We drove up the road towards Chele La in the morning, and began our walk below the pass, at a height of a little above 3500 meters. This early in the morning the forest was full of bird calls. There were no animals up here; this western part of Bhutan has a relatively larger number of people and wild animals are scarce. No one else was in sight; very few cars passed us. It was a nice place for a walk.
It was a mixed forest with lots of tall deodars (Cedrus deodara), firs (Abies), pines (Pinus), and a handful of brown oaks (Quercus semecarpifolia). I’d learnt some time ago that a forest is a body of trees where the canopy covers the sky, so that the sun does not easily penetrate to ground level. On the other hand, grasslands are spaces where there may be none or many trees; but if there are trees, then grass grows below them, in sunlight. This was not truly a forest, but a typical Himalayan grassland. But language habits die hard, so I continue to call this a forest.
It had rained overnight, and there were puddles everywhere. Overhead were masses of cumulus clouds, moving slowly. We had to keep an eye on them, because when they begin to pile up a cloud or two can dump rain on you. I had my waterproof on, and everyone else in the company had raingear, or at least am umbrella. There were a few drops now and then, but fortunately there wasn’t a big shower.
I found it interesting that different kinds of lichens grow on different trees. The conifers have lichens which cling tight to the trunk, looking like splotches of paint. But every oak has leafy lichens and moss, sometimes even mistletoe and orchids. Fortunately, there was no mistletoe here to harm the few oaks. Lichens and orchids only use the wood as a substrate to grow on, and do not harm the tree.
We’d seen Kalij pheasants fleeing from the road as we drove up, reminding The Family and me of our first sighting of these birds, on the same road almost two decades ago. But during the walk we had many sightings of birds: a couple of gray-backed shrikes, several warblers and tits, Spotted nutcrackers, a bluetail, the several members of a family of grosbeaks, a rosefinch, a bullfinch, and a lifer in the shape of a juvenile Red crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) which came to investigate us. Soon it was time to bring out our picnic breakfast of sandwiches, bananas, boiled eggs and tea, supplemented by the little things that each of us had carried in our backpacks. We ate at the edge of a little field of cabbage, and then it was time to drive up to Chele La: Bhutan’s highest mountain pass.
Don't hold your breath 
