Distance Traveled:  About 600 kms

Travel Time: About 9 hours. Left Darchen at 10 AM and reached Saga by 7 PM

This was the first day of our travel back to Kathmandu from Mt. Kailash. On our way to Mt. Kailash, we had taken 4 days to reach, but took only 3 on the way back. Given that we were now descending from higher altitude to lower regions, this was not an issue.

Weather wise we had fabulous sun shine, unlike the previous two days of our parikrama. The cold winds still ensured that we needed multiple layers of our clothing, but bright sun shine, azure sky and the innumerable white clouds made it a very pleasant day to travel.

Here is a snap of the winding road that takes one down a valley, with beautiful azur skies set against the stark contrast of the dry, arid Tibetan Plateau.

A herd of sheep grazing on the plateau.

Deep blue sky, white fluffy clouds and the stark contrast of the arid plateau.

A scenic amalgamation of mountains, sky, clouds and a small stream.

Cloud burst over a small hillock at a distance.

This is the valley that gets us into the Saga area.

One gets to see Brahmaputra river quite a few time during this stretch. Here is one such place.

Crossing over Brahmaputra river.

During the 1200 + kms journey from Kathmandu to Mt. Kailash, one get to see 4 different eco systems.

a) The dry, arid planes of the plateau. b) Lots of high mountains with snow and ice. c) An evergreen forests eco system at the junction of Nepal and Tibet ( from way before Tato pani to Nyalam). d) Desert landscape at high altitude, which was a very surprising thing for me.

On our way to Sage, I had slept through this entire stretch. But was wide awake this time around to take some snaps. Here are some of the snaps of the desert landscape.

The river that you see in these photographs is Brahmaputra once again.

Layers of various types of habitats and rich tapestry of colours.

By the time we reached Saga, most of us had started recovering from our altitude sickness. It is amazing what a descent of 2000 mts does to ones body. It was getting much easier to walk around, when compared to how had felt on one way to Mt. Kailash.