Nam Tso

On the 16^th of May we got on the road again. We travelled from Lhasa to Nam Tso, a famous lake that we absolutely wanted to see. On the way to the lake we passed over the Kyang-la Pass. It was a very steep climb up to the pass and Rosie was at the maximum in second gear as we slowly crept up to the top of the 5240m pass. We again beat our altitude record with the detour to Nam Tso! Wanting to go even higher for the good view on the lake Boris, Simon and I climbed a nearby hill. We went up only about 50m more or so, but every step was absolutely exhausting. Luckily the way down was easy and fun as we could slide down a big snowfield.

The ride down to the lake was awesome. This was exactly what we had expected of the Tibetan plateau: A good road over a vast grass plane, with yak and sheep grazing around us and once in a while passing a small camp of nomad herders. The view of the gigantic lake in front of a snowcapped mountain  ridge was stunning. Nam Tso is one of Tibet’s sacred lakes. It is the second -largest saltwater lake in China and truly one of the most beautiful natural sights in Tibet. We drove directly to its shoreline for a look around and to explore a peninsula for the possibility of camping. As the lake is holy of course so are the small mountain and its surrounding cliffs on the peninsula. However a local monk who came down to the lake to admire our bikes and to have a look through our binocular permitted us to set up our tents.

Leaving Horst who was not keen on camping at over 4700m at a nearby guest house where we enjoyed a local dinner Simon, Boris and I headed back to the lake to find the ideal camping spot and set up camp. The days are very long up here. Coming from Laos we are of course not used to sunsets at 8:30 any more. But it’s great to have daylight for so long and watch the sunset after dinner. We went for a wander around the peninsula and had a spectacular sunset on one side and the rising of the full moon on the other side. It was a fantastic opportunity for Boris and Simon to play with their good cameras. 

Along our hike a Tibetan shepherd dog suddenly joined us. The dog was very friendly and playful and as we went back to the camp to go to bed the dog curled up outside of our tents. He made it his duty to protect us from anybody how came near the camp. So the next morning we were woken up at around 7am by his barking. It turned out that we had set up our tents about 20m off the kora (worshiping trail for Tibetans) around the mountain. Every local who went on his morning walk around the mountain of course stopped at our tents to examine the strangers and our dog did not like this at all. While packing up our tent and getting ready to leave again, Boris or I had to constantly calm down the dog so that he would not chase after the curious locals.