Day 60 Wed 1 November, Lhasa to Gyantse, Tibet

We farewell the Yak Hotel, not a bad spot, quiet Tibetan decorated room with heating and bathrobes, thick duvets, rooftop restaurant for breakfast with great views, but like all Chinese hotels has a dozen clocks in reception all telling the wrong time in cities across the world, rationed loo paper and third world plumbing.

Then we head west towards Shigatse along the Brahmaputra river which for most of the way is in a wide flat valley but at times cuts between the surrounding mountains in a narrow gorge. However the road is all sealed and not scary as its generally close to the river. We make a detour up to the scorpion shaped Yamdrok-tso lake via Kumba-la pass at 4830m from which there are splendid views. It’s one of the four sacred lakes of Tibet, home to wrathful deities but its waters are being used for hydro power so the water level is falling. Having climbed the pass, seen the lake (and the yaks and antelopes which pose at the top for photos) we forego the winding descent to the lake shore and instead retreat down the even more winding road we just drove up.

Then its back to the Shigaze highway for another detour to Pu-chung’s village where we meet his mother and have lunch of potatoes, yak meat and delicious tomatoes in his family house, surrounded by the vegetable garden and stables. We also consume unending glasses of chang, home made barley beer which makes the rest of the day’s drive interesting.

Its early evening before we reach Gyantse, slowed by animals returning home across the road at every turn. Along the river which has large sandbanks, with sand-dunes reminiscent of Dubai, we are surprised to see seagulls, as well as lots of wild geese and pairs of swift moving shrikes which flying low along the river easily outpace the car at 90k/h. We also see, moving rather more slowly, yaks in festival costume ploughing the small fields.
Overnight at the Zhongshan hotel, not bad and dinner at the Tashi restaurant.

Weather 4.5, Sunny
Distance today 460km
Distance from start 13,347km
Scary Road index v low, except for pass