Project VELAIA

Together with Boris from Slovenia I continued my journey from Ali into the center of Tibet. Compared to the western part of Tibet, Aksai Chin, there were villages every 50km at least and many big valleys, sometimes beginning in high plateaus and ending in big lakes.

The road was paved for about 200km and we could have made fast progress if not for the steady and heavy headwinds that held the average down at about 10km/h even though we gave everything!

On the first day I made a strange observation: A dog following the road (or us) for 10 to 15 km at about our speed – maybe he saw our exhaustion and was waiting for his dinner

We stopped about 2 to 3 times a day in a small restaurant next to the street where the only meal you could order consisted of instant noodles – quite monotone but at least some calories to burn. The locals here mostly heat their water – a must because of the bacterias from the yaks, goats and sheep all around – with renewable energies: either the shit of animals they collect or the sunlight wich they collect with big mirrors in front of the houses.

 

In between the yaks and goat+sheep groups you can sometimes spot antelopes, eagles and other wild animals.

Then after nearly 200km of perfectly paved road it suddenly stopped and we had to share the (mostly) wash board road with an endless truck convoy – they were building the extension of the good road and we saw them as the price for the fine road before

We passed the Kalish mountain, a spiritual place for many Tibetans and target of many many pilgrims and tourists alike, many of the latter coming by Jeep from Lhasa or Kathmandu, doing the way around the mountain in 4-5 days (compared to 1 – 2 days for many Tibetans).

The road was covered in deep dust and after 45km we finished that stage and got a warm place to sleep next to a restaurant.

The next day the dust was falling off our rims – a 1 to 2 mm brown layer of brown soil. The idea that much of this stuff went into my lungs made me pull up my pipe scarf again and again. But on that altitude – mostly above 4500m – you need every single O2 molecule and therefore after every Jeep or truck had passed and after the dust had been blown away by the wind the scarf went down again and you had to breath extra deeply – a feeling like after a 100m sprint!

And just as the Kalish mountain went out of our field of view a really big one (7890m) appeared on the right side of the road and accompanied us for at least 2 days – we could feel the proximity of the Himalayans – the proximity of the real and eternal kings

 

Just as we left a valley and spotted some amazing snow covered mountains in the distance extremely heavy side winds started to make our lives hard and blow us from the street not only once!

In the evening we were happy to find a cluster of nomad houses were we could cook some of the _very tasty_ instant noodles and spend a night protected from the storm.

Then a morning and noon full of ups and downs lead us to a nice but hard pass of about 5100m, continued by a short downhill and 15km flat.

We arrived at a house where an old woman, here daughter and grandchild hosted us warmly and made the about 1000 altimeters of that days stage and the resulting exhaustion change into a tired but relaxing evening and good night.

After an easy to pass checkpoint we made a short photo shooting session, first Boris and then a few yaks continued by a horrible road with 5 to 10cm of gravel where you felt like swimming or powdering with a snowboard!

And then it appeared in front of us: a magnificent plateau with the Himalayans on the right side visible till the horizon!

At the end of this plateau we arrived in a big village, had lunch, stocked up our food and drinking water and continued over another pass to a nomad family that hosted us for one night but first after we had drunken at least 5-6 cups of Tibetan yak butter tea (quite salty) each

In this area we discovered many sand dunes and a feeling like in Iran or Turkmenistan came up if I didn’t focus on the snow covered mountains in the distance – just a bit colder (about 30-40 kelvin .

 

We passed the first monasteries – combined with the increasing traffic this was a clear sign that we arrived near the center of Tibet.

Another evening, only about 30km after the town of Saga, we tried to get a place in a nomad house but in this area the nomads were quite reserved and didn’t want to host us which lead to a night below a quite low bridge, a night that got freezing cold!

 

There was nearly no pass now without the famous Tibetan prayer flag and for the two cyclists these often provided some wind protection when resting for some minutes at a pass.

But there were not only flags and cords – some people left old cloths there, hats, scarfs – everything you can think of and everything they didn’t need anymore

After another small, unimportant village where black dogs were sleeping in brown shit and a small, sweet brown terror cat stole us our sleep, the road got paved, perfectly paved again for about 100km just to get worse again at the town of Sangsang – I really don’t understand the Chinese/Tibetan street building politics!

Whenever we stopped somewhere in a small village immediately many people gathered around us and even followed us into the (often quite small) restaurants which often lead to a situation like this: Boris and Daniel preparing instant noodles, drinking a coke; 20-30 Tibetan villagers standing around them just staring

Then the moment came when in a downhill, fixed on the bad road we suddenly spotted something green on the left – green, that reminded me to a thing I hadn’t seen for weeks – what was it again!? Ahh, yeah, trees, real trees. And they were everywhere, every house in every village had a garden with at least one big green tree – beautiful!

Soon we reached the Friendship highway (318) and from there on the road got perfect until Lhasa.

We did the nearly 400km in 3 days passing many many villages and small towns with complete mobile phone network coverage all the way!

 

One evening we asked to stay for the night in a restaurant and we got brought to a side room. Having slept for one our we got woken up by the loud noise many Chinese produce while eating: 14 men inside our sleeping room, eating instant noodles – OK! DON’T PANIC! I get my eating stuff out of one of my cycling bags and also start to eat. But then the men start to smoke and I leave the place for a pipe just 200m away where I have a quiet night in good air!

The next day I do some km alone until Boris who stayed in the restaurant (he sleeps like a dormouse) catches up with me while I am talking to a Spanish cyclist (Basque from the Pyrenees).

Together we continue to Shigatse where we meet the Russian cyclist from Aksai Chin again and another Chinese globetrotter.

From Shigatse on the valley sometimes gets quite steep and you can always hear the sound of the big river flowing through it.

The day before we reached Lhasa was a black day for us: Boris had 2 punctures (4 holes) within only 5km, a Tibetan boy threw a stone after us and my PDA computer somehow quitted working – additionally we’ve been totally overpriced in a restaurant in the evening, paying 50 yuan for what was worth 20 at most.

But at least during the night we fixed the punctures and made it to Lhasa in quite cloudy and wet cold weather the next morning.

 

In Lhasa we found the H D F Youth Hostel, managed by cyclists and a very relaxed and open atmosphere – we’ve used the laundry service and my cloths are drying right now in the sun

During the next month I will be racing to Beijing which is still about 4000-5000km away, not an easy task I guess, but possible I hope. I’ll take a good road to get out of Tibet to the north and then turn right for the capital.