Druk Path Trek - Day 3

We didn't sleep well, maybe because it was too hot in the double sleeping bags. At 6am I got out of the tent, it was still about 30 minutes before the sun would reach us, but again I couldn't stay in a sleeping bag that long. The view was great - we were above the clouds, and everything was covered with frost. Eventually the sun came up, and melted the frost. We warmed up and had breakfast - porridge, scrambled eggs, toast. Yummy.

We started today's trek heading up to 4,100m, and then spent the next three hours up and down between 4,000m and 4,100m. It was very tiring, although a beautiful path to trek. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.

I wore my trekking pants, a longsleeved base layer top, a neck gator and sun hat, and was quite comfortable. When we stopped for lunch I put on my fleece to keep warm. The temperature was maybe 10C (?).

In a bowl between two passes we saw a couple prepping and drying a plant that is used as incense. It grows wild above 3,500m. Our guide spoke with them, they sell large sacks of the dried plant for 700 Nu in India (about $12). They were okay with me taking photos so I took a bunch.

We finally reached our lunch spot after three hours, a great viewpoint of the valley and the Himalayans. Lunch was a hot lunch again (!).

We then descended to 3,600m to a lake, and then up the other side of a valley, around a bend, finally to our campsite at 3,800m. It faced west, so caught the late afternoon sun. It was a long walk today - 11km over 6 hours 15 minutes mostly above 4,000m, and we were exhausted.

Dinner was excellent, and then we had another campfire. We were at a lesser-used campsite (it's more common to camp at the lake we passed earlier, but this campsite was better if you can reach it). There were semi-nomadic locals nearby, from whom I think we bought some firewood.

We chatted with our guide, tried to learn some more Bhutanese, and went to bed around 8:30pm.