Along with four companions, I travelled to this sacred mountain and to holy Lake Manasarovar recently. We flew to Kathmandu, then to Lhasa, where we spent three days acclimatising to the 12,000-feet altitude. The journey from Lhasa across the vast and empty Tibetan plateau, with its stunningly beautiful vistas, takes us seven days by Landcruiser. Five days out of Lhasa, we see our last tree for 1,000 km. River valleys give way to scrub basins to sere flatlands, with the snow-capped Gangtise range (trans-Himalaya) to our north. Tibet's desolation strikes me forcibly, as we journey for hours without seeing a single person. Still, there's a sense of peace, a stillness and a feeling of oneness with nature.
