“There is only one success, to be able to spend your life in your own way.”

Just before our third pass which brought us (finally) to the Zanskar river and valley, we passed through my favorite collection of villages (or maybe it’s considered one very spread out one…who knows). Days away from even the newest roads, this was the largest settlement that we passed through since the beginning of our trek, and by far the most impressive.

There was also an impressive monastery on one side as well.

After crossing through it (up and down to different rivers multiple times, an all day affair), this is how it looked from the other side.

Our last two passes, which we did back to back, were easier than then we expected which was a welcome relief after the last week of hard trekking. We also found nice campsites below each of them which enabled us to climb early in the morning.

From the top of our second pass.

As we lost elevation the landscape began to change, and for the first time in a week, we had greenery!

No need for a tent out here. Since there are no artificial lights for kilometers around, the stars and moon were as bright and clear as ever. We also had a pretty funny visitor, a curious yak who was probably confused as to what two giant worms (we were in our sleeping bags) were doing in his field.