Banikhet

The story

A clear, windy autumn morning above Banikhet: a traveller walks the open crest of the ridge into the wind toward the summit of Dainkund, the 'singing hill', its deodars bending, clouds streaming over, a griffon hanging on the updraft and black kites wheeling over the valley, the forested foothills falling away below to the snowy Dhauladhar across it.

Why this picture

Dainkund rises above Banikhet and Dalhousie out of the deodar, blue pine and oak forest of the Kalatop-Khajjiar country to an open grassy top of rocks and tawny grass, where a beaten path runs along the crest to the summit; the wind in its deodars gives it its name, the singing hill, and Himalayan griffons and black kites ride the updrafts along the ridge. In the clear air after the monsoon the snowy Dhauladhar stands across the valley.

• wikitravel.org
• Kalatop Khajjiar Sanctuary — Wikipedia
• Banikhet — Wikipedia
• Cedrus deodara — Wikipedia
• Himalayan vulture — Wikipedia
• Black kite — Wikipedia

The sky wears Khovar, from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand.

The motion

Clouds stream across the whole sky on the wind; the sun's rays turn; the deodars bend in the wind and gust further over; the crest's grass leans and bends; the griffon hangs on the updraft, rising, falling and tipping its wings; two black kites wheel over the valley; the traveller walks. A 16-second loop.