Friday May 22 - Challenges of Overlanding and Altitude

We didn't leave Nylam till mid-day. Ray was feeling really sick and headachy with the altitude, and I was feeling a lot of tightness in the chest, and headachy as well. So we were a sorry bunch as we climbed on the Truck for the short drive to the Caves. Along the way we met a couple of police checks, and the seond one wouldn't let us through saying the roads were closed from 7 am to 9 pm. So, we turned back and found a unique camping spot on the lower slopes of a range of 800 meter mountains. In the afternoon Ray stayed in the tent and slept while I went for a walk with the group. The walk seemed to help the headachy feeling, and when I came back, I felt much better. We have a Tibetan guide with us and he spoke to one of the villagers in Gangka who allowed us to see over his homestead. The houses here are quite beautiful. They are made out of stone or brick, held together with dried mud plaster and coloured off white. At the top at the join with the roof there is a broad band painted in religious colour's denoting white for compassion, red for wisdom, and black for energy and power. There is a window in some rooms. The house is built around the courtyard where the hens and goats and dogs live. The rooves are flat and stacked with firewood or yak dung cakes. The houses inside are full of stuff. We saw some beautifully hand painted cabinets, some beautiful carved wood cupboards and a beautiful copper water urn. In the middle of one room there was a television and one of the other main rooms had beds in it and a shrine with prayer wheels. It looked like a husband and wife with 5 kids and a grandfather lived there. They were all very agreeable to photos and got a big charge out of reviewing them. We weren't sure how "set up" it was, but none the less, it was the home of a Tibetan family living in a small desolate village in the Tibetan plateau. Next we went down to Milaraba Buddhist Practice Monastery. The story from our Tibetan guide is that there was an old monstery there and a new monastery was being built. Two years ago, building was stopped, and everything, including the Caves, is now padlocked. No worries, it was simple, but interesting as this is a very religious area. There are lots of prayer flags and mani (or maybe mali?) stones and yak horns printed with sutras which represent active merit and serve to seek higher levels of rebirth. Then we walked back to the campsite through the small community living along the water's edge. Dan and Joey were in charge of dinner - delicious barbecued pork and chicken, with boiled potatoes, sliced tomatoes, and coal-slaw. So welcoming to us after the Asian flavours. During supper, Tamar told us of some changes of plan. The next section of the road also had road closures and we wouldn't be able to follow our original plan of driving further up to the pass during the day for acclimatisation, so we would do it that night - if we all agreed, as the road would then be open. So we finsihed dinner, cleaned up and climbed into the Truck armed with our sleeping bags and warm clothes. We drove for 2 1/2 hours to the Pangda Pass t 5050 meters. The road was largely unpaved, and we drove through the rocky mountains so it was an incredibly tough drive. Added to that was the fact that where the road was closed and a detour provided, it wasn't marked. On one occasion we ended up coming to an abrupt halt as there was about an 8 foot by 1 foot deep gash across the road. I don't think the Truck would have made it!! When we got to the pass it was freezing, but we stayed for over an hour, walking around and getting back into the truck to warm up all the time fighting the tightness in the chest, the shortness of breath, the headache, and for some nausea. What are we doing to ourselves!! We had no concept of the magnificence of the scenery. After 1 1/4 hrs we climbed back into the Truck, and drove back down the way we had come and crawled into our tents. It had been raining while we were away, and our tent had leaked, so our sleeping bags were wet and damp. None the less, altitude does wonders, and we were soon asleep.