Part 39 - Diary entry for 4 May: march near Rongang toward Shambling

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SUMMARY:
The party marches through dense forest near Rongang, noting many Primula mollis (first not in flower, then found flowering) but few other plants of interest, with capsules of a lily and some rhododendrons observed. Route discussions mention Nashina as not promising, Serdong La lacking nearby water, and Tiu as the best first halt, while Ngudup grows increasingly depressed about their plans.

CONTENT:
we were in. Then at about mile 5 the path levels off till just before reaching here it drops suddenly again. In the dense forest, both close to Rongang and in the very steep bit, there was any amount of the new primula 18806 (P. mollis), but again not in flower. Apart from that the march was very uninteresting. Poor Ngudup gets more and more depressed as he hears of where we are going and how long we will stay there. We still don't get very good information though. It seems Nashina would be much good, though the Serdong La might be good, but there is no water within miles of the pass. Tiu seems our best bet for the first halt.

4th May. Shambling. 6 miles. Very heavy rain all last night until just as we started. Fine but mist and cloud today. We found our primula in flower today (P. mollis 18816), very close to Rongang, and also just beside camp here. Otherwise nothing of interest seen - in fact these last two days have really been remarkable for the absence of flowers. There were, near the pass yesterday, capsules of a lily - either Lilium nepalense or L. nepalense var. concolor, and there were many Rhododendron virgatum and Rhododendron griffithianum. But today we really saw nothing at all. We can however, see the snows, not the main range, but a subsidiary running South. Today's road climbs for the first mile round a spur and