Overland trip - the Tibetan plateau...

After 5 days of citydom, we get back on the truck to spend the next 5 nights camping and covering many hundreds of kilometres between Lhasa and Lanzhou.

Not a great deal to report, but the landscape changed dramatically - from snow capped peaks, to desert. The roads remained pretty good, so not so many bumps.

Sitting at the back of the truck was something of a wind tunnel, and grateful for being wrapped up in a blanket.

Whilst the landsacape was truly amazing, boredom did eventually set in and we played a game of 'Guess The Crisp Flavour'. Despite 4 different coloured bags, they all managed to taste the same - chicken-y, though I think they were some kind of spicy pork and egg.

Camping seemed like a chore to look forward to at the end of the day, but after a couple of days you get into a bit of a routine - I think we got an A-frame tent up in 9 minutes at best.

Camp fires were pretty cool, and Yak dung (dry!) does work well in place of wood, though we held back on the marshmallows.

As part of a travelling group, we were all assigned different chores (head of leftovers, tent management, chief of larder) as well as having to take a turn in cooking breakfast, lunch an dinner. Thought it would be a nightmare, but didn't turn out too bad in the end and no leftovers to discard on the day we cooked.

Most of us now past the altitude sickness, though glad to be heading down to less than 2500 metres. We were hoping to feel 'amazing' when we got back down to thicker air, but didn't seem to happen for us - maybe too long on the road/our backsides.

Many k's later, and we arrive back in civilisation - Lanzhou.

Paul and Chris