Part 27 - To TROMDA; delays, weather, and plant observations

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SUMMARY:
The party reports delays due to missing loads and exhausted coolies while aiming for Nang Dzong. On 2nd April they march to TROMDA in rain and snow; Puitso catches up after spending the night on the road, and the route is noted for sandy paths, a spur crossing, and vegetation including pines, rhododendrons, and Primula species in side valleys.

CONTENT:
They are all of poor physique & some are lunatics: most seem to be diseased. We should have got to Nang Dzong in two days; now it will take at least three, but it was worse going on today, with 15 loads not yet arrived & the coolies very tired. The valley is rather drier here, we saw no pines on the hills after the first two miles, but they are covered with shrubs, not yet in flower, though showing green here & there.

2nd April. To TROMDA. 6 miles. 10800'
A clouded day, with rain & snow for an hour even in the valley, clearing up later. Puitso did not get off till after dark last night, & himself arrived at Rabdang just after we had left this morning. He spent the night on the road. We left at 6.45 & got in at 9.30 am. with the same coolies. There is a good deal of sand on the path, but it is not so much up & down, with the exception of one spur crossed at mile 2. No flowers on the way, but I saw a few heads of Primula pumilio here - a species just coming into flower. The hills again have pines on the north faces & also rhododendrons. On the way here one passes some small side valleys with water, & they all seem to have a primula growing in them. P. sikkimensis is there, but there is another also, which appears to be P. microdonta,