Day 2: Chukkhha to Paro: The following morning was one of the clearest of the tour. That was nice as now I could actually see the mountains surrounding us, which were only ghostly shadows on the previous day. There was only the 80 km left to reach Paro that day, but it was a bit slower than I expected. Climbing up out of the gorge from Chhukha the road gained 500 meters before dropping down about 200 m into another river valley. From there it rose another 430 m to the high point on the way to Paro, 2,545 m at Chapcha La. Then there was a 500-m descent before a long 6 km-stretch where the road was under repair and quite bumpy. So it was into the afternoon by the time I reached the final turn to Paro, where the rivers Pa Chu and Thim Chu meet to form the Wong Chu. I was a little surprised at how rocky the mountains appeared in this area. I don't really know why that surprised me, probably because I had heard that so much of the country is forested. From there it was an easy 35 km, rolling up and down a little, through the valley to Paro. By then it was late afternoon and the wind and clouds had both picked up, an situation which occurred on almost every day of my visit. In fact, later that evening there was a brief rain shower, the first I had seen for a couple of months.