We left Trongsa for the trailhead of the Nabji Trail before 7 a.m. on the last day of February. The sun was not yet high enough to reach very far into the valley.
Mountains of Central Bhutan
Instead of following the central east-west road, we headed south towards India following the Mangde Chhu, along the eastern slopes of the Black Mountains. But, of course, we first had to go down to a bridge across the river in the lower left of the above photo and then back up.
It had rained the previous evening in Trongsa, but at the higher elevations it wasn’t rain.
Snow line from last night's rain
The highest summit in the Black Mountains is over 15,000 feet. In comparison, the highest peak in the lower 48 states is Mount Whitney at 14,505 feet. The peaks in the following photo were probably to the west, as we were too close to the Black Mountains to see any of its tall peaks.
Snow-covered peaks
In the following photo you can see how Trongsa is spread out along the side of the mountains, and how insignificant it looks in comparison to the mountains.
Trongsa from the south
As we headed south toward warmer climes, I saw some Primula Denticulata and
Primula Denticulata
a rather interesting looking breed of cattle.
Bos Indicus, Siri?
There were waterfalls,
Waterfall along road south from Trongsa
and I finally managed to take a picture of a couple of monkeys. The tail doesn’t look long enough to be a langur, so I’m not sure what kind they were.
We didn’t arrive at the trailhead in Tongtonphey until around 10 a.m., as we stopped to do some birding along the way. The cook and his helper had already arrived with a van filled with all the supplies we would need for six days of trekking. It took some time to divvy everything up and load it into baskets for the porters to carry or into bags to be carried by the ponies. I used the time to look for birds and photograph some nearby poinsettia bushes.
These were not your typical Christmas blooms in a 6″ pot!
