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Published: August 2nd 2010
We through getting up onto the Tibetan plateau was going to be the difficult part of the journey. Obviously riding across the plateau on gravel roads at 4500m was never going to be a walk in the park but we anticipated it being straightforward. What we didn't anticipate was 300 miles of road works. Back home they'd work on one small stretch, complete it and move onto the next stretch. Not here, here they work on the whole 300 miles in one go which means 290 miles of diversions and 10 miles on the road in 10 yard stretches - I am not exaggerating!!! The road appears to need drainage channels across it at 100 yard intervals (=100 meter intervals for the metric thinkers). So every 100 yards there is an enormous ditch across the road with concrete pipes lying in the bottom of it. The ditches are deep enough and wide enough to swallow a bike so the only way is round - sometimes its just a quick nip round then back on the road and hopefully into 3rd gear before nipping round the next one. Other times its miles and miles of diversion past several ditches.
As for
the diversions - well …. if you are lucky there is a little row of stones across the road indicating its closed. Then if you are really lucky there will be a clear set of tyre tracks disappearing off the road and across the countryside - often there are several sets going off both sides of the roads, then its pot luck as to which is the best route. Sometimes there are no stones and you end up staring into the depths of a ditch. Sometimes there are stones and clear tyre tracks across the countryside so you take the diversion and then discover that the ditch is filled in so you could have stayed on the road. Sometimes the diversions run next to the road, other times you are taken well away from it for miles and miles and are left wondering if you have got it right and if you will meet back up with the road. Its like a 3 day intelligence test.
And the condition of the diversions - well..... surprisingly there are quite a few sand dunes up here, real proper crescent shaped sand dunes. They are very pretty and make an interesting sight
with the snowy mountains behind them. However, it does mean that the diversions are mostly through sand. Nasty, deep, powdery, sand - the sort that bogs you down. And of course don't forget the Chinese trucks that regularly go pounding past creating one big vision blocking dust storm. Plus we are now starting to get Land Cruisers blasting their way to Mt Kailash, they are worse than the trucks and go much faster and dont slow down or deviate for anything - even of you are in the middle of a single track diversion they wont wait on the road they just come tearing towards you. Remember that saying from way back in Tajikistan “that's the hardest days riding I have even taken a group on” - well the next 2½ days is elevated to that status. Its agreed that after the Irkeshtam Pass this is hardest riding so far.
The photos don't really do it justice - partly because they are only of the good bits of road, on the really bad bits I was either hanging on or not wanting to move and unbalance us. There are a lot of pictures of Edwin's back and the sky
taken as I bounced around trying to maintain contact with both the bike and the camera!!
Despite the hard riding conditions there is still time to take in the scenery; a bright red road through a yellow/green grassy plain, deep blue lakes in lush swampy areas, sand dunes in front of snowy mountains, families moving home with their yak herds - they are as interested in us as we are in them. We even get some wildlife; hares, gazelles and antelope. The sky is quite spectacular, the air feels really fresh and clear and you can see the colours changing from pale blue at the horizon to deep blue overhead. We pass through a few small villages with typical Tibetan houses plus chortens and mani walls. They are all slightly scruffy with rubbish blowing round but the people are friendly and wave.
Then there are the road workers - there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them, its quite unbelievable. There are some diggers but a lot of the work is completed manually; two men carrying enormous rocks from a sling across their shoulders, people sat hammering large boulders breaking them up, rubble being wheel barrowed into
the ditches. Its a mix of Tibetans and Han Chinese and generally the Tibetans wave and smile while the Han Chinese look but seem to have a certain restraint about them, almost like they are afraid to wave and express themselves.
The 159 miles from Lake Manasarovar to Paryang takes us 9 hours. Then the 145 miles from Paryang to Saga takes another 9 hours. We have a couple of tumbles in deep sand and at one point manage to get trapped under the bike. Luckily two Chinese road workers come to our rescue and slowly lift the bike inch by inch allowing us to untangle ourselves and wriggle out. As soon as we are out a couple of bikes go whizzing past up on the road - the road is open, we needn't have taken this diversion!!! I trudge through a couple of the really deep sections or occasionally, if the van is in sight, I hitch a lift on the rear ladder - though walking and hanging onto the ladder both require a lot more effort than sitting on the back of the bike. There's one section of sandy hairpins bends going from 4500m to 4900m and
back down and we surprise a lot of the group by making it two up, they assumed I'd wait for the van and hitch a lift.
From Saga to Dingri we leave the 'main road' and head south so we are free of the roadworks but its a minor road so in places the conditions are pretty bad. So bad that we often abandon the road and take to the plains hoping that at some point we can get back up onto the road - there is usually a ditch between the plains and road so its not always that easy. Its a day of great scenery; at one point we are riding through a narrow canyon down in the dry river bed then we emerge up above Lake Peiku-tso (4591m) with views of Shishapangma (at 8012m its the only 8000m+ mountain wholly in Tibet) and the Langtang Range of peaks in Nepal. Even after weeks of snowy mountains you still stop and stare.
At times we have to re-group so we can through the checkpoints together. After one the road just seems to totally disappear and the bikes spread out across the plains each bike making its
own way, racing on ahead, generating its own dust cloud. Its an amazing sight, like something out of Wacky Races or a scene from the Dakar Rally. We climb back up to what is hopefully the road and suddenly, out of nowhere, a beautiful tarmac road is in front of us - The Friendship Highway from Kathmandu to Lhasa. We really weren't expecting that but what a relief. After 397 miles of sand it a wonderful sight, some people even kneel down and kiss the tarmac!!
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Christine
non-member comment
Amazing
Omigod! I think if Max and I had been doing this we would have parted company by now. Scenery looks absolutely fantastic but what a price to pay in shattered nerves and sheer exhaustion! Big respect for getting through it.