The Ride ..........

Now that a few days have passed, it is appropriate to record my thoughts on the motorbike ride from Kathmandu to Lhasa.

Firstly, without this trip being organised and without the fixers and other arrangements being in place, many of my goals would not have been realised. To go to Everest Base camp and to ride through the high Himalaya and visit parts of the world, very remote and only read about in books was a very special opportunity.

However the ride itself was tough, tougher than most people on the tour expected, even experienced dirt bike riders. John and Helen (motorcycle adventures) have never said this was an easy ride, but I think most in the group had underestimated how hard it would be. The roads in Nepal are very poor, especially towards the border, there are potholes a small yak could disappear into and never be seen again. Even the starter ride in Nepal, listed as an 80 km ride, took about 4hrs (one way) to complete and was very dodgy in parts, especially towards the finish. You would turn into a sharp left corner only to find the road disappear into rough potholes which would bounce you and the bike all over the place, at times it was hard to hang on.

The roads in Tibet were admittedly better, but it is a question off starting points for better to apply. The high passes were spectacular,some with views of the best part of the Himalaya range. Luckily for us the weather was always clear and good. Whilst John recommends winter gear for the high stuff, in Nepal where it is Hot, take lighter summer gloves and gear. The heavy stuff is a pain in hot slow riding conditions. Although across Tibet winter gear is preferred. Whilst we had fine weather, it could have easily been snowing or raining in parts.

Generally the accommodation was good, considering where we where, we had clean dry beds every night (and whilst mostly hard Tibetan Style)  which I liked. We also had running water and flushing toilets most nights (snow leopard hotel at Tingri) the exception. They were there, but just didn’t work. At least we were not camping. This is a very remote part of the world with not a lot of western luxuries, The locals have it much tougher.

The Bikes, 500 cc Royal Enfield Single cylinder engines.  A piece of shit is my humble opinion, no guts, no suspension, handles like a wet sponge. But they seem to plod on like the donkeys they are and maybe that’s why they seem to be used a lot for these type of trips, that or they are just cheap. Someone should organise BMW 1200 GS, much better bike for this trip.

The ride out to base camp from Tingri is not for the faint hearted. Its about 200km of off road riding (note not poor dirt road, but off road riding) These tracks are not roads, they are the result of successive tyre tracks and are rough. I think I made the sensible decision and rode in the bus that day (although that was like being in a washing machine for 8 hrs). It is a hard days work but the result is you get about 1 hr at Everest base camp on the Tibetan side. If you do want to do this ride (and that is what some people specifically take this trip for), then be prepared to be standing on the pegs most of the day to keep your balance and ask yourself are you skilled and fit enough to do this on a 1950’s designed bike, never designed for dirt riding with road tyres at over 5km up, where your brain and body don’t function well.

One suggestion that was mooted later was that it might be better to actually stay a night at the Everest Base camp (yes there is a new basic hotel there) so you spread the pain of the journey over 2 days and you would have more time to observe Everest close up at different times of the day, morning and evening especially would be good as the sun comes from the side. However it is 5400 mts up and that might not be such a good idea to stay at they level.

Another surprise part about the ride (although we were told) is how long it takes to get anywhere, when you look at the Km to be travelled  each day, it seems like an easy days ride, with time to spare. Wrong, each day is a full days ride, all day, mostly 12hrs from start to finish. There are many stops on the way, police check points, speed limits between departure and arrival points, often long lunch stops (because nothing happens quickly) and whilst it is stated you can ride at your own pace and stop as much as you like to take photos etc, in reality this does not happen and  a self censoring behaviour creeps in to keep up and not delay the overall teams  goals, because it would. Your actions affect everyone else on the team.

In summary, this is not a holiday, its tough and hard work, but the rewards are also special and it is made a lot easier by the tour organisers, if only they would use BMW 1200 GS bikes.

Any typos are the fault of predictive text and the author accepts no responsibility. It is an altitude thing, the ride has been over nearly a week and I am a 1000 kms or more north at Xining and I am still at 2200 mtrs, which is higher than Australia’s tallest mountain. Looking forward to some denser air.