Successfully unsuccessful
Today was a hard day, one of the hardest in fact; after trekking all the way down the pass and back up again I was told that wolves were sighted at langboche. I was there a week ago, so they are literally running rings around me, or the stories are just being made up. It’s embarrassing to say the least. Also, some surveyor guy had positioned his tent not far from mine and would have screwed up the evening with listening for wolves, since he wasn't being at all discrete about his presence. The biggest problem was that I wanted to fly the drone and with it being highly illegal made things a little more interesting. With him being a surveyor I’m sure he has his hand in the pie as to who has drone licenses otherwise they would have been flying one themselves for surveying. He was using some contraption that would best resemble the Lunar lander.
I carried that freegan bag up that pass so I was going to make sure I flew the drone and got my shots. I waited till the sun went behind the mountain, hiked up to the highest point towards Gokyo. I made sure to let him see me so that he would think I was hiking over the pass towards Gokyo. I launched the drone, got my shots which I’m pretty sure he would have seen since the thing makes a freegan noise at high altitude. Those engines work really hard, and the lights flicker so you can see the thing from a mile away, but I got the shots I wanted. I landed it, then knocked off some stable atmospheric shots with the tripod. I was going to make sure to use the tripod too since I had also hauled that thing around for the past 2 and a half months. I then wrapped everything up, and waited till it got dark. I went the back way down the pass without a flashlight so he couldn’t see me. Of course, I took a tumble in the dark and ripped my knee open, there was blood everywhere down my leg and into my boot but I didn’t care, I got my shots undetected and that's what mattered.
By tomorrow I’ll be on my way back down to Namche so if they looking for an illegal drone they’ll be looking towards Gokyo. I’m sick of dodging permits and licenses to get my films done, especially nature related. I'm just trying to make a difference in this world, and it's not about money. I understand why they don’t want drones but there are no hikers or helicopters where I was flying so I wasn’t a threat to anyone. I’m kind of done with this now; there is a reason why I’m not finding the wolves and I’ve just got to let them be. I did have a little melt down today, but soon I got my thoughts together and picked myself up.
My visa expires in a few days so I’ll come back in March. I am grateful that I got a full-length documentary which I will finish with last year’s footage of finding the wolves and I’ve managed to get all the filming and drone shots done on an expedition that has cost me around $2000. If a production company had to have done what I did it would have cost them about $30,000 so I guess I can count myself fortunate. Of course, I shouldn’t count my eggs before they’ve hatched, I need to get out clean so I’ll have to dump the drone cards on the computer then format the cards so if they do see the drone at customs then they’ll probably want to check the card. I’ll just tell them that I was waiting for a permit but it didn’t come through. So, "I never flew it" they can’t prove otherwise.
This is my last night in Arya; I hiked out to the spot where the wolves always seem to leave their prints, and left the night vision camera out there one last night. Who knows, maybe it will get something. I walked back under the full moon, and it was beautiful but again, I’m done with this place. I have a mixed feelings about it but I know by next year march I will have perked up. I have time to find a sponsored night vision camera and hopefully I can get permission from the national parks to put a tracking device on one of them. It’s probably going to take a year to get permission but I’ll try. Tomorrow morning, I pack up, and head back down without an ounce of doubt that I tried my best.
I flew one more drone shot that I needed for the sequence this morning and it was a great shot except I crashed the drone. The battery ran flat and I couldn’t get it back quick enough. It’s repairable but all batteries are flat so I’ll fix it when I get back to the USA, it probably needs a new body. That poor drone, it’s had quite an exciting life since it came to me, it’s done more illegal flights than legal one’s and the only time it’s on the ground is when it takes off and when it crashes, the rest of the time I catch it in mid-air because the ground is not suitable for landing.
I got back to Namche at around 7pm with bleeding feet. That's the second time that's happened in as many weeks. It’s probably because the socks have worn through from carrying heavy backpacks and the base of the shoe is shredding my feet. Anyway, 1 or 2 days in Namche should be fine and then I’ll make my way down to Lukla. I have a heavy heart about things; family, friends or lack thereof and just the good old black dog stuff. It’s constantly close by and I had hoped the wolves would eat him. Anyway at least now I can get busy editing, working on my book and my Blog, and of course I’ll be able to have showers every day… thank God for small blessings.
The 3-month solo expedition in the Himalayas to search for the infamous Wolf may not have been an entirely unsuccessful quest. I found something else far more elusive! Something that lives in each of us; A desire to be free, to be loved, to be accepted... and to find purpose. We are all connected in some way and we deserve the right to express ourselves freely. Only once you’ve truly found yourself can you become liberated to express your deepest darkest faults and fears, knowing you will not be judged. If you are, then once you’ve successfully truly mastered who you are, you will not care about being judged. We are what we are because we are made that way, there’s a reason for it. Some people have to go to the ends of the earth to find that reason... I’m one of them.
https://www.facebook.com/ryan.s.davy/videos/10156577887520846
I feel broken right now but the inner journey has been the most rewarding. I’ve learned a lot from the wolves, even though we didn’t meet face to face this time round I certainly feel that we connected in a spiritual realm. One big lesson I’ve learned is how to cut myself free from the needs and fears of the mind and concentrate on the needs of the soul. The key is acceptance of whatever the situation is, to just let be. It’s not always about the goal, it’s also about what happens while you’re getting there.
The most exciting thing is; I know I’m being trained for something far greater, and all what I’ve experienced will be put to the test in an ultimate challenge where I will one day reap the rewards. ‘The man who cried wolf’ is turning out to be a far more complicated film than I envisaged. For now, I head back to the USA to acquire night vision equipment and more camping gear, and also to train harder so I can keep up with these nomadic warriors. No one can be more disappointed than I am but in 3 months, I’ll return with the necessary resources and I know I’ll earn their favour... If it was easy, I probably wouldn’t be doing it.
