Nam-tso Lake and the Tibetan Plateau

  Nam-tso Lake - the highest lake in the world, China
Saturday, August 19, 2006

Three days of bush camping at altitude was never going to be easy, but our first camp was almost enough to put us off for life. It's a running joke that when we decide to pitch our tent it rains, but this time the most ferocious hail storm we have ever witnessed broke out just as we were unpacking.

The road to Lhasa 3

The wind ripped the canopy off the side of the truck and as Daphne (our truck) was up on jacks having a spring replaced, we weren't able to take shelter inside. The downpour was so hard lots of us ended up with bruises on our faces, arms and legs - it really felt like needles on your skin. Unfortunately there's no photographic evidence of the storm or the aftermath, so you'll have to take our word for it.

These sunsets make up for the altitude sickness!

The main reason Jim wasn't clicking away was that he was earning trillions of good husband points by looking after me as I experienced really awful altitude sickness. It seems that ascending from 3,000 metres to 4,700 and then camping at 4,500 messes with your system a bit!

At the border with Tibet

Enough wingeing though, as the following day I was much better and we crossed the border into Tibet! The following two days were spent travelling across the plateau. Our immediate destination before we got to Lhasa was Lake Nam-tso at 4718m (it's over 70km long and reaches 30km wide in places) it's the highest one in the world and is viewed as a really sacred place by Tibetans. The road leading to it is littered with nomadic yak-hair tents and pilgrims make straight for the small Tashi Dor monastery on the south-eastern side of the lake. It's such a peaceful place - all you can hear is the sound of prayer flags fluttering in the breeze and the tuneful songs of the men and women working on the re-building of the site.

Inside one of the temples 2

After pausing to take some photos and soak up the relaxed atmosphere we headed to some hot springs about 90km out of Lhasa. I'm glad we decided to visit them before we read the description in the Rough Guide otherwise we wouldn't have bothered! It's true the chimneys from the geothermal power station are a bit of an eye-sore but the waters in the large swimming pool outside were really hot and very relaxing - especially when you got over the horror of the slimy floor.