we went into the clouds, and then it was really weird! You could see what looked like the top level, but then as soon as you went round the next hairpin, another level would appear from in the clouds!!!!! It took about an hour to get to the top, and the driver was no slouch! The altitude started to get to us as we rose as well, feeling more dizzy as we rose, and were proper light headed at the top!! There were superb views of Yamdol Tso Lake there though, it’s one of Tibet’s many holy lakes, and is called the scorpion lake due to it’s shape. It’s also a dead lake, which means that no rivers flow in or out of it. So, what do the Chinese do? They build a hydro electric power plant because it‘s high up!! Not only is this hugely disrespectful to the Tibetan’s culture, but according to environmental groups, the lake will be drained in 20 years. Apparently the Chinese had said that water would be pumped back in off peak hours, but apparently there is no evidence of this happening. Nice one again

Chinese!! The other things up on the pass were the first yaks we’d seen, and the herders were charging money to photo them. Ahh, tourism!! J So we paid and took our photos, and then were on our way.

We drove down an equally long series of hairpins to get down to the lake, an drove round the edge of it, which was rather pleasant, and then speed off up the valley. Suddenly, the tarmac ran out and we were rattling down a very bumpy dirt track at speed. At this point it became clear just what our journey would be like in this 18 year old Land Cruiser. I was reminded of the guy in the tourist office saying that you could pay extra for a newer Land Cruiser and that the main difference was the suspension!!! At this stage we caught a glimpse of a couple of really huge glaciers, really high up on the mountains either side of us. As we turned a corner they was another one, but this one reached down almost