Tibet is on the roof of the world, a high, cold land of brown arid mountains and ice peaks where the wind screams like a thousand dragons and hurls dust into the sky. It is a land of buddist lamaseries and the devout spinning prayer wheels on the koras or lying prostrate in the dust murmuring “ O Mane Padme Hum”, a land of giant lammergeiers wheeling in the thermals, a land of frigid high passes adorned by rosettes of prayer flags.
Enter the twelve members of the Kiwi/Irish Mountain Biking Expedition in April 2006. The plan was to bike from Lhasa to Kathmandu with a side trip to Kharta, a small remote hamlet on the east side of Qomolangma or Mt Everest. From there we planned to cross the Langma La Pass, a 5300 metre pass to the sanctuary of the Kama valley under the Kangchung Face of Qomolangma.
The idea of this trip was born on a wet summer’s day in Dunedin in January 2005 when a party of Irish cyclists biking down the length of New Zealand was met by Dr Stanley. Stan suggested the trip that was received enthusiastically by Ercus and Vinnie. Little did they realise the hardship involved. During 2005 Stan initiated detailed planning of the trip and gathered a group of 8 Kiwis and 3 Irish plus himself a hybrid of both countries. The members were Ercus Stewart, Vincent Crowley and Liz McKenna from Dublin, Ross and Heidi Sinclair, Glen Knols, Simon Marwick, Sue Lake, Joe Sherriff, Jo Wilson and Belinda and Stan Mulvany from New Zealand.
In early April the team met for the first time in Kathmandu amidst a political crisis with a curfew in place and the country bordering on civil war. Two days later they flew from Kathmandu to Gongkar. With them was Govindra Sapkota, their Nepali sirdar. By road a team of three Sherpas had travelled overland to meet them in Kathmandu. On the morning they left there was a curfew due to start at 10 AM so it was a rush to the airport before it commenced. There was heavy security at the airport with numerous check points and heavily armed troopers. Our group was 52 kg overweight and Govindra advised me we would have to pay $3.00 a kilogram or put $90.00 under the counter! Once we were out on the tarmac we had to identify and pull our baggage into a loading heap before we boarded our Air China flight.
The flight was fine and we flew close to Mt Everest that unfortunately was on the other side of the aircraft. Once we crossed the frontier we could see dry brown mountain ranges with the occasional snow peak amid wide river valleys. We landed at Gongkar airport that is 95 kilometres south of Lhasa. We met Sonam, our Tibetan guide for the trip. He proved to be an invaluable asset on our trip. It took a long time to clear the Chinese bureaucracy. Outside we were ‘ambushed’ by a group of nasty Han Chinese who rushed in and grabbed our baggage and heaved it onto a truck and then demanded money. Vinnie gave one of them a few dollars. The others promptly set upon the unlucky recipient of this.
Lhasa was modern, large and clean and it was still a startling sight to see the Potala dominating the city. We stayed at the Dhood Gu hotel in the Tibetan quarter on the east side of town. The hotel too was a work of art with Tibetan architecture and paintings on the walls and ceilings. From our bedroom window was a fantastic view across to the Potala. Our hotel was only a few minutes from the Jokhang, the most holy of Tibetan temples. We had our mountain bikes with us and the first task was to reassemble them and check for damage in transit.
Lhasa is quite high at 3600 metres and several of us were suffering from mild acute mountain sickness. Glen had headaches and vomiting. Ross had gastroenteritis and to add to his woes was pick-pocketed outside the hotel. We all noticed breathlessness and tachycardia on walking up the four flights of stairs to our rooms. Insomnia was also a common affliction that affected most of us to a greater or lesser degree.
On Sunday 9th of April we drove to Drepung Monastery eight kilometres to the west of central Lhasa. This colourful monastery is situated on the side of a mountain with numerous buildings and temples containing buddist painting and sculptures.
We visited numerous chapels containing effigies of the Dalai Lhama. There were many lamas dressed in red gowns reading their scriptures or wandering around. In the afternoon Belinda and I walked into central Lhasa and bought some food at a Chinese supermarket. In the evening we all went to the Snowlands Restaurant for a meal. Belinda came down with a bout of gastroenteritis that evening.
On Monday I got up early and climbed up on the roof where there was a great view of Lhasa in a valley surrounded by hills and dominated by the Potala spotlighted by the rising sun. After breakfast we got our bikes down and set off for Sera Monastery. Belinda and Ross, still unwell, took the bus. We set off in a group wearing green bike tops kindly brought out by Liz from Ireland. Biking in Chinese cities is a combative experience and although there were no major accidents Simon did manage to” collect” a few locals. After Drepung, Sera was not as interesting though there was one chapel with an amazing array of statues of the various Dalai Lamas. The monks collect money for taking photos but it still felt like a privilege to be there.
In the afternoon Belinda and I went for a walk to the Potala and paid two Yuan to climb up some steps onto a small hill to take photos of it. Then we did a circumambulation of Potala Kora down a narrow alley lined on one side by numerous prayer wheels. On the other side was a large Chinese market selling a huge variety of vegetables, grains, meat, live fish in vats, pig heads, ox tongues, you name it. Belinda was most excited by all this and spent ages photographing it. In the evening we went out in a group to the New Mandala Restaurant for a meal.
Tuesday morning Liz, Sue, Belinda, Ercus and I joined a throng of people doing a circumambulation of the Jokhang Kora. This is a unique experience especially seeing the devout prostrate on the flagstones of Barkhor Square in front of the Jokhang temple complex. There was juniper being burned in incense burners, butter lamps in dim buildings and a murmur of people in the cold thin air.
We had breakfast at the Dhood Gu and then our bus arrived but no truck for the bikes. We eventually managed to load the bikes minus their front wheels.We were sorting this out when Liz asked “ Do we take our wheels with us” which sent everyone into peals of laughter.
We then set off for Ganden Monastery forty kilometres NE of Lhasa. This lamasery is at the top of a mountain ridge at 4200 metres and has great views all around it. However it was very cold and windy. We toured some of the halls and one we entered had over a hundred lamas reciting their scriptures. Personally I did not feel very comfortable there as it felt like an intrusion but the monks did not seem to mind. We then walked the Kora or walkway outside the walls that must be done clockwise. This is a sort of pilgrimage to Tibetans. Then it was on the bikes for a fast descent of the gravel road down into the valley where we met the bus. We had a late lunch and then five of us took the bus back to Lhasa and the rest biked back.
On Wednesday we decided to bike to bike to Drepung Monastery about ten kilometres away. This was easy till we hit the uphill sections and then we felt the altitude. Sonam did give us tickets but these were out of date and we negotiated a deal to enter. We walked the Kora and the biked back to our hotel. In the afternoon Sonam took us on a tour of the Potala. There was a bit of a rush as the Potala was just about to close. There is a long winding road that climbs up the hill to the fortress and inside it is quite dark and full of chapels and rooms full of statues of the various Dalai Lamas. That night we celebrated Ross’s 60th birthday at the Dhood Gu. The staff had a special birthday cake with a sort of flaming flower on top. It was the most extraordinary birthday party I’ve ever attended!
On Thursday we finally started our bike ride from Lhasa to Kathmandu. We were up early getting our baggage down to the truck which was late in arriving. Then we set off in a group wearing our bright green cycle tops to the Potala where we stopped for a group photo.
After this we headed out of town and took the road to Yangpachen by mistake. We must have gone about 10 kilometre along this before we realised we were on the wrong road. The landcruiser and truck were nowhere to be seen. Once on the correct route it was a straight run to Chusal into an increasing headwind. This built up to a veritable dust storm howling up the Tsangpo Valley which we were following. We regrouped and crossed a bridge at Dogar being almost blown off the bridge in the process. Then it was another eleven kilometre on to Gampa, our first camp. I felt really jaded and when drafting along had a high speed crash. I only lost a bit of skin but it woke me up in a hurry. It was a relief to see the camp below the Khamba La, 1100 metres above us. That day we covered over 100 kilometres at an altitude of over 5030 metres.
On Friday Belinda and I left camp at 6.45 AM intent on beating the wind. We were first away and the morning was still and cold. We made steady progress and soon enough Ross and Heidi caught us up. The road was sealed and had an easy gradient which would have been nice at sea level but at 4000 metres was hard work. Later the others passed us. Belinda and Heidi also carried on and Ross and I struggled on. Vinnie and Liz took up the rear. It took us five hours to reach the windswept Khamba La.
On top were a group of Tibetans with yaks who had been ripping off the others for money for photos. The views of the Yamdrok Tso, a large lake on the other side were spectacular. This large lake winds and twists around the mountains so only a small part of it is visible at any one point. We biked down and stopped at a house on a hill above the lake where several of our members were stopped. After a while we carried on flying around the corners down to the lake shore where the rest had stopped for lunch. By now there was a bitter wind blowing up the lake. The landcruiser and truck were there and Govindra and the Sherpas served us a lovely lunch which revived us. Usually this consisted of hot sweat tea followed by curried potatoes, coleslaw, tinned tuna and a mango drink.
There was a bitterly cold wind blowing up the lake so Belinda and I took a ride in the landcruiser while the others biked on. We got off at the causeway at Yasik and biked another 10 kilometres to our camp before Nakartse. Our tally for the day being 90 kms.
On Saturday Belinda and I were first up, had breakfast quickly and were away by 7.00 AM. The main reason for this was to beat the afternoon winds and to cover the enormous distances we were doing. When we reached the dirt road a tractor came along and B hitched a ride by holding onto the rear of it. She disappeared into Nakartse while I peddled along as fast as I could. Nakartse was a small dusty one road town with a lot of school kids on the road. Beyond it the plain narrowed into a valley ahead with brown arid mountains on either side. It was cold and breathtakingly clear. I caught up with Belinda and put on my wind proof pants as the wind had come up. Ross and Heidi caught us up. Then Glen and Sue arrived and we drafted along as it was much easier to do so in headwinds. The dirt road carried on into a narrow defile in the mountains which grew taller with ice peaks high up on them. The others stopped by a wall near the road to await the truck and I carried on. The JoJoes, Simon and Ercus had passed us earlier and were way out in front climbing to the Karo La Pass at over 5000 metres. The road now swung to the right and the stream on the left was frozen. We passed some German bikers who were camped and who were biking unsupported which is a hard way to do it. We never saw them again! The truck arrived with the others and I climbed aboard.
One of our members was behind and had turned down a lift. Govinda was concerned as he was so far behind and there was such a big journey in front of us so I waited for him to arrive. There ensued a somewhat heated discussion. We had to leave him as he still refused to take a ride up the pass. We drove on passing the lead party not far from the pass.
The Karo La is at 5000 metres and had a few houses, a collection of Tibetans selling jewellery and heap of prayer flags. It was windy and freezing cold and a huge glacier flowed off the peaks. Govindra and Sonam were quite concerned about our missing team member and so we decided to leave the truck at the pass till he arrived and the rest of us would cycle on. We got our bikes off the truck and set off flying downhill into a headwind heading for Gyantse. The road dropped gradually crossing a wide plain. Behind us were the ice peaks and in front the road disappeared into a small valley among the brown arid mountains. After maybe 20 kilometres we reached a stone corral where we stopped for lunch. The pattern now was for the landcrusier to stop for lunch and have everything ready by the time we arrived.
After lunch Belinda and Heidi climbed aboard and the rest of us biked into a narrow descending valley. The Jojoes and the other were way ahead which was the usual order of things. Ross and I took up the rear. The road was quite rough and after about 15 kilometres I cadged a ride on the Landcruiser as I’d had enough crashing around on dirt roads. Ross took off and later passed the advance party and was the first into Gyantse, a remarkable effort. The road now reached a dammed river and wound around this following the contours of a canyon for ages. It was another 50 kilometres to Gyantse which we reached at 4.30 PM. We did well over 100 kilometres that day. Later the truck arrived with more of our members. Only a few had managed to cycle the whole distance_ a massive effort.
That day we had a debriefing as I felt things had not gone well on several fronts. The team effort was lacking and the support vehicles needed re-organising. We had a heated discussion and it cleared the air and afterwards I felt everyone had a better appreciation of the difficulties and expectations of the group. For the rest of the trip things did go much better. I slept poorly that night.
On 16th Belinda and I were up early and wandered down the street to the restaurant where we had dinner the previous evening. It was still dark and the place closed but as we were going back to the hotel Sonam met us and said it would be open soon. We had breakfast and then B and I were off. We crossed the bridge across the Nyang Chu where we stopped for a photo of the Gyantse Dzong on a hill above the town and then carried on along the flat sealed road on our way to Shigatse. It was a lovely clear day with no wind and mild temperatures. The valley was very fertile with extensive agriculture and many farms. We were out in front and flew along and reached Panam mid-morning. We stopped for lunch about 10 kilometres past Panam and waited about an hour for the others to arrive. As usual the Jojoes were first away after lunch. Ross, Heidi, Vinnie, Simon, B and I formed a road train as the wind had come up. We kept up a steady pace till we reached Shigatse early afternoon, a distance of about 100 kilometres. This was the first easy bike ride since we left Lhasa. That evening we had dinner at a Nepali restaurant beside the Tashihunpo Monastery. This monastery is huge and was founded by the first Dalai Lama in 1447. It is the seat of the Panchen Lamas.
On Monday 17th we returned to the Sontang Restaurant for breakfast. Breakfast was unusual especially the “corn flakes” which were like bullets and gave us aching jaws! My advice do not ask for “corn flakes” in Tibet. I was not feeling 100% thought I ate a big breakfast. Then we all set off bar Ercus and Vinnie who had biked out to the cheese factory 40 kilometres the previous day, to walk the Tashihunpo Kora. The monastery certainly looked impressive from the kora but we had seen enough monasteries when in Lhasa. High above us a great flock of lammergeiers were wheeling in the sky. These are huge birds of prey like a vulture and I guessed there was a sky burial on the mountain behind the monastery. In the distance we could see the Shigate Dzong or rather what remained of it after the PLA shelled it in the 1959 uprising. Later in the morning we returned to the hotel and then went out shopping and to find an internet outlet. We then went to a supermarket and were having lunch outside with glen when two children happened past and made a dive at Glens lunch. Glen ended up shoving him off with his leg and after this episode we joked about him kicking the local children. That night we decided to drop a day off our trek at Kharta as we had to revise our itinerary. Glen and I were walking back to the hotel when some young Chinese women offered us a massage. “You will look more beautiful” they advised Glen.
We had breakfast at the Shigatse Hotel next day so we could get away early. This was an elaborate affair with an odd assortment of food more like a banquet. Nevertheless it was quite filling. We got our baggage ready for the truck and then set off in a group led by the jeep across the bridge to the north bank of the Tsangpo River. Them we turned left and set off up the Tsangpo Valley. This was good going and mostly flat. On and on it went until later in the day we left the river and turned north. I biked mostly on my own. The wind came up and was blowing from the side. We travelled about 80 kilometres on the seal and then branched off onto a dirt road on the left for about 15 kilometres which took us to a small village where we camped. The weather looked threatening and then it snowed. The truck was there and they had the tents up and there was a crowd of curious Tibetan women and children. It was bitterly cold and it snowed. We did 95 kilometre that day.
I was up early next day beating the sherpas with their wakeup round of hot sweat tea. We had breakfast in the dining tent of porridge followed by chapattis and fried eggs. B and I were on the road by 7.30 AM before the others. It was cold with fresh snow on the hills and a lovely alpenglow on the mountain tops with the rising sun. The road was stony and corrugated and slow going. We continued up valley and the road swung around a hill to the right to rejoin the Tsangpo. This we followed a long way past Tibetan villages for many kilometres. We passed a desiccated donkey stuck on a road marker, an odd sight indeed. Belinda photographed this macabre sight. On we plod grinding up steep inclines till we reached a bridge over the Tsangpo. There was a red walled monastery on a hill above it and further along an enormous sand dune beside the road, maybe a thousand feet high. It was a grey, cold day with endless roads meandering off across a desolate landscape reminiscent of the wastes of Mordor in ‘Lord of the Rings’. We eventually stopped for lunch and then several of us took a lift on the landcruiser for maybe 14 kilometres before biking again. Some of the villages we biked through had bands of children who ambushed us begging money. It was very irritating and we rode through quickly without stopping. The valley eventually widened out into a small plain at the junction of several valleys where the wind was stronger and blowing from the right. It was dusty and the weather rapidly deteriorated and it started to snow. I was tired and irritable and contemplated staying in a town we passed through as I had no idea where the camp was and thought we had been abandoned as the vehicles were nowhere in sight. And then wonder of wonders I spotted the landcruiser in the town having a tire repaired and Sonam told me camp was not far off.
So we headed on in dirty weather on an appalling road where we had to walk pushing the bikes along. I stopped and put on all my shell clothing and we struggled on, Ross, Belinda and I to our camp another 6-10 kilometres further on in a valley below the Gyatso La pass. I felt knackered by the effort.
Thursday saw the JoJoes and Simon off at 7.00 AM to bike over the Gyatso La while the rest of us decided to take the vehicles up to the top of the pass. We set off at about 9.30 AM with a fully laden landcruiser and truck. I was in the landcruiser and it really struggled over the pass past numerous road works. We passed the advance party maybe an hour from the top. The pass itself was just a high point on the ridge above adorned by the usual array of prayer flags amid the snow. It was bitterly cold. We piled out of the vehicles and got our bikes down.
I put on my down jacker and then my windproof shell over that plus my wind Foil gloves and balaclava under my old bike helmet. Then I hopped on my bike and took off. The track dropped off slowly down the far side and after 18 kilometres it was appreciably warmer. I stopped for B who eventually turned up with Sue. Sue had a tire blow-out which needed repairing. We carried on down valley till we stopped at a bridge for lunch. Then we carried on and rounded a hillside for our first view of the Himalayas still a long way away to the south. There were some lovely downhill sections and then a slow plod along the valley to New Tingri where camp had been set up. They had picked a dusty terrace between the river and the town. We had travelled 63 kilometres from the pass to the camp.
That evening the guides told me there was a problem with the drivers who would not take us in the vehicles down to Kharta. They wanted us to do a relay instead but I said no that was impractical given the distances and state of the roads. I then instructed Sonam to sack the driver of the landcruiser and to request another driver and landcruiser from Lhasa to take his place and in addition to get another landcruiser so we could fit everyone in for the long drive south. Having issued these orders I retired to bed and slept soundly though others told me there was a fierce argument that night from the staff camp between the driver and our guides who did not like the idea of being fired. Too bad!!
The plan on Friday was to bike to Old Tingri but Sonam came to see me early with an alternative plan. He suggested instead to hire a truck locally to take all the bikes and some of the camping gear to Old Tingri and we all drive in the landcruiser and truck to Kharta. The drivers had a change of heart. I agreed to this though I had some reservations whether the landcruiser would make it. A blue Dong Feng truck turned up and we stacked all the bikes plus lots of our camping gear in it. The 8 of us piled into the landcruiser and the rest into the truck and we took off south. We went up a switchback gravel road which climbed over a 5200 metre pass called the Pang la. From the top there was a great view of the Himalayan chain including Cho Oyu, Pumori but Everest was hidden in cloud. We could see some of the West Ridge of Makalu. Then we dropped down to a deep valley over a thousand metres below. We had lunch on the flat valley floor and then continued to the east past huge brown arid mountains into a canyon of a tributary of the Arun River. In the afternoon we camped on a grassy flat near a Tibetan Village beside the river. The locals appeared to be very poor riding horses and carts.
This was a pleasant campsite on a grassy flat beside a river. Next morning B and I set off walking at 8.30 AM along the road east past Tibetan villages still asleep. The only signs of life were donkeys and chooks. It was a pleasant morning thought the air was cold. There were ploughed fields beside the river and curious mounds in them probably seed potatoes or something similar. An hour or so later the landcruiser arrived and picked us up. We drove along the road east for several hours before swinging around a bend in the valley to head south. The road was in places built into the sides of cliffs only a vehicle width over impressive gorges. Then we crossed several huge terraces covered in sparse vegetation. It had the appearance of a desert and probably due to overgrazing, deforestation and the dry climate. Later in the morning we arrived in Kharta which did indeed look like the last outpost. In fact it was quite a substantial place with a modern Chinese compound. We set up our camp in an abandoned police compound. The buildings were wreacked and smelt of stale urine. The dusty courtyard was littered with broken glass but the wall kept out the cold wind. Sonam, Joe and I went off to sort out the trekking part of our trip. The plan now was to spend just 3 days on the trek instead of the 5 originally planned and to go up the Kharta Chu and camp and try for the Langma La in a day from there. I was stunned to hear the Tibetan guides take 10 days to cross the Langma La with yaks and return.
In the afternoon there was traditional Tibetan horse riding and we went off to have a look at it. There were many horsemen riding small mountain ponies decorated in colourful silk costumes with red lampshade hats.
After a while I wandered off by myself and climbed up a steep ridge above the town for a view. It was a 300 metre climb up a hillside covered in scrub. On the far side was a valley and higher scrubby hills but no sign of glaciated majestic mountains or even Everest which I had been hoping to see. Across the Arun Valley there were some attractive 6000 metre snow peaks and below the Arun disappeared into a forested gorge, the start of the tree line.
That night I had a wonderful restful sleep awakening refreshed. Often at altitude sleep is poor and interrupted by nocturnal periodic breathing which I seemed to have grown out of now. The day was lovely and clear. We packed up and waited and waited for ages for our yaks to arrive. Eventually at 11 AM they showed up. They were duly loaded and we set off walking up the road to the Kharta Chu. We walked for several hours on the road which concerned me as I had no idea where we were going and had thought we might be camping by the road when we could have easily had driven it. Eventually we reached a bridge and then we were climbing on a track on the true right of the Kharta Chu past several villages. Simon and I ended up driving some yaks which were hopeless track followers. We were constantly heading them off and herding them back onto the track. In the evening we reached a field at 4000 metres below a ridge and camped. We saw marmots here. There was a brief flurry of snow. Simon, Sue and I set off and climbed to the ridge 300 metres above to recce the route to the Langma la. From the ridge crest there was a snow valley leading off to the left and it was too cloudy to see far into it. It did not look promising.
Next morning four of us decided to try for the Langma La, a 5300 metre pass to the Kama Valley under Mt Everest. It apparently has stunning views of Everest, Lhotse and Makalu. Simon, Sue, B and I were up at 2.00 AM and away shortly afterwards. We climbed up a track to the ridge above camp and then turned left crossing some fields to a bridge across a creek and then left up the snow valley we’d seen the previous evening. We followed yak trails through dwarf juniper climbing above the creek below us on the left. It was dark and cloudy and our headlights picked out the narrow trail in front of us. We continued climbing into snow and our trail eventually reached a terrace and disappeared. At this point we decided to crash down through snow covered juniper to the valley floor. Here we followed up a level patch till we reached a frozen nomads tent. There was smell of burnt juniper so I guess there were occupants inside. We carried on into a huge boulder field where our morale was dropping fast. Where were we? Then we climbed a hill and the sky cleared revealing a sliver of moon and dark peaks all around us. We were in an upper valley and seemed to be climbing into a cirque or peaks. We plodded on up valley and found zig zag tracks up a steep snow covered scree slope on the true left. I was really feeling it here and slipped further behind the others. This led to a snow covered valley at 5000 metre. Above were a series of further valleys covered in snow. From here on it was a terrible struggle in the soft snow and heat and lack of oxygen. Sue ad Simon forged ahead. Belinda followed and I staggered along feeling like death warmed up. I dropped my rucksac 100 metres below the top of the pass and finally reached it at noon thoroughly pooped. The others were sitting on a rock further along the ridge but I did not have the energy to join them. I took a few photos, caught my breath and descended. I collected my rucksac and then crawled under a rock for some shade and ate some food. Then I started off moving slowly but with a lot less energy expended then when climbing up. Lower down we met the JoJoes and later Liz, Sonam and one of the Tibetan yak drivers.We reached camp in the afternoon.
On Tuesday we started back to Kharta which we reached at lunchtime. We loaded up the vehicles and left at 1.30 PM. Just before we left Sonam came to ask me for a tip for the yak drivers but I was not sympathetic as we had already paid them for a minimum of 10 days work for virtually two days work. We drove back to our old campsite by the Arun. On the way we had a breakdown and we used the time to dig out a landslip on the road further along that threatened to topple the truck off the cliffs. The drivers did not seem unduly worried though I was.
Wednesday dawned cold with new snow of the surrounding peaks. We left at 8.30 AM and drove back to Chengdu, then turned left up a very poor road over the Lamna La Pass. On the other side was the Re Chu. We stopped and Joe caught a sort of vole which bit his finger. Then we carried on along a wide cultivated valley to arrive at Old Tingri and the Snowlands Hotel. Now this was a novel experience for us. The rooms were arranged out back in a courtyard and were more like cells. The water supply was an open well and the shower had to be heated up and was a nozzle poking through the ceiling and a lino floor with a hole. The best feature about it were the attractive Chinese waitresses! The restaurant was a comfortable room lined with couches and here I met Anand Swaroop, leader of the Indian Cho Oyu expedition. We had a most convivial conversation.
Thursday dawned bright and clear. To the south were the highest mountains on earth, Everest, Cho Oyu standing high at the edge of the Tibetan plateau. Our road was dirt and swept to the west around a range of hills across a flat brown plain dotted here and there by old mud forts. Had Gengis Khan suddenly appeared on a ridge crest flanked by a thousand horsemen it would not have seemed out of place. We biked with Ross, Heidi and Liz. By now the wind was up and in our faces. At one of our stops Liz said “If we keep up this speed ( 6 kms/hr) Holy Jasus we’ll be up all night”.The road gradually swung south and later in the day we reached a nice campsite under the La Lung Pass. Simon and Sue with energy to burn went off and climbed a mountain opposite camp.
The next passes were the La Lung and Yakri Shong La both about 5000 metres. Simon and the JoJoes decided to bike over them and left early. The rest of us took the vehicles and caught up with them mid-morning. The views were spectacular_ a huge brown plain partly covered in snow bordered on the south by the Himalayas and on the west by Sishapangma, an 8000 metre peak in Tibet. It was freezing cold and windy on the passes. There was not a cloud in the sky.
We set off on the bikes down the road all except Liz who stayed in the landcruiser.
After 30 kilometres we stopped for lunch. Sue and Belinda arrived behind me. Belinda had been blown off her bike down a bank luckily unharmed. At the lunch spot a cow tried to eat Simons balaclava which he rescued. After lunch everyone shot off except B, Liz and I who took our time down to Nyalam and our camp spot.
The road dropped into a canyon bordered by spectacular snow peaks. Nyalam looks stunning in an alpine situation reminiscent of a Swiss town but on closer inspection it was quite grubby. Later that day we saw a group of golden eagles circling our camp.
On Saturday we woke to a lovely dawn with sun touching the tops of the snow peaks way above us. There was no wind and the temperatures were warmer. As usual B and I set off before the others biking down an amazing gorge flanked by snow covered peaks all the way to Zangmu. This too is a startling place perched on the side of a steep mountain. The streets were steep and full of trucks. I caught up with Sonam and the landcruiser. Poor Sonam had a sore eye maybe snow blindness from the day before. I had a good look at it and could not find any foreign body in the eye. I changed some yuan back to USD with a money changer. Then we spent quite a while clearing Chinese immigration and customs and carried on biking down to the Friendship Bridge. The poor truck driver got pulled over by a policeman and fined 1500 yuan for carrying Europeans. Apparently it is illegal!! This was the first I heard of this. Eventually crossed the Friendship Bridge and got our passport stamped on the far side and took off down the road into Nepal. There were some awful slums built beside the road.
We arrived at the Last Resort where there is a suspension bridge and bungy jumping which seemed incongruous with the local poverty. However the hotel was upmarket and very comfortable. They had beds in canvas tents and hot showers and a nice restaurant. Ramu arrived and we had a pleasant conversation. In the evening we has a nice meal and Ramu brought along some folk who sang and danced with us. We were jaded so we excused ourselves and headed off early.
On Sunday we made a late departure which was not wise as it turned out to be the hottest day of the trip. It was 100 kilometres to Kathmandu with a thousand metre pass to cross. B and I set off and bikes 40 kilometres on a good road down the valley to Dolalghat where the road starts to climb. On the hill before the town Liz’s bike peddle fell off and could not be repaired so I took it and free peddled down the hills to the river but from here on it was pushing it up hill. By now it was a free-for-all and most people were in front of us. The day was blisteringly hot and I was disappointed the bus was so far on as I had expected them to wait before the climb. There was no sign of B and Liz who had gone on and it was maybe 2 hours before the bus returned to collect me. By now any motivation I may have had to bike up the hill had evaporated. We drove on and met various members on the hill but no one jumped aboard. We eventually reached Dhulikhel, a town on top of the hill where we stopped in a luxury hotel to await the others.
They arrived later some looking exhausted. We had a nice meal there and I left early on my own to carry on to Kathmandu. Belinda was feeling unwell so stayed with the bus. From Dhulikhel It was down hill and I was biking along when Ercus caught me up. Together we biked on into very congested traffic with buses, trucks, motor cycles crowding the streets and us moving faster than them, weaving in and out and jumping onto the pavements to pass traffic jams. We had no idea where we were going but by asking policemen to direct us to Thamel we finally made it. We were only there a short while when the bus arrived. B was ill and took herself off to bed. I met the Corazzas there at long last. Bob and Frances are the organisers of the Nepal Cerebral Palsy Charity who we were raising funds for.
Next day we visited the Nepal Cerebral Palsy Centre on the south side of town and saw for ourselves what great work was being done for the cerebral palsy children attending the unit. We had an interesting talk with Prof Rajbhandari and Mr Bimal who are involved with the centre.
Our group managed to raise over 35,000 Euros towards a school building for the centre. The lions share was raised by Ercus and Vinnie in Ireland.
And then the company dispersed after many adventures on the 1000 kilometre journey across the Tibetan Plateau from the icy heights of the Yakri Shong la to the heat of Kathmandu. The trip in retrospect was very ambitious and the days biking too long. But we made it and we all stayed good friends through considerable adversity which was an accomplishment.
Acknowlegments: Our trip across Tibet would have been possible without the fantastic support of many people. Our thanks to Irene Schreiber of Active Travel, Ramu Sapkota of Adventure Silk Road, Govindra Sapkota our Nepali sirdar. Sonam our Tibetan Guide, Our 3 Sherpa camp staff and our 2 Tibetan drivers.
Stanley
Invercargill
New Zealand
