We had just crossed the Khardung La and were beginning to relax again.

Lopsang was opening up on the accelerator as we hit some newish bitumen. At one stage we stopped to survey the terrain above after hearing a charge go off: the road workers were blowing up cliffs above and they can sometimes cause rock fall. On these roads, you occasionally need to drive around a boulder that has fallen from above and embedded itself in the road surface like some fallen meteorite.

As we approached a tight bend on one of the innumerable zig-zags I was able to get a clear view of the road 20 metres below and caught a glimpse of what was obviously a large cat – easily the size of a solid domestic dog, say a labrador, loping along the road. I told Lopsang to watch out (excitedly, would be an understatement), and as we turned the tight bend, there it was. I had initially thought ‘snow leopard’, but it was unmistakably a lynx, the black tuffs at its ear tips easy to see.

Ahh, no camera. Our first battery on the EOS had prematurely died after a freeze moment on the Diga La, and the second battery had died on the way up the Khardung La. Only the iPhone was functioning, and in the fairly bright light, and with a wild cat running away, not easy to get a shot in. The image above is a screenshot from a four second movie … any way we have the memories. We all had a clear view of the magnificent animal … as Lopsang made meow noises and laughed. He has seen snow leopard … but never a Lynx, and some people believe they are rarer, and more difficult to sight. The team of wildlife photographers from our Diskit hotel would have done a better job with their rather LONG lenses!

Look closely!