Mightier Than the Mighty Mountains

Sarangkot

I have this love-hate relationship with clouds. They are the highlight of the vast, sunny, bright landscapes most of the time. Puffy, white and bright bubbles floating over an otherwise dull - alas blue - sky. They spice up images, they provide the drama in some stunning sceneries. They add the mystery effect to jungle forests, to lakes and valleys, but they can as well be the major source of frustration when they hide the (main) subject of your view.

The clouds, huge, fiercy, merciless creatures, capable to float and fly, to expand and split, to appear and vanish; to swallow mountains and valleys and lakes and oceans out of our sight; to spit out fire, to cry rain, to scatter snow; to be stunningly light and bright or dangerously dark and tense. They are mightier than these mighty mountains for they can hide, rain, hail or snow them, just as easy as they can beautify and caress them.

Today I hated the clouds.The past couple of sunrises were perfect, the sunsets as well. Now, that I came up here to Sarangkot, that I wanted so much to capture this moment it escaped and elluded me. Maybe I ask too much for. My greed for mountain views is insatiable.

I have come up to Sarangkot to stay overnight.
I found a nice lodge after coming up the steep and dusty road. From my window I could see Pokhara and the Fewa lake down in the valley. Especially at night I liked the view of the many tiny lights of the city, like a tiny reflexion of the sky.

We were a considerable number of people up on top of the hill at both sunset and sunrise, but we didn't have the sights of the previous days.

Sarangkot, a village perched on top of a hill overlooking the Pokhara valley and offering great views of the Annapurna range does not seem to have much of a future. The terrain is very much slide-prone and the slides from this and the previous year have left their horrible marks. A particularly big landslide took a few lives and wiped off several houses and destroyed fields after the heavy rainfalls this summer. It looks depressing to see the slide paths.

Other than for the famous views of the Annapurna range people/tourists come here for paragliding. On a sunny day like this there are quite a few vividly coloured paraglides floating over and around the hilltop.