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Dr. Jules Jacot-Guillarmod Diary Entry Tuesday, 8 August 1905
Departure from Darjeeling; arrival at the Dak-Bungalow (D.B.) in Jorpokri.
We had about seven tonnes of food, luggage, etc. to be transported through an unknown and deserted country, without any means of supply, over the passes, all of a height higher than Mont-Blanc. The government had offered us, then had undertaken to procure for us 130 coolies who would go ahead and drop off at Jongri, a five-day walk from Darjeeling, four tons of food intended for the natives. We ourselves took a hundred porters for our camping and climbing equipment and especially our personal supplies, so that on August 8, 1905, in the morning, we found ourselves at the head of 230 natives, half of whom preceded us and that we were only supposed to catch up with at Jongri, while the rest accompanied us, or followed us, so as to arrive each evening, at the same time as us, at the stage.
Very different from the Kashmiris or the Baltis who ethnologically are Aryans, or Indo-Europeans, the natives of Sikhim are Lepchas, of Mongol origin. At first glance, it is difficult to distinguish the sexes; men and women wear a long striped shirt or petticoat and long hair that they put together in one or two braids. Men, for the most part, do not have beards or mustaches and therefore have a lanky appearance that takes some getting used to. During the nine days that we stayed in Darjeeling, we could barely glimpse for five minutes the Kangchinjunga, the goal of our expedition; the rest of the time it only rained day and night, so the prospect of starting the journey in repeated downpours did not smile on us extraordinarily.
Our preparations completed, we set
August 8 as the date of our departure, and that day at 10:30
we are leaving Darjeeling which some consider to be a
sanatorium, but which strikes me much more as a vast
intensive exploitation of human stupidity: everything one
has to get there is horribly expensive and bad. quality, and
the least work, to be badly executed, is still paid for at a
higher price than in Europe.
We stop under an overhanging rock and instantly we see ourselves covered in blood sweats. At the end of a minute, their bite, insensible at first, is revealed by a trickle of blood which no ordinary styptic means can stop. The natives are careful not to remove a fixed leech, and claim, thanks to these free bloodletting, to do without the advice and care of their esculapes. But after a short time, these bites produce itching which increases rapidly; scratching, which relieves momentarily, soon aggravates these wounds, and every day I will have a good number of patients to relieve and disinfect.
The road now engages in the real forest of Sikhim. And by forest, do not try to represent our Swiss forests, lovingly pampered by hundreds of foresters. There is not a tree trunk here which is not misshapen, twisted, often twisted several times on itself. And each one disappears under an exuberant parasitic vegetation of ferns or orchids. Lianas climb the trees, follow the branches and fall in pendants to make the architects of cathedrals dream. All these trees touch each other, their branches intersect; their parasites in turn mix, forming an inextricable network, where only insects, birds and wild animals can find their way. Man never enters it and the title of virgin forest is more correct here than anywhere else. The native himself never tried to cross it other than by following the ridges of the mountains, where the government had made some gaps and established strategic routes.
As we advance the grand
proportions of the forest increase further and our
enthusiasm grows until the moment when, emerging into a
clearing, we arrive at the first of the Dak-Bungalow that we
will successively inhabit for a night or two. This first
Jorpokri Bungalow is only 8 miles from Ghum; so he was
quickly reached; A few coolies, however, found a way to get
drunk on the way, and arrived with a considerable delay.
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