Woke up at 1am, rain is all I could hear even with my earplugs in. My heart sank, I didn’t fancy doing the first of the 11 passes in the rain. I seemed to lie awake for hours listening to the drumming of the rain on the flysheet, time is very deceptive at night. When I awoke again the drumming had stopped or were my earplugs working for a change, I tentatively unzipped the tent and peered out, thank goodness the rain had stopped. The cloud was high on the mountain tops, with wisps of mist clinging to the lower slopes. The weather has been a little hit and miss. We’ve hit the tail end of the monsoon when in theory it should have finished, but the majority of the rain has been over night. Today looked like we might be lucky.

This is our first of 14 high passes, and this one tops out at 4,890 metres. Just over 850 metres of ascent. Not an inconsiderable amount taking into account the altitude. This first pass would be the test, if one of us failed this because of altitude sickness, then the trek would be finished. Neither of us seemed to have suffered any symptoms, so we were both quietly confident that it wouldn’t be altitude sickness that finished either of us off. We were both over the moon when the summit of the pass, with all its prayer flags was reached. As tradition dictated, we put up our own prayer flags, with the wind blowing our prayers into the mountains.

If there’s 850 metres ascent, then there is a very good chance that there would be 850 metres of descent… strangely enough there was. The campsite is positioned right next to an open prison. The prisoners are there to rebuild a Monestory called Lingshi Dzong, as it was partially destroyed in an earthquake in 2011…a very good use of their time!

We survived the night , without being mugged or murdered. Today was, compared to yesterday, a stroll in the park. ‘The Book: says that there is no ascent or descent. I’m beginning to think that the Author has never walked The Snowman Trek, in the first kilometre we ascended over 120 metres! Throughout the day we ascended a total of over 330 metres, that in my book does not make for a ‘flat’ day. Even so, it was a day of ‘Simpson’ skys and wide easy paths. Stephen and I seem to have got into our own rhythm, it’s great to have someone to talk to along the trail and we’ve already put right all major political and religious issues that trouble todays world. However part of the joy of walking, for me, is the solitude, so it’s good that our paces are slightly different, it means we both can have the best of both worlds.

Getting back to the walk itself, just before lunch, we turned a corner in one of the many bluffs that we had walked around today and a beautiful valley and village suddenly came into view and our campsite for the night.

Stephen took advantage of the short day to nap, while I walked up to the head of the valley to take photographs of a waterfall that cascaded vertically for 75 metres from the hanging valley above.

I believe that I have already mentioned that archery is one of the national sports of Bhutan, well it so happens that we have had a front row seat from our tents. By front row, I mean just 2 metres from the arrows projectory! I also haven’t mentioned that the distance from the archer to the target is 145 metres and that a very strong wind is blowing crossways in our direction. This has made Stephen very nervous and he’s retreated to his tent, lying down so as to give as small a target as possible, whilst I’ve retreated to the mess tent and listen to the sound of the arrows whistle by!

We now have three consecutive days of crossing high passes…a testing three days.