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Trek from Paro to Shana, 2870 meters

Shana Travel Blog › entry 5 of 13 › view all entries

Trekking in Bhutan was a back-to-basic experience - camping by the river, sleeping in a tent, setting up a fire to keep warm, no Coke or Snicker bars sold along the way (unlike in Nepal). The reason for all the inconveniences and rigourous walking .... to see Bhutan's most sacred summit - Mt Jhomohari.

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Trek from Paro to Shana, 2870 meters

March 23, 2008

Bhuddhist inscriptions on the rock boulders

The trek started at the trailhead near to the ruins of Drukgyel Dzong where we meet with the trekking crew - a cook, an assistant cook, the herdsman, his nephew and the seven mules being heavily laden with equipment and supplies stuffed into bamboo baskets. We set off north along Paro river and following an ancient trade route to Tibet.

We caught a glimpse of the glistening snow capped peak of Mt Jhomohari at the trailhead and that was all the view we had of the mountain till we reached higher altitudes.

The trail through the valley was long but fairly easy and took us past villages, farmhouses and wheat fields. We came upon a house where the farmer was sun drying beef strips while his sons were playing archery.

Peach Blossom

The boys were kind enough to let us try our hands on archery. I failed miserably as the arrow refused to leave my hand and when it finally did, it landed only about 10m away while the boys could shoot it off about 50m away.

The peach trees were in blossom and it was a pretty sight. We were offered smoked dried yak cheese to try by some local ladies. It was rock hard with a smoked flavour and would take more than an hour to have it dissolved in the mouth. Not quite my type of candy!

Beyond the entrance to Jigme Dorje National Park was the first army post where everyone had to register before proceeding either way. The trail after the army post started to be rockier as we walked next to the river. Our first campsite was in Shana, overlooking across the river to one of the last houses in the vicinity that have electricity.

The night was cool and the campfire offered comforting heat. Bedtime was at 8pm as there was nothing much one could do after darkness had set in.