Day 1 Tibet -Zhangmu

Today we arrived in Tibet after leaving Kathmandu at 6am. The road was horrible, very rough, best described as potholes with a smattering of road. When we arrived at the border, there was about 50 trucks cued up to cross. Luckily for us the (fixers) looked after all our Nepalese departure formalities and we rode the bikes up to the front of the queue and then needed to push the bikes across the "Friendship Bridge", showing our passport to a Chinese guard half way. After that, if you are waved on, you then needed to go through customs and immigration. Overall the fixers made it reasonably easy, but it still took about 2 hours to get through. 

Zhangmu is the border town but is about 10km past the Friendship Bridge, after clearing formalities we  checked in to a hotel that looks new but has dodgy bathroom fittings, pipes just smashed through the wall, electricity wiring in a wet area sealed with tape, you get the picture. Zhangmu is set on the side of very steep hills which form the valley. We are at 8,000 ft and only on the side of the hill, the ridges are way above us. It looks pretty and I have a couple of quick snaps from the hotel window.

Right now, the group are having dinner at a local restaurant, menu reads well ( not), yak is popular here, waiting on my fried yak dumplings or (momo).

No internet here, so these blogs will probably come all at one time. Looking forward to some good roads tomorrow, we do a high pass at about 16,000 ft, will have snow up there. The cool air will also be a refreshing change from the heat of Nepal. it has been hard, slow, hot and tiring motorcycling to date and not my  idea of fun riding.  Looking forward to a decent nights sleep tonight.

Next Day Zhangmu to Tingri

We'll the roads are now much better, after winding further up the sides of hills in Zhangmu, then valleys seem to change and become less green and more arid and brown in the harsh sunlight. We stopped for lunch at little way along and was going to get more petrol for the bikes. Petrol is a problem here, foreigners need a special permit to buy petrol and petrol cannot be sold to fill Gerry cans as this might allow someone to set themselves on fire in protest.

After passing a few more checkpoints (they are everywhere here) we we're give a free run to make our way up to the high pass (5350m), from which vantage point we got a great panoramic view of the northern part of the Himalayas. A view not to missed (see pics and video when I can upload them). We reached Tingri about 6pm. Tingri at 4000 mts is very small village, with a very run down basic hotel, luckily they had warm blankets  as it was cold that night, but toilets did not flush and the shower did not work. Had to wash the dust off with icy cold water and a hand towel.

Monday 19th Tingri to Everest (Qomolangma)base camp

An early cold start to today. The original plan was we would ride out to to the base camp from Tingri and then return on the base camp- Shegar road,  it as the the other road was apparently closed due to road works, we would all come back to Tigri that afternoon and time permitting would ride the addition 80km to Shegar. There was also a big panic we would not have enough petrol for the bikes and support vehicles. It turns outs we did.

I decide to take the bus out to the base camp rather than ride the very rough dirt road. As it was, we had only a few bike breakdowns and accidents nothing serious. But the bus had a puncture and broke its suspension. About 4.30 hrs to get there ( base camp) and about 4 hrs to get back. We only spent about 1 hr at the base camp, time to have lunch and take a few snaps (see later).  The local name for Everest is Qomolangma it is impressive close up. It is reported to be 8841 or 8848 mts. That's 3 km up from where we were standing.

All up I spent about 9 hrs on the bus which felt like being in a washing machine. We got back to Tingri about 5.30 and then  rode the next 80 km  to Shegar to another hotel with dodgy showers and toilets. Shegar is another Wild West town like Tingri only bigger. Shegar is 4328 mtrs, so altitude is still a problem, very hard going walking more than about 20 mtrs. 

Today, is Tuesday, our "rest day" in Shegar, but there is no internet, no cafés or just about anything else. Luckily our guide has managed to pay someone to do our laundry as most people were down to last clean jocks. Time to rest as tomorrow is another full days ride to Shigatse, Tibet's second largest town.

Shigatse

Indeed it was a very full days ride to Shigatse, one member of the group had a fall from the bike right in front of me at about 10.20 in the morning. He is ok and very lucky for a 71 yo not to have hurt himself much worse. Travel is very slow here roads are either bad or there are point to point speed restrictions between checkpoints. So sometimes you just have sit and wait before being able to pass a checkpoint. We passed another 2 high passes yesterday, one at 4800 mtrs and another at 4200. The strong sunlight and dry air, really dries everything out, especially your lips. Arrived into Shigatse about 6.30 pm, nice hotel, has Internet access. Unfortunately I soon discovered that china blocks access to many things, including my blogger site. These updates will be coming via third party for the next few weeks, and photos will need to be limited.

Today was a rest day and we all needed it, I had a wander though town at lunchtime and visited the Tibetan markets. I did not go as others did to the big temple here in Shigatse, possibly a mistake, but needed some quiet time. Also as this place is just a whisker under 4000 mtrs, activity is avoided.

Off to dinner now, then ride 90k to Gyantse tomorrow, which I am sure will take most of the day, then on to Lhasa the day after which is 290k and no doubt take about 12 hrs.

Photos on the next post....