Towards Tibet

The last few days in Ladakh allowed us discovering another incredible part of this already incredible region.

After having obtained - not without difficulties - a special permit to be able to get close to the China border (there has been a war between China and India on these mountains in 1962), we left Leh and with trusty Pemba we went up the gorges of the Indus river towards East - until when the landscape begun to progressively open out, and the horizons to extend.

We had reached the far-east part of Ladakh, almost at the border with Tibet: the region of the yaks and the nomads, the region of the Tso Moriri* and of the Tso Kar lakes - a barren plateau (we were almost at 5,000 m asl) surrounded by more gentle peaks than those in the Stock and Zanskar ranges.

If Ladakh looks desolate, this part of Ladakh seemed even more desolate. When we finally reached Kozok, probably the only existing settlement near the Tso Moriri, we really had the impression to have reached the last stop before the end of the world...

(*) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5zxrbvRRdM