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"The Road to Everest"
Page 1
Copyright © Dave Wodchis, 2004.
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Leaving Lhasa
The Road to Everest: Cycling the Tibetan Plateau
"This morning, the ladies at the hotel wrapped a white scarf around my neck for a safe journey by bicycle along the friendship highway to Mount Everest. I think it was a good omen, because tonight, I'm camped about 90 km outside of Lhasa at about 4100m, just below the roadway somewhere on the Kampa La. It's been a pretty good day for cycling - cool and clear, getting warmer later in the day."
October 10th, 2004
In the morning, Pierre thought he had come down with some kind of virus, so he and Sonia stayed in Lhasa, hoping to leave in another day or so. A few days ago, they loaned me their Tibet Overland book to copy a few pages, and even though it is slightly out of date for this section, it has come in quite helpful today, with my on again/off again odometer acting up.
The first part of the road out of Lhasa is smooth as silk, until it starts up the pass. Then it's alternately serene or completely mad with roadwork activity. By 2006, it's going to be one of the most amazing mountain pass roads in China, but right now where it's under construction, there's a lot of people working, a lot of trucks, and a lot of dust. In between those construction sites, as a cyclist, you're the only one on the road as all other traffic is halted or being diverted.
The last village of the day had some irritating children aggressively begging for money or candy, grabbing at the bike and bags, threatening to throw rocks, etc., etc. They were also doing the "repeat everything you say game," so they quickly learned "f*** you!" and "You're a nincompoop!" courtesy of yours truly. Now with the sun gone behind the mountain, and the light starting to fade, it's almost solitude again. An army officer comes by and says hello. There's also a Tibetan fellow camped in a big tent a little farther down the mountain. I hear the sound of my pen on the page, my breath coming into my body, and the river rushing far below in the valley - and that's all no matter how hard I listen. There are no other sounds. Day one on the Friendship Highway comes to an end.
ROAD REPORT - Cycling Day 1
Distance: 90 kms (approx.)
Ride time: 6:00 hours (approx.)
Avg. speed: 15kph
Max kph: unknown
Passes: none
Sleeping place: Roadside camp 4100m approx.
Tibet Mileage to date: 327 km (includes local riding in Lhasa as well as overnight trip to Ganden
Monastery)
Worldwide Mileage 2004: 7313 km
Comment Good day for cycling. Not too challenging. Considering all the sections under construction, the road was not too bad.
Tibetan Glossary:
La = Mountain Pass
Tso = Lake
October 11th, 2004
I wake up early camped on the west side of the mountain, so the temperature is quite cold. My thermos of hot water prepared the night before is not exactly hot, but lukewarm enough to make some instant walnut cereal I found in Lhasa, and warm enough to make a cup of instant coffee. The sun comes around at about 9:30 a.m. Beijing time (all of China is on Beijing time!), and after slopping on some sunscreen, I head for Kampa La. With the massive road building projects, the road markers mentioned in Tibet Overland are non-existent. In fact, the first one I see mentioned in the book, is marker #163 somewhere after the town of Nangartse Dzong later the next day.
The road is mostly smooth, with a few streams to ford, but my focus of the day is not to make the same mistakes I made climbing to Ganden Monastery. I stop a lot, drinking water, having a bite to eat, having lunch, taking some altitude medication, and filling my lungs with air.
Yamdrok Tso
Yamdrok Tso
it's almost three o'clock when I reach the pass - and what a view!!! Yamdrok Tso lies below, and is surrounded by snow-capped mountains. it's absolutely stunning! Four Tibetan women and a couple of Chinese soldiers cheer my arrival - as do I. Taking the white scarf given to me by the Banok Shol Hotel staff lady, I tie it to the array of scarves and flags flying from the top of the pass. The Tibetan women and I make some conversation and take some pictures, but after about a half hour, one of the Chinese soldiers indicates that I should move on, so I head down the mountain passing more and more roadwork.
Roadblock
At one point, a jeep passes me yelling "Yo Canada!" Okay - I admit it. I have a very readable Canadian flag on the back of the bike, and those people in the jeep - well - they must be Canadian too. A little further down the road, they are pulled over at the side of the road and hail me over. I just about fall over stopping as I can't get my shoes unclipped. It turns out they are on a group tour with a Montreal company called Karavaners, and are waiting for the other jeeps and their guide who have been held up at a roadwork section.
Moving on, I begin looking for a camping spot for the night. With the new road, the suggested campsites listed in Tibet Overland are non-existent. it's a whole new world of Chinese infrastructure development on the Southern Friendship Highway - at least along this section. After bypassing a couple of potential sites, and with the sun fading, I backtrack a few kilometers to a lakeside location and make camp for the night. It turns out to be a less than ideal location.
Just after dark, I begin cooking dinner when a series of very loud rock blasting explosions begin from across the lake, echoing off the mountains and the water. These continue for several hours, but even worse is the steady shuttling back and forth of trucks and tractors on the nearby road. I don't sleep for several hours, and then not at all well.
ROAD REPORT - Cycling Day 2
Distance: 55 kms (approx.)
Ride time: 6:20 hours (approx.)
Avg. speed: 8.7 kph
Max kph: unknown
Passes: Kampa La 4700m
Sleeping place: Lakeside camp approx. 125 kms from central Lhasa at 4400m approx.
Tibet Mileage: 382 km
Worldwide Mileage: 7368 km
Comment - Good day for cycling. Took my time on the pass stopping a lot for water, rest, and food. Several road sections with streams running across them, and several areas under construction required pushing through soft deep earth that was yet to be packed down. Other than that - pretty good road surfaces.
October 12th, 2004
It's chilly and I haven't slept that well, but at least my tent is on the sunny side of the hill this morning! I make a slow but good start at around 10:30. Fording streams, pushing through construction zones, dodging around massive machinery, riding through massive clouds of dust, and then nothing. The first part of road from somewhere past Tamalung Village is under heavy construction. Eventually I make it through Pede Dzong, grabbing some water, and then stopping in Nangartse Dzong for a late lunch. Nangartse Dzong has a large Chinese presence, which means lots of Chinese restaurants, shops, schools, and other businesses. Lunch is good, and I fill up on supplies before heading out on the road to Karo La.
Tibet Overland mentions headwinds, and they start as soon as I get to the entrance of the valley, where soldiers at a checkpoint gruffly confirm the direction of the pass. Today, I'm determined to get a nice, decent, sheltered campsite, and begin looking around 2:30 p.m. By four, I've decided to camp in a small gully by the river. It seems to be at about 4650m, and if the road markers were still here, it might correspond to marker 168, about 16 km outside of Nangartse Dzong.
Mountains surround the camp, and if I climb the gully, to the west I can see a small collection of buildings, or to the east, a small habitat for a Tibetan labourer who I meet while setting up camp. After dinner, a few nomadic dogs were wandering around, but they apparently had some other things to interest themselves in, and left me alone. This morning there were another four of them coming down the lake barking at me, but they became distracted by a Himalayan Mouse Hare. The nomadic dogs are notoriously vicious, but so far I haven't had to swing the iron gol I purchased in Lhasa, or throw any of the rocks stored in the pockets of my handlebar bag. Today, I also managed to wash up a bit in the river, just enough to get some of the dust off before donning some long underwear and bedding down for the night.
ROAD REPORT - Cycling Day 3
Distance: 42 kms (approx.)
Ride time: 4:00 hours (approx.)
Avg. speed: 10.5 kph
Max kph: unknown kph
Passes: none
Sleeping place: Riverside camp 4655m approx.
Tibet Mileage: 424 km
Worldwide Mileage: 7410 km
Comment: Rough road in construction zones, otherwise fine.
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