Today is my 49th birthday. To avoid having to consume a camp birthday cake or the like, I have kept this fact a close secret.
After breakfast, we break camp and drive into Nyalam. One of our party has not brought any hiking poles, and feels the need for some after trying out some of ours. In Nyalam, there are some small shops, and we find a pair of mops, the handles of which are to serve as hiking poles on the rest of the trek. Before we start walking, the drivers use the mops to clean dust off the land cruisers.
There is an army checkpoint at Nyalam, the first of several we pass on the road over the following weeks. These are manned by Peoples' Army soldiers. When arriving at a checkpoint, the drivers and guide exit the vehicles to show our papers to the guards; we stay in the land cruisers looking innocent. Most of the soldiers we see in Tibet are dressed in a motley mixture of green uniform clothing, sports shirts, tennis shoes, and whatever else appears available. I do not recall seeing a single military person dressed in a full uniform. Most of them are unarmed, but the checkpoint guards usually carry sidearms. While waiting at the checkpoint, I use the opportunity to use the communal toilet. This consists of a small building with holes in the floor over a small stream. Little do I know at the time that this will be the last indoor toilet I see for some time.
Once past the checkpoint, we drive for several hours, all the while steadily gaining in altitude. Eventually we arrive at the top of the La Lung-la pass at an altitude of 5200 meters. Thus far, we have climbed from Kodari (1873m) to Zhang-mu (2300m) through Nyalam (3750m). The wisdom of acclimating ourselves is shown by the fact that none of us feels distressed by the altitude. Travellers to Lhasa who arrive directly from Kathmandu are prone to feel woozy when they arrive at this pass.
As with most of the passes we will traverse, this one is marked with a pole festooned with prayer flags and piles of mani stones. Mani stones are carved with prayers or mantras, the most common being "Om mani padme hum". In addition to stones, we often see carved yak skulls piled with the manu stones. Mani stones are often piled into mani walls, especially around gompas or other holy places.
Shortly past the crest of the pass, we turn off the main "road" and head west. There is no sign marking the track from the many others which lead off to the horizon. I found it amazing that our drivers were able to navigate through such unmarked networks of tracks. We are heading towards the town of Saga, where we will camp for the night. The road is a bumpy twisted track, and very dusty. Typical speeds over such roads are in the 15-30 km/hr range. We will drive for over 12 hours and cover just 250 km today.
Late afternoon brings us to the river crossing for the town of Saga. Here the Brahmaputra river is wide, rapid, and polluted; it is necessary to use a ferry to cross. The ferry consists of two steel pontoons over which I-beams and a wooden roadway have been positioned. The ferry is guided by a pair of steel cables suspended across the river. There is no motor, and the contraption is propelled across by human muscles. As can be seen in the photograph, the ferry manages to accomodate our truck and both land cruisers, while we stand on the pontoons. As you can see by the clothing, it is cold and a stiff wind is blowing.
We drive through Saga, which seems to consist primarily of a large Chinese military installation, and camp several kilometers further on. A party of Tibetan pilgrims is already camped nearby, and we are soon visited by several dozen school-age children. They show us some schoolbooks as they ask for pens. Since we have none, they must be content with candy. We find out from the guides that they are returning from Kailash, where they were unable to complete the Kora because of snow on the Dolma La pass. This is worrisome since the pass is normally snow-free by mid-May. It appears that El Nino has given us another indication of his power.
By the time the tents are pitched, night has fallen along with the temperature. Everyone is too tired to eat; I crawl into my sleeping bag after a quick bowl of soup in the cook tent.