About 200 Snow leopards, an endangered species, are believed to live in Ladakh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today, our first full day in Kashmir, we were picked up from our hotel by our guide Mohammed Aamir (Aamir for short), and driven high into the mountains, until we reached the main hill station, Gulmarg {open this link for photos}. We had to change  car, driver and guide. The new car had chains on the wheels, the new driver was experienced with this area and the guide was a licensed guide for the mountains.

Whilst we sat in the first car, waiting for this process to be completed, an argument erupted between a very large group of angry local men, who were all vying for the business of taking us up the mountain – however, this had been arranged days in advance by our friend Aamir. We felt uncomfortable…