Spring feelings

After a memorable train journey (and that is not meant in the positive sense), I arrived in Dharamsala just in time for late spring.

Dharamsala is the town at the foothills of the southern Himalayas, Mcleod Ganj the hamlet further up the mountain that is home for the Dalai Lama and exile Tibetan community. Even further up, there is a small village embedded in trees, forest and small fields. This is Bhagsu where I stay, at about 1850 meter’s height.

The first few days here I just had to rest and regain my energy, but soon enough I started to settle in. I found a room on a wonderfully peaceful trail, finally with the hammock I longed for already when planning this journey in the wintertime.

Here I can lie down and read, sleep or just rock while watching the soothing view: cherry trees blessing the mountain-slopes with white cream puffs, yellowish butterflies chasing the trails of the wind and eagles roaming the sky for prey. As many as three small white temples also fit into the panorama.

The flora and fauna is absolutely stunning. I have seen some, for my eyes, unusual birds, a long-tailed purple one and another in the brightest green feathers. Red-blossomed rhododendron trees are also to be found, apparently they only grow at this height. One day I went horse-trekking with my friends Sara and Anders. It was a bit like pony-riding when you were a child, but still it was special to get up the mountain and through the forest on horseback. Inside the forest was one place only with those rhododendrons, and further up, and just as magical, an area totally wrapped in Tibetan prayer flags, where stones were piled on top of each other on the ground creating small sanctuaries for the spirits.

The snow-capped tops of the Dhauladhars can be seen from some points here, and it is about a four-hour trek to get there by foot. A possible future adventure! It is said a bit further up there are snow leopards, but I guess they are hiding well. Would be awesome to see one, and probably quite scary too.

A  few days ago, after a dramatic thunderstorm with huge Himalayan-size hails suddenly all the cherry blossoms vanished, and summer arrived.