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- Don’t know where we are -
We both slept badly, listening to the rain continuing and knowing this was precisely what we didn’t want for our journey. It’s hard not to be a little anxious when you know you’re in the hands of the gods who decide which rocks will fall and when. We set off and made it past the previous day’s blockage, passing fresh but smaller landslides along the way. Although these mountainside tracks are narrow, which ordinarily would mean driving slowly, it’s best to get through danger zones quickly which means you drive faster. We think the saying is ‘Stuck between a rock and a hard place’, but we’d rather not dwell on that one.
Everything was going well and there was nothing we couldn’t cope with - rocks blocking our path could be lifted or pushed out of the way, and a tree that had fallen across our path had luckily broken away from its base so between the 4 of us we could move it by force. We got over the first of the day’s 2 passes and soon were on the approach to the other, higher pass. Here we came across
lots and lots and lots of snow. It looked magical and peaceful, but this was partly due to the fact that no vehicles were behind us and, judging from the depth of snow ahead, nothing had come down the mountain for a while. With no tracks to follow, we kept falling off the road into drifts at the side where we got stuck. We were in a proper whiteout, where everything looked the same uniform white and no road was discernible at all. A quick side note here, a very weird sensation as we were standing outside our 4x4 - we are roasting hot, from the reflection of the sun through the thick clouds onto the snow, creates a very odd, very hot feeling. The snow up here also made for very good snowballs and snowmen material. Anyway back to the drama…
We saw some people walking in the distance. They refused to help push us out of our latest snow drift, but their excuse of not having eaten for 2 days whilst being stuck on the mountain and being exhausted was reasonable enough. Our guide said we’d have to return to where we’d come from that morning, which
we didn’t like the sound of. In the end another 4x4 turned up and said they were going to go for it, and we went with them along with a busload of Chinese tourists and a lorry. The Chinese were having the trip from hell, having already spent a night trapped on another pass, but really what did they expect going by bus. Our convoy made it a few kilometres up the mountain but then came across an avalanche. People began clearing it. We felt guilty that we couldn’t help - Ed tried and after shifting enough for a snowman’s head almost collapsed. We’re far from acclimatised to this altitude - the pass was over 5000m - and if you doubt the effect of altitude on the body you’ll just have to try it. The hours passed and we realised that we wouldn’t make it back to the town where we spent the previous night (there was nothing in between except an Army base).
More people passed us walking down, most looking in a dreadful state especially the ones with snow blindness. We resigned ourselves to spending the night up here, in the car, short of breath and praying
that there’s no more avalanches. It really was quite miserable, and we’re not afraid to admit quite scary too. Suddenly an Army 4x4 appeared coming from the direction we wanted to go, the first vehicle to make it through in 3 days. We ruthlessly ditched the Chinese bus and the lorry and teamed up with the Jeep for an attempt upwards. We passed some abandoned buses and some with a few passengers remaining, and eventually saw the most welcome prayer flags ever, which signify the summit. The fun wasn’t over here though and we waited for 3 trucks that were coming up the other side and that weren’t stopping for anyone. This little convoy sort of cleared the road down the other side and so we just had a relatively easy drive to the town at the bottom. We’d given a couple of stranded bus passengers a lift down too. Quite astonishingly, on the way down we came across a snowplough, sitting idle by the side of the road. Why wasn’t that used to clear the road, we asked. Apparently the Army are responsible for that kind of thing but don’t usually bother unless a senior officer wants to get
through. And remember this is still the main road into Tibet.
Eventually we make it to Zuodong, a day late but extremely pleased to be here at all. The looks we get as we walk down the street looking for something to eat make us think that we might as well be from outer space. It has been an adventure, and not a day that we will forget in a hurry.
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