Lossar - the end of the trail

The family's cafe stands behind the main village prayer wheel, the morning cloud clings to the hills surrounding our final stop and everyone spins and chants their way past us as we breakfast and pack up to go.
So - the passes are open. The snow has kept all the lorries and buses off the roads - the jeeps and motorcycles are forging the way (with a little help from the occasional bulldozer) - and we find ourselves at the final pass of the journey. From 4085m Lossar we wound on up to the Kunzam pass at 4590m to descend back via countless switchbacks, past the Kullu tourist shenanigans, down to the thick, humid chaos of Indian civilisation. Luckily we were quite late in the evening - so missed the throngs of plains tourists - all up for a view of snow - and a quick dose of altitude sickness. (They often come up in buses from way down the valleys and make huge altitude gains in very short times - leading to many a visionary experience one would think) The boys tried hard to enjoy one aspect of the seasonal festivities - sadly they were distinctly underwhelmed, slugging down a slope at the top of the mountains on a big tractor tyre, the ice runs (and handlers) looked decidedly tired. As did the hand-carved ice cave next door for those ever popular romantic frostbitten couple grotto photo ops. Then, after a full day's drive, via our main town of Manali, we eventually landed back at our 'om sweet om' with Suby and the family. What a trip!