A few weeks ago, we tried to summit the mountain ridge behind the college where we live. Here is a picture with the ridge in the distance:
Looks not so hard, right? But then take into account an incredibly steep slope, and you are looking at a full days hike to the top. Luckily, there was a path for the first couple hours:
Where we live is the tiny blue spot in the center of the photo. At this point, we were only about two hours up from our starting point, still a long way to go.
We came across an empty house, maybe just used for summer months.
Much of the hike was through beautiful rhododendron forests, with thick bamboo forests at the edges. On the way down, we got very lost and fought our way through one of these bamboo forests, so thick you couldn't see more than the few feet around you -- we just knew we needed to go down.
This is as far up the mountainside as we made it -- so close! But at this point, we were scrambling up a stream bed at a dangerous angle, rocks slipping under our feet, completely lost from any trail. We figured it was probably another two hours to the top from here given the slope and lack of trail:
And then we started to head back down. We had made it above some frozen streams.
On the way down, before we got into the really thick bamboo forests, we saw this fawn:
After the bamboo forest mishap, we found a stream and decided to follow that down as much as possible since we knew that would lead us to the college. It was very slow going, but beautiful.
Finally, we made it back to where we'd spent the night, and found about five yaks grazing around the tent.
Bhutan's national animal, the takin:
A beautiful moth? butterfly? fly? I'm not sure what, but definitely beautiful.
Below is a common sight. Farmers have to sleep with their crops at night to keep wild boar, monkeys, and other predators from eating their crops.
And some temples:
Found some friends who were just hanging:
Crossed a pretty sturdy suspension bridge:
And made some new friends on a walk.
Wild strawberries are everywhere now:
Then we came right upon a huge group of these gray langurs, about 20 or so, just hanging right by the side of the road, crossing the road, and hanging in trees.
Looks not so hard, right? But then take into account an incredibly steep slope, and you are looking at a full days hike to the top. Luckily, there was a path for the first couple hours:
Where we live is the tiny blue spot in the center of the photo. At this point, we were only about two hours up from our starting point, still a long way to go.
We came across an empty house, maybe just used for summer months.
Much of the hike was through beautiful rhododendron forests, with thick bamboo forests at the edges. On the way down, we got very lost and fought our way through one of these bamboo forests, so thick you couldn't see more than the few feet around you -- we just knew we needed to go down.
This is as far up the mountainside as we made it -- so close! But at this point, we were scrambling up a stream bed at a dangerous angle, rocks slipping under our feet, completely lost from any trail. We figured it was probably another two hours to the top from here given the slope and lack of trail:
And then we started to head back down. We had made it above some frozen streams.
On the way down, before we got into the really thick bamboo forests, we saw this fawn:
After the bamboo forest mishap, we found a stream and decided to follow that down as much as possible since we knew that would lead us to the college. It was very slow going, but beautiful.
Finally, we made it back to where we'd spent the night, and found about five yaks grazing around the tent.
