A new day. Overnight minimum -7°C so it is chilly at dawn as the light creeps across the mountains to our south.The valley slopes here glacial tillite, dissected into steep v-shaped ravines by water and erosion, though they only get a few days of rain each year. In places boulders are perched on tall columns of tillite, looking precarious, though in the generally dry conditions prevailing, these columns probably are centuries old.

The snow leopards are still bonking on the high slopes across the valley. It isn’t the best for photography. I need a longer lens… and a wheelbarrow to carry it. One of those “superzoom” cameras is looking very attractive. They might not match the quality of my SLR cameras, but if you need a long zoom, they can give huge range with low size and weight. And over 600 m the amount of distortion due to heat haze degrades the images even with the best of lenses (yes, even up in the mountains with daytime maximum around 6°C there is heat haze – the video in the last post shows this very well).  Above is a cropped image from the frame. Here is the whole frame taken with 560 mm lens … spot the snow leopards:

Around lunchtime we see some of the staff practising their archery. There are archery competitions between the villages, and Uley is the top dog. The locals seem to be having fun. Trying to get images of the archers at the moment of release of the arrow is challenging. Even with motor drive at 10 frames per second, mostly I get consecutive shots one before release, and the next with the arrow nowhere to be seen.

More images at https://photos.app.goo.gl/zopyPOaz2Hqr51cF3