After exploring the monastic complex we will walk a couple easy hours to our pre-set camp site in the valley beyond. The next day our trek involves a steady climb over a pass to the high altitude pastures only used by nomads in the summer months. We continue in these highlands through gentle hills and past remote lakes before crossing another pass and dropping into the sheltered valley of Yamalung. Finally we turn into the wide Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) valley and its rolling sand dunes. A full day at Samye, Tibet’s first monastery, will give us time to recoup or to visit the active retreat cave-complex of Chimphu.
We meet our vehicles again and cross the Yarlung Tsangpo to stay a final night in the comforts of Tsedang, the cradle of Tibet’s early kings. The next day it is an easy one-hour transfer to the Lhasa airport.
