rafting the Pho Chhu (man river)

our first day on the water was a "warm-up" day. we met the crew, and our guide, kallie (I'm sure that's not the right spelling, but that is how it sounds). the river water is quite cold, but we weren't doing any big Rapids (only II-III), so we opted out of wetsuits, and just wore splash jackets. 

it was a really nice 2 hour float with a few splashes but the real highlight of that stretch was coming to the confluence of the pho Chhu and mo Chhu right in front of the punakha dzong in the center of town. 

biking to the river put-in

first up in the morning, we drove down to the Pho Chu (woman river) where it runs through town, crossed to the dirt road on the far side, and were met up with some mountain bikes. we had the option to bike to the put-in for rafting, or stay in the van. rich and I opted for bikes. 

it was a windy, bumpy road, with a few little hills. pretty perfect for a little spin. 

took a few minutes to get used to the gears (some worked, some didn't), and we were off. 

it was a super fun little jaunt! we passed load of cars/trucks loaded with peoe heading to town, and everyone walking or working along the road waved hello. 

bike seems to be a great mode of transport, although you don't see any locals riding them. 

good morning punakha!

the hotel we are staying in is really comfortable and new, and I got a great night sleep. woke up with every muscle sore, but that was well earned. 

we had breakfast at the hotel, packed up, and then we're off at 8:30am for a big day of activities... 

down the mountain into punakha

it took about an hour to drive down the super windy dirt road (new in theist three years) from the dzong into punakha valley, where we got our first glimpses of 2 of the rivers we would be rafting. 

we drive through town by the main Dzong at the confluence of the rivers... and up onto the next hill to our hotel in the next village over. it is a really ice modern place where we will be spending three nights. very one was super excited to get out of muddy grungy clothes, and into the shower!! 

with a couple hours to kill before dinner, the 5 of us got together, and had fun looking at pictures and recounting stories while drinking hot tea spiked with the jim beam bourbon dan bought at the duty free store on the way in! 

we tried the third version of the Druk beer at dinner, the lager... pretty tasty, but the 11000 is still my favorite. 

somehow managed to stay awake through dinner, and we were all tucked into bed by 9ish. 

goodbye to our crew, hello again van!

it was an amazing two day trek, but I was sure happy to see my flip flops and a beer in the van! guessing we logged 20+ miles up and down in our first three days in Bhutan. I feel great, but my body sure is tired. 

at the dzong, we bought the largest lemon we have ever seen... it's bigger than dan's head. 

along the top of the fields to the dzong

after lunch, we continued on along the rice fields, then turned up onto a winding trail cut on the side of the valley hill to the dzong (fortress) at the end of the valley, where we planned to meet up with our van and the road. :) 

lunch stop above the rice fields

right about noon, the guides found a nice spot on top of a hill overlooking the entire valley... and busted out yet another amazing picnic lunch. our following of dogs were eager to join for any scraps they could find, along with a kitten (miniature Bengal tiger) that found us as well. 

in this area, we also began to see giant pointsetta plants everywhere in full bloom. gave us all flashbacks to Christmas at home. hard to believe it is coming so fast! 

across the rice fields

we wandered through and across the rice fields heading further down into the valley. people were working the rice fields, and we collected a following of farm dogs as we continued on. 

this pic is looking back at the pass and valley we hiked from. 

our pack horses caught up to us in the middle of the fields. the guides gathered together and had a beetlenut break, and they gave us tourists juice boxes. ha. 

out of the rainforest

about another half hour down through the rainforest conditions, we made it to the river, and crossed over on a giant suspension bridge.

 a few minutes beyond there, we turned a corner, and were surrounded by rice fields, and small farm houses set into the hills. it was such a contrast of scenery, and completely gorgeous in a different way. 

continuing down the mountain

packed up and broke down camp, and then continued down the mountain at about 9am. it has rained a little more through the night, and we were right back into the dense rainforest with rocky, rooty, muddy trail. 

all my muscles ached from hiking up and down and up and down... but loosened them up by just continuing on. I totally gave up on trying to hop around the mud though, and just plowed through for the most part. 

we made really good time this am, and were down to the next plateau in a little over an hour... and compared muddy pants and feet... 

good morning mountains!

on schedule with every other day, I woke with the sun around 6am. I was super warm and toasty in my sleeping bag, and just laid there for a bit. the horses had little bells around their necks, and it made a really sweet noise listening to the graze the field outside the tent. 

outside, the clouds had lifted a bit, and we had great views of the mountains around our little grassy plateau. 

the guys laid out warm water washing bowls for us, and we milled around drinking coffee and eating eggs and toast for breakfast. totally getting spoiled on this trip having everything laid out for us! 

himalaya trekking camp

rolling into camp (ok, kinda limping from the crazy downhill trail behind us), tents were set up, hot water basins were set out for washing, hot tea was poured, and beer and snack were served. kinda a decadent and perfect arrival for our tired bodies! 

it was drizzling a tiny bit, but that didn't deter us from spending the evening chatting around a nice warm campfire. the guides cooked us yet another fabulous meal. started with veggie ginger soup, followed by a main course of fish, lentils, salad, pasta, rice, potatoes, cauliflower with cheese, and a desert of roasted cashews with candies apples. 

completely exhausted and satisfied, I think we all crawled into our tents and were asleep shortly after 9pm. 

making tracks to get to camp!

for the group really rallied, and we were all determined to get to camp. the trail rolling through the rainforest turned into a slalom of the high-walled carved out trail, littered with rocks and mud, camouflaged with blankets of all different shapes and sizes of leaves. it was kinda a fun video game of downhill hiking for a while, until it went on and on and on. 30-45 min had turned into well over an hour and a half... and we were pretty worked from negotiating class 4 trails. we had been convinced camp was just around the next corner for a long time, and hope finally started to turn into exhaustion and a little bit of worry. 

the group had spread out into small pods, and scott and I were on our own between the guides on either end. the trail continued to be super interesting, branching into tunnels and rocky drops, but light was fading, we were more skeptical of our direction. had we missed a turn-off? were we on the right path? there were tons of branches that all "seemed" to lead to the same place... but were we sure? 

scott and I decided to pause long enough  for rich and tshe tshe to catch up, for a sanity check. safety in numbers.

by 5pm still on the trail with no camp in sight, one of the camp helpers finally came uphill to find us. we were 5 minutes to the opening, but it was dark enough in the trees, I was soooo glad we had someone showing us the way. 

I've never been soooo happy to see the  field open up ahead of us, with a dam part up in the distance waiting for us. 

30-46 min, was actually a 2+ hour push. sigh. but, camp being set and waiting for our arrival was the most amazing reward! 

meandering down

with only a few hours left to hike, we kinda got our slow pant on after the summit, and wandered down at a picture-taking sightseeing pace. the back side of the pass was even lusher that the uphill side, and the trail had a few muddy spots from rain in the previous days. there were a lot of stops to look at plants and take pictures. 

by about 3pm, we came to a rest at an amazing viewpoint where we could finally see more of the valley and surrounding mountains. 

our support guides waited for us at some point (horses were well ahead), and we got the message that we should pick up the pace a little. only 30-45 minutes more to camp, but we wanted to get there well ahead of the sun starting to set around 5pm. it goes down FAST, and by 5:30 in Bhutan, it is dark. 

we got the message, and all had tired bodies, so set out at a great clip to cover the last miles downhill to reach camp.