Bhutan Day 3 - The Start of Druk Trek

The Druk Trek Path begins.  Our trek was a 4 night, 5 day trek from Paro town to Thimpu City.  Over a couple of mountain passes, reaching heights over 14,000 feet above sea level.  However since this vacation had limited time our plan was to do it in 3 nights and 4 days, meaning we did 2x the norm on day one...straight up the damn mountain!

So getting started their were five of us, plus the tour guide owner (turns out it was her first trip ever), our guide, 3 horsemen, 2 cooks and 12 mules/horses.  We actually paid for 2 of the horses in case we needed help on the trek and couldn't walk further.

 We left Paro Town at 9:30AM prepared for a long day of trekking, expecting to get to our campsite between 5-6PM.

As we went along in the heat of the morning the scenery simply got more and more stunning.

I loved looking down on the town in the distance and the bright red chili peppers drying out in the sun! The sun during the first 2/3 of that day's hike was brutally hot as we hiked up, up and more up.  The paths were mostly clear and free of any sort of tree cover.

As we got higher there was a long hike through a muddy forest that was much cooler which made the trek more comfortable and different in a technical way.

 Lots more chilli peppers!

 Some villagers heading down to the city...

 "Versase" shirt out in the middle of no man's land...

 Notice the ladder in the lower left.  This is how the owners enter their home/farm daily.  It's built like this to keep the random farm animals from destroying the crops.

 The horse in the front with the red wig also had a bell on.  This was the lead horse that all other horses would follow thanks to the vivid color and the noises made with each step.

Around 5:30 PM we finally found out camp site!  Utter exhaustion had slowed us significantly the past hour or so.  We couldn't wait to get to camp, grab some food, drink some wine and relax.  In reality the sun went down around 6 and probably by 8:15 we were all dead asleep.  Although I did wake hourly thanks to the rocks under my tent, but I still slept remarkably well.  Refreshed for the next day, which had to be easier!