Marahni Trek – Day 2: Goats, Clouds and Quercus Alnifolia

30. September 2023

 

 

The morning view from the tent was not accompanied by joy: full of clouds. But the goats had all come home and populated the field under my tent. A goat herder found the place next to my tent a great idea for his morning slime release. I grabbed my camera and walked around. There were small sunny stretches between the clouds. A few steps further on there was a holy shrine. These were everywhere on this tour. There were also three men who held a small ceremony in front of it and lit an incense cone. I also went to the goats for closer photos. One found me very interesting and came to sniff. When I then turned and walked away, she thought it was an invitation to come along. Several other goats followed her example. If nothing works out in my life, could I become a goat leader?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then we started after a relatively late breakfast. It was uphill.

 

 

 

 

 

The vegetation of the day was the Quercus Alnifolia, i.e. the golden oak. In terms of the leaves, it looks nothing like my oak at home. The leaves are green on top and yellow-brown on the underside, i.e. they practically glow golden in good light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met more goats and sheep:

 

 

 

 

Then it started to get pretty cloudy, it got cooler and we continued upwards. We climbed about 600 metres in altitude and 100 metres down again. We slept at about 3,300 m – but not yet, of course.

 

 

 

 

We came to a kind of ridge from where we could look down on our campsite. Opposite, a rainbow was spreading out. How beautiful!

 

 

And then the time had come: the clouds had all gathered and built up and were now unloading their water. Quickly down or wait again under a tree. The camping meadow had a few cows and horses, some of which were on their way home.

 

 

 

There were a few small breaks in the rain where the tents could be set up. There were 3 small shepherd’s huts in the meadow and the shepherds had just moved out of one of them, so the accompanying team could spread out there and set up the kitchen. The ceiling hung very low and you had to crawl through the entrance and then you could only squat. I always liked watching the cook, Negi, and here it was particularly fascinating to see him virtually squatting for hours, extensively stirring the onions, adding wood, etc. He said he grew up in the mountains and always had to walk around and work outside before school. Then hurry with breakfast in the hand to the school bus. He wouldn’t mind the lugging around, running and squatting.

 

 

 

 

We had our dinner there, crammed together (always delicious!) and then went to the tent to fall asleep. This was accompanied by rain, thunder and sometimes even lightning. Hey, none of the weather reports had predicted that! Should we now only be able to look at the raindrops from our highlight, the Marahni viewpoint, the next day?