When the plane landed in Ladakh in 2012, I felt the thin air immediately. The short flight from the heat and dust of Delhi, over sinister mountain peaks and into desert was like entering another world. Ladakh is the land of high passes. It took two days to acclimatise to the altitude – breathlessness and talking gobbledegook. Yet I was desperate to explore this strange land. The light was so harsh that a filter was needed on the camera most of the time. I left Ladakh with the impression of the huge presence of the army; Buddhist monasteries soaring to the sky; endless desert, mountains and pony men; river rafting on the Zhanskar and seeing the water change colour as it met the mighty Indus. And much much more. A country to explore over and over again.
