur pass looking east

The setting for the Shandur Polo festival is quiet surreal. At 3500 meters it certainly is the highest polo game in the world, where both humans and horses suffer the sparser oxygen. The Pass itself is a big open, flat bottomed valley with some lakes. During this festival, which is held over three days, the teams of different villages from the two neighboring provinces of Gilgit and Chitral have it out with each other. It is “free” polo which means there are very little rules and it certainly is not the sedate kind of polo you may have seen played by the British royals.

 On the otherwise barren hill sides a huge tent city sprouts up with a bazaar with shops and restaurants. Animals get brought in alive and get slaughtered there and then.

The rivalry between the two provinces doesn’t stop by the polo, disputes about who owns the polo grounds and who pays for what seem to flare up every year. On the first day one of the matches got boycotted as there was a perception that Gilgit had more VIP seats than Chitral. With thousands of spectators in both camps the emotions can run high very quickly, even at that altitude.

Training in the morning

On the second day the situation arose that the game finished in a draw. With the situation unchanged after the extended playtime, the first goal would be the golden goal. By this time both the players and the horses were exhausted. When Gilgit finally scored the golden goal there was wild celebrations. Ten minutes later the judges announced that the goal was disallowed on some technicality. Gilgit and Chitraly players went for each other and soon chairs were flying and a riot followed. Some police commander gave the order to shoot in the air and people dived for cover. Then someone came on the PR system to say that there was Para Gliders in the air and please don’t shoot in the air! I was two kilometers away from all this lazing around the camp and all I heard was the gun shots which sounded like some uncoordinated gun salute to me.

The runner with the ball, lancing the ball at mid field and hitting it in the air while going at full speed

No rules, you dont need to be aiming for the ball to swing your mallet

On the third and final day the commentator tried to down play the events of the previous day by saying that there was a century old rivalry between the two provinces and that skirmishes like that were nothing to worry about……..

Landing trike

Para trike

The horsemanship in this game is phenomenal, to ride a horse at full speed and at the same time whack a ball with a long stick with another 11 horses in the field running around, sure is an exciting sight.

Al fresco breakfast

miracle kitchen

Al fresco ........

The PAFF, Pakistan association for free flight, had organized a camp for us with catering. Great breakfast and dinner was produced from the little kitchen tent where two gas burners somehow cooked food for 20 people.

On the day of the finals we all walked up a few hundred meters above the valley floor to do a flight into the stadium. It is now a tradition that one Pilot hands over the ball to a high official to start the game, which gives Para Gliding the needed exposure in the media. Grey and I elected to launch last  and try and fly back East to Gilgit or further. After two days of rest I was ready to face the challenges of the sky again, which turned out to be a lot more sedate this time, not less challenging though with some very tricky wind changes, convergences, snow showers and a low save from the bottom of a narrow canyon.

Highest Crapet card game in the world, Grey lost again.

Near the end of the day the weather over developed in front of us and we were forced to look for a Bivi spot. After trying to land on a ridge with visible water and firewood but very turbulent conditions we decided to cross the valley and try and make it to the camp we had used previously with Alex. Arriving a few hundred meters below the summit we had to work quite hard to get back up in the last thermals of the day. It was a sweet feeling to make it back there and with the firewood still in place we were able to have a nice fire in windless conditions. Before dark we played the highest Crapet card game in the world and then turned in for the night.

The next day we flew back to Karimabad the same way we had done ten days earlier and arrived there early afternoon. The flying conditions were great and climbing out above Karimabad I got surprised by a couple of vultures that joined me in the thermal. At some stage I had one on each wingtip, a magic moment but over before I could pull out my camera.