Wednesday June 3, 2009 - Lhasa to Golmud - The Tibetan Plateau

We left the luxury of our hotel in Lhasa around 9 am on Wednesday to travel to Namtso the highest salt water lake in the world at 4718 meters and 1870 square kilometers in surface area. The drive there was quite beautiful following a river through the flat plains bordered by the Nyainqentanglha Mountain Range. The road to the lake took us up and over Largen La at 5186 meters. At the top we stopped for sweet tea and saw what looked like a Mercedes sign, but was actually some Ministry of Transportation sign. The insignia was the same except the circle was broken. We ate lunch in a small typically Tibetan community called Damxung. We then climbed another pass and after the summit, we turned the corner and there before us lay a mass of blue water glittering in the sunshine. This was Namtso Lake. There was a small Tibetan settlement and we camped close by there. The Tibetans are more nomadic here and you see them camped at the side of the road in their tents, with their pick-up trucks outside and animals around them. When we arrived at the lake about 5:30 - 6 pm, we were struggling a little with the altitude but none the less took off walking from where we pitched the tent down to the Lake. It looked as if it was about 20-30 mins away, but it took us about an hour to get there by the time we climbed over 2 fences, crossed the road, and forded a narrow waterway before finally reaching the cold, windy, shores of the lake. On the way, we saw tons of ponies, many with blankets on, and a fascinating array of small wild flowers. The water was quite rough, freezing cold, and not particularly salty. It was so cold that after dinner we went straight to bed in our tents, more to keep warm than sleep. Ray and I joined our sleeping bags and were quite warm till about 3 am when it started to get really cold and so did we. The bevy of neighbourhood dogs started barking around midnight and put on quite a show which kept most of us awake for a while during the night. This was actually one of the worst nights we have had. My heart was thumping, I couldn't breethe and just generally had a hard time. Ray was the same. It took most of the next morning before we became accustomed again to the altitude. It seems that even if you go down for a few days, your body doesn't remember how to cope with the lack of oxygen.