In September 2016, Don Cormack (from Adelaide, Australia) and I spent about 12 days on the road in the Ladakh/Zanskar regions, doing photography. We arrived into the Ladakhian capital of Leh at an altitude of app 3600m asl, and covered further heights upto almost 6000m asl. This being the end of the Indian summer, so the day temperatures were in the upper 20s, but fell to freezing point in the evenings.

The Himalayas are indeed a humbling experience to mere mortals like ourselves - sweeping and spectacular mountains as we were driven thru the valleys, amazing geo-morphological rock colours and shape formations were a sight to behold. Once out of the city, habitations were sparse - the people of the Himalayas live very challenging and harsh circumstances trying to cope with extreme climatic conditions. During their winter months, they are virtually cut off from 'civilization' which means food supplies and communications - but then again they have been doing this for centuries.

The most impressive aspects of the journey were Buddhist monasteries that are seen throughout the region. Built with bare hands (i.e., without heavy duty machines) mostly of the monks and local labor; some monasteries were very reclusive and isolated, others being almost palatial in size. Life in a monastery is spartan and we had the privilege to visit an elderly monk in his private room.

This was a journey of lasting memories and friendship...

I returned to Ladakh in September 2024 and again in February 2025 (Spiti Valley).