We made it! Despite the worryingly high chance of getting snowed in en route, we got all the way from Chengdu to Lhasa – 3,000 kilometres – with only two tyre changes, one mild case of altitude sickness and one lost-and-later-found passport. I leave Lhasa today, heading back to the oxygen-rich fug of Chengdu to defrost (with the help of some mapo tofu), and thence to Hong Kong on Tuesday.

I’m due at the airport shortly, so a full report will need to wait for a day or two, but for now, here is a photographic taster of the last fortnight’s travels…

Enjoy!

xx

Lake Yilhun La-tso, Manigango

Wolf, Serqu

Sera Monastery, Lhasa

Noodle action, Qumarleg

Snowclouds, en route to Serqu

Earthquake damage, Yushu

Mani stones for sale, Yushu

Mani stones, Nam-tso

A Gyarong Castle, Wori

A young tulku (‘living buddha’), Serxu

A mile of prayer stones, Bagemani, Serxu

Frozen reservoir at dusk, Serqu

Flower seller, Jana Mani, Yushu

The frosty road to Nam-tso

Sunset, Nagchu, Tibet

Amdo nomad style, Yushu

Yak butter lamps, Yushu

Boy band material, Yushu

Moonrise over the Four SIsters’ Mountains, Sichuan

Potala Palace and reflection, Lhasa

Frosty morning in Tagong, Mt Yala in the background

The roof of Ramoche Temple, Lhasa

Snack time, Serxu

Autumn in progress, between Danba and Bamei

Sunset over the Trola Mountains, outside Ganzi

A traffic jam inside a long tunnel damaged in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake

Day 1: Our first 4,000 metre mountain pass

Girl, Jana Mani, Yushu

Night, Tuotuohe

Road yaks, Serqu

Behind the Potala Palace, Lhasa

A yak! Luhuo

We crash a wedding near Danba

Upper reaches of the Yangtze, outside Qumarleg

Waiting, TIbet