Our route today retraces the drive by which we arrived in Tholing for most of the day. In mid afternoon we meet the two cyclists; they are pitching camp since there are stiff headwinds making pedaling difficult. Several hours later we turn off the Darchen road and head for our campsite at Tirthapuri.
Although not mentioned in any of the guidebooks I purchased, Tirthapuri is the third of the pilgrimage destinations which include Kailash and Lake Manasarovar. Situated beside the Sutlej river is a hot spring and a gompa. We arrive well before the truck to find the wind whipping around us and the hot spring to be a relatively modest affair. Although the water is quite warm and drains into some pools dug out below it, no one is inclined to bathe.
The truck arrives well after dark at 10:00pm, having broken a rear leaf spring on the road. While camp is set up, one of the Land Cruisers is dispatched to the nearest town in search of a replacement part. Since most of the trucks in Tibet are of a limited manufacture, the part is found. Apparently this type of breakdown is quite common.
After breakfast, the crew attempts to repair the truck while we tour the gompa area. This consists of several temples build on the top of a cliff, as well as several enormous mani walls. During the morning, several truckloads of Tibetan pilgrims arrive and perform multiple circumambulations of the gompa while chanting and spinning handheld prayer wheels.
One of the local religious beliefs is of the curative powers of small pills of limestone which are dug out of pits hewed into the hillside. It is apparently necessary that these pills not be exposed to daylight, hence to gather them one descends into the pit and scrapes the limestone while shielding it with one's body. The effect of the pills is to somehow placate earth spirits, although I didn't really understand exactly how they are to be employed.
Finding the truck successfully repaired, we depart for Lake Manasarovar. The road leads east so that we eventually come into view of Mount Kailash and Darchen to the north. On arrival at a small Chinese checkpoint, we are treated to a disturbing spectacle. One of the soldiers emerges from the checkpoint hut leading a Tibetan nomad, whose hands are tied behind him, by a cord fastened around his neck. The soldier commandeers our Land Cruiser so as to take the prisoner to the next checkpoint (the one where our lama was detained). Except for the driver, all of us leave the vehicle and begin to walk along the road for about an hour until the Land Cruiser reappears to pick us up.
By early evening, we arrive at the northwest shore of Manasarovar where we pitch camp. Later that evening, a group of German tourists arrive and camp near us. We will now meet more and more European trek groups that are arriving from the direction of Simikot.
I have not had the time to put more effort into this site, so the adventure ends here. In summary, we drove to the Nepal border at Sher, and trekked 5 days to Simikot. There we flew in a Twin Otter turboprop down to Nepalgunj, and thence on an Air Nepal turboprop airliner back to Kathmandu. I lost about 30 pounds on the trip, although I was never actually ill.