Tibet

The Road to Lhasa

After finishing up in Ladakh, it was time for myself and Matt Tidy to make the long journey through Nepal, and over the Himalayan range to Tibet.

Frozen prayer flags at 5400m, on the road to Lhasa

On the road to Lhasa. Thousands of praywheels set into the walls around Tashilhunpo Monastery, Shigatse.

Tashilhunpo Monastery, Shigatse.

Local Monk in the main square, Lhasa.

A week in Lhasa

We arrive in Lhasa, the ancient capital of Tibet, in the end of September, and met up with the rest of the team. The team for this leg of the trip was Sam Hughes (UK), Matt Tidy (UK), Dave Kwant (NL), Jason Shepherd (USA), Eden Sinclair (NZ), and Zak Shaw (NZ). We spent a week in Lhasa for the team to acclimatize and pepare for the trip.

Tibet has for centuries fascinated travelers as the 'Forbidden Kingdom' on the roof of the world. With regulations concerning tourism and travel easing, the country for the first time is becoming more accessible. With Chinese making huge efforts to construct roads, and recently completing the controversial Qinghai – Lhasa railway line, moving around within the country is becoming much easier. This in itself has raised much debate as to whether visiting Tibet is giving support the China's continuing efforts to control this fascinating country.

The Potala Palace, traditional home to the Dalai Lama, Lhasa.

A pilgrim in the Barkhor square, Lhasa.

A pilgrim makes a circuit of the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa.

Prayer wheels, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa.

Yak butter lamps, Sera Monastery, Lhasa

On the Road

With most of our supplies for the following 5 weeks, we loaded up Windhorse adventures' big green truck, and hit the road heading east.

Prayflags blow in the wind at 5000m on Mi La Pass.

Our Tibetan suport crew. From left: Chembe, Passang and Dawa.

Matt Tidy, Drukla River.

Classic kayaking on the Nyang Chu River.

Nyang Chu River.

What we found was beyond our expectations. Not only was there a huge concentration of classic white water, set in a surprisingly lush forested region of the Tibetan plateau, but despite the best of Chinese efforts to up root Tibetan culture, in many areas the old Tibetan way of life still appears to flourish. But for how long this can remain, with China's ever increasing strong hold on the region, and the huge influx of Han Chinese immigrants, it is hard to predict.

We worked our way east towards the Parlung Tsangpo, exploring rivers on the way.

When the roads get too rough, there is alway a Dong Feng at hand!

Making our way up the Yiong Tsangpo.

The Parlung Tsangpo

The main achievement of our trip was the first full descent of the Parlung Tsangpo River. Form it's high altitude source at Ngan-tso lake, 9 days, 210km and 1600m drop in altitude to where it joins the Po Tsangpo, before cascading into the 'Great Bend' of the Yarlung Tsangpo, the deepest gorge in the world.

First descent, Parlung Tsangpo.

Eden Sinclair shows us how it's done!

Eden Sinclair, first descent, Parlung Tsangpo.

Dave Kwant, First descent, Parlung Tsangpo.

After a month of classic paddling, it was time to make the last long haul 5 day drive, across the last border mountains of Tibet, towards Chengdu in the Sichuan province of China, our final destination.

Dawa watches the world go by in the back of the truck.

Yaks, a high altitude brother to the cow, that cannot live below 2500m.

Nomad children come to check out the strange western people.

Still hungry for adventure, we make a finaly detour to the Dadu river in the Sichuan province of China.