5 Days on the Siklis Trek: Part 2

Day 2 on the trek we are greeted with clear skies and no wind at the campsite.  In the high mountains it is very windy with great plumes of snow billowing off the slopes. 

We trek into the ‘Natural Zone’ so I guess we were un-natural to this point.

We join the porters for a short rest and can once again buy our beverage or snack of choice.  I wonder if there are motion sensors at our rest stops to alert the nearby village of our stop and the sales opportunity. 

We enter the forest.  If it weren’t for the views, I would guess I am in the rain forest along the BC coast or on a walk in Louisiana. 

The flowering magnolia trees mix with the flowering rhododendron forest. 

Patches of orchids,

blue gentian (?),

pitcher plants and

some butterflies add to the green of the ferns and mosses.

We reach the high point of our trek, 3095 meters, and camp at Tara Hill Top. 

The camp bar is open,

a card game is already going in the back,

and the lights are plugged into the solar cells for power.  (Sometimes the modern and traditional mixes are striking!)

In the morning we awake to a nice sunrise and view of the mountains. 

The remains of the prior night’s rain and hail storm are next to my tent.  But today is cloudless and we enjoy our breakfast with a view.

It seems funny to see water buffalo at 3000 meters in a forest field.  One of our porters passes us as we amble downward through the forest today to our campsite, again with a view. 

Our camp is very close to the village of Parche

so many things are for sale. 

After dinner the whole village comes to the stone porter’s hut and we are treated to music and dance.

Marcel and I are invited (PULLED) to join the dance

and have a good time.

While we are gathered it has been raining HARD so the villagers walk home with their heavy wool shawls pulled up over their heads and repel rain as well as a modern rain coat (bump on back of woman’s shawl is pulled up to cover her head). 

We all sleep very well and the tents are dry inside.

The next morning Marcel and I receive a bottle of the village’s raski as a thank you for our dancing the night before!