Day 40 – Driving down the Friendship Highway (at less than 40 km/h)

By bogaert

Day 40 ! … It has been a long time away from home. But today at 10:30 I left the furriest point of my travel, the border Tibet – Nepal. Over the next two days I will move 850 km east, back to Lhasa, over the ‘Friendship Highway’. The high mountain road is on average in reasonable good condition, but average travel speed remains under 40 km/h.

The views along the road remain breathtaking. The first hours we drove through high mountain snow covered landscape. Thereafter we crossed a dry and rough landscape, the landscape kept continuously changing. From time to time we crossed a small village; you could see a lot of poverty. Along the road I saw wild Tibetan donkeys, a beautiful protected animal. I could get close to approximately 250 meters (see photos). Around 16:00 a last glimpse from the Mount Everest, from a distance from the Friendship Highway.

Also today we had on the road multiple checkpoints, getting out of car and verification of all paperwork. We drove about 450 km (in 12 hours!) and arrived around 22:30 back in civilization. My guide Jim moved me tonight to a different place than planned, a much better place, for the first time in five nights a well heated room (and with internet to post my updates)!

Enjoy the photos!

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