An 8 hour kamikaze bus ride took us to the north of Sichuan Province to a town called Songpan. the scenery on the drive up was amazing. For most of the way we travelled alongside a river that can only be described as tumultuous. Swirling and churning along with such force that it's not surprising how deep the valley was. Every available piece of flat land was neatly planted with crops and veggie patches, sometimes even two or more types of plant squeezed in together, high and low. The villages were small and well built, neat houses of stone and wood. There is a large minority of Tibetan people in this region, as evidenced by the strings of prayer flags fluttering in the wind. Also we started to see more and more people in traditional dress, the women with bright red headscarves folded and sitting on top of their heads, huge chunky necklaces and belts.

From Songpan we went out on a four day horse trek. We turned up at 830 in the morning to find about 100 packhorsees milling about in the street and hoards of young travllers in brightly coloured waterproof NorthFace jackets. As usual for China most of the tourists were Chinese but we werent the only foreigners.
China has the slightly strange policy of having 3 seperate week long holidays when all government employees and staff of larger companies have to take their holidays, meaning guaranteed crowds and higher prices at any plce remotely interesting. We were on the second day of the Autumn Festival and people were determined to get away from the crowds, thus creating a crowd in the wilderness!
Happily, as it turned out, by chosing the slightly less popular 4 day trek (3 days being usual) the 3 of us were joined with only 5 Chinese. We saw some people on the last day who had 30 in their group! Not quite so peaceful.
So for 3 of the 4 days we trekked maybe 4 or 5 hours each day, uphill on the hardworking little horses (they were quite slight but definitely strong) and down hill on foot, which was quite a good thing as it got quite chilly just sitting up there on the horse, idly watching the scenery, keeping an eye out for yaks, soaring eagles and brilliantly coloured butterflies.
The paths were incredibly muddy and by the end of the first day we were quite a sight. we had 4 guies with us. Mr Wooky (our name for him) was the leader, a mute guy who could just make a few Wooky like noises. It was never a problem though as he was very adept at gesturing and given that I still know no Chinese language wouldnt have helped. I'll never forget his fireside impersonation of Jimi Hendrix, his contribution to the nighttime singing!!!
Mr R2D2, Mr Staw Hat and Young Dude were our other faithful guys who walked tirelessly alongside us all day they in no time at all had tents up, fire going and produced fabulous feasts for us. Fatty Boy (his nickname we didnt make that one up) had been on treks with these guys 5 times before and we quickly saw why.
The guys collected wild mushrooms each day and cooked up fabulous stews with lashings of chilli, giner and garlic. They baked bread, made noodles and cooked up loads of veggies. At times there were 3 pots on the fire, simmering away, fresh tea always available. Most impressive.
The tents were an interesting affair. Thick canvas propped up with a few slim logs there was no ground in the tent. Instead there was apile of leafy branches onto which they piled a few layers of yak skins and a cotton duvet. Once in my sleeping bag Mr R2D2 would tuck a goat fur lined coat over me and then a tarpaulin to keep the moisture off. Snug as a bug in a rug I slept amazingly well in the cold silent nights.
We climbed up over several mountains, probably close to 4000m high. Not a sign of human existence anyway just jagged peaks to the horizon. It was incredibly hard going for the horses, I'm so glad it wasnt me dragging all that weight up through the mud. I had enough work trying to dodge low branches, often laced with thorns for extra fun. Autumn has started up there so the thick green pine forests were sprinkled with reds and yellows from the deciduous trees.
Our last morning we awoke to a few inches of snow covering everything in sight. It actually made our little tent warmer but it certainly wasnt so toasty atop the horse. Took a while to get any feeling back into my toes!! gosh it was pretty though.