The first part of our journey today was through a very long stretch of roadworks. We were fine in the Landie, but it was not so good for the olds. Very rough roads and endless mud. Chinese engineering is top class and the roads are unbelievably good, and this one will be too, when it’s finished. The infrastructure has to be seen to be believed. Countless new tunnels are being forged and the road to Lhasa will soon be like a motorway all the way.

Yesterday reminded me of Mongolia, with sweeping steppe; today it was Bhutan. We went through several traditional villages with architecture straight from Bhutan, only a bit scruffier.

We went of two passes today. One a mere 4200 metres and one an oxygen sapping 5010. That’s higher than Mont Blanc. I hardly need say that the landscape was spectacular.

Several cars had problems today. Good friends Paddy and Ham, in the Merc, had to stop nearly thirty times with vaporisation problems. They came into the car park just after us with the bonnet lifted a bit to help cool it and all stuck together with gaffer tape. Luckily, Fritz was able to phone his Mercedes man, in Germany, and find out the fix. He also had the correct screw that was needed. He was going to help them after dinner. I say help them, I mean help the mechanics. Pads is well known for his prowess with a spanner (!) but I’m sure his moral support will be a great comfort.

I’m sure that Fritz is feeling especially strong tonight too. He stopped at a roadside stall and bought a little barbecued meat. It was so tasty, he had some more. He asked what it was – yak penis!

The blue Alvis was towed in as it only had one gear. Rudi, in one of the Defenders, is an Alvis man and he was offering to fix it. As the sun went down it became freezing cold and working on the cars would not be pleasant.

I mentioned earlier that we arrived with Pads and Ham. The reason was that good friends Lloyd and Treacy, in the adorable red Nash, we’re having huge problems with the altitude and lack of oxygen. The little car was really struggling. A couple of times we stopped to help – I say ‘we’, all I did was provide fruitcake – while the others worked on the car. We decided to stay with them as we thought they might need towing in. Struggling up to the big pass they barely managed 11 kms in first gear all the way to the top. The plucky little thing made it though and it was then easy for it to drop down to the mere 3700 metres we are staying at tonight.

We covered 260 kms today and it took a total of 10 hours. I’m feeling very tired but very happy. Tomorrow is a very long day so we need to be gone by 7. Sleep will have to wait until Lhasa.