Beijing, Hebei, Inner Mongolia - Three days with Andy, Kurt and Michael
Andy (R1150GSA), Kurt (R1100GS) and Michael (JH600).
Day 1 - To Inner Mongolia, directly and as quick as possible
Beijing - Huairou - Fengning - Datan - Daerhao - No name Lake
340 km, 98% tarmac
Michael and me (Andy) left Beijing around 6:30 in the morning after we finished loading the bikes. We haven't packed properly the night before, since it's inconvenient to do it in darkness at the parking lot.
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Michael doing final packing
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Andy still sorting
We picked up Kurt from his home before we started to move North.
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Kurt loading the GS
We rode North from Beijing, through Huairou and then followed national road G111 until Tanghekou, where we had our breakfast.
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Breakfast is served
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Michael enjoying brekkie
After the break, continuing on G111, we made the 90kms to Fengning in only 1 hour and 15 minutes - what a great (fast) ride it was.
This time we passed the border post to Hebei without being checked.
In Fengning we filled up our bikes with 97 gasoline and left the chaotic town. It was Saturday noon, the peak market time as we passed through and decided to have a lunch beer in a village nearby, where, to our surprise we got hands on a cold beer.
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Good shopping
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Market street
Kurt somehow managed to break his left mirror, but the local craftsman was able to weld it together in less than 5 minutes at 2 RMB.
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Welding in progress
Ten kilometers North of Fengning we left G111 and turned West on a minor road towards Datan. Amazing scenery opened up in the valley we rode through.
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View into a valley
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Another great view
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Temple
After we climbed a pass at 1800m, we reached Datan to stock some drinks for the evening. As usual we were surrounded by curious locals interested in the big bikes.
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Pass
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Curious local bikers
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Old lady talking to us
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Beer reserves
The final stage for the day lead us further North to Daerhao where we left the paved road to ride on a dirt track to get to "No name Lake", where we spotted a perfect campsite. Surrounded by trees and bushes we were almost invisibly hidden. We were lucky that a huge thunderstorm just passed by and left only a few drops on us.
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Campsite
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Around the camp
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Near campsite
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Thunderstorm approaching
Dinner was prepared and eaten quickly, and after washing the dishes in the lake we started to kill our liquid reserves.
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Kurt and Michael - cooking ?
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Yeah,cooking
Sitting around a small campfire, we had some local, not so tasty beer and genuine German Schnaps.
Around midnight we were all wrapped in our bags and fell asleep quickly.
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campfire
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Another view
To be continued ...
Day 2 - A very eventful day in Hebei
No name Lake - Daerhao - Datan - Devil's Pass - Heilongshan - Yangtian
210 km, 50% tarmac, 20% dirt road, 30% no road
After a nice sunrise over the lake and a big breakfast we packed up and were ready to go by 9:00.
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Sunrise over No name lake
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Sunrise
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Breakfast being prepared
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Packing
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Ready to go
To our very big surprise we were not spotted by anybody and therefore left alone all night, although several people passed by, just meters from our camp and despite the campfire.
Only after we left our concealment the farmers going to their fields noticed us.
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Curious farmer
We rode back to Datan to fill up the bikes, stock some liquid reserves. Datan was also the starting point for the day's road exploration.
On a dirt road we left Datan southbound in a wide valley, crossed some small villages and a lake.
There were some Beijing tourists on jeeps, ATV s and horses in the grasslands, but no serious mass tourism.
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On the way to Datan
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Datan - Bike pulling ATV with barbed wire
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Datan - ATV makes it to the repair shop on 3 wheels
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Valley South of Datan
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Lake in the grassland
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The crazy crew
The road got smaller and soon turned into a dirt trail with some mud holes to cross through.
We asked some locals for the road to Heilongshan, but we went too far into the valley already, so we had to go back for two kilometers to catch the right way.
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Muddy trail
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Track getting smaller
Kurt managed to sprain his ankle when he got off his bike at a short break. It wasn't too bad but a bit painful still.
Options were discussed whether to return or to move on, but Kurt is a tough guy so we decided to continue.
Shortly afterwords we reached the pass summit, the highest point of our trip, at 1850m. Stunning views of the grassland and the highest peak in the area (2280m) opened up.
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"Devil's Pass" summit
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A look back to the grasslands
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A flock of sheep
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That valley still to reach
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This way please
We carried on, down the pass on a small gravel "road", where after only 100 meters things turned into a nightmare. Very steep, handball size stones, washed out by the rain and half a meter deep ruts made it impossible to ride, and turning around was not an option as well.
Engine off, bike in gear, pulling the clutch for a meter or two, release it again to stop. This was the only way to get down that mountain.
Kurt couldn't make it on his own with his ankle, so Michael and me had to share the task of sending Kurt's bike down the hill.
I made a couple of corners, left my bike there and went up the steep path to bring the JH600 down, while Michael took Kurt's bike further down the road - sweat. The Jialing was not so easy to deal with, since the low compression doesn't really have breaking capability, so had to use the brakes as well.
I brought the JH600 half way down the hill and walked back up to pick up my bike - more sweat. When I reached the point I'd left the JH, Michael was already there to take over the Jialing - sweating. We reached "rideable" surface after a good hour for less than one kilometer (vertical drop 250m) of fighting and sweating. The pity is that we have to go there again. why? We forgot to take any pictures in the hassle.
Although the place doesn't have a name, we now call it "Devil's Pass".
The next 15 kilometers, where a bulldozer "flattened" the track not long ago, were very difficult to ride but a piece of cake compared to the steep pass.
Another 15 kilometers on concrete surface before we reached national road G112, which we followed for 40 km to reach Yangtian, where we knew a good campsite from our trip three weeks before.
We rocked the village with our presence at the local shop, before we got to our campsite.
Tents were set up quickly and just as we settled back, a thunderstorm was approaching. Some locals came by, telling us that staying there would be very dangerous as the river might swell and flash flooding from the mountains may occur. We told them that we were fine, so they went away. Not long after, our friend the policeman (who we know from our previous stay) showed up telling us the same story but we still insisted on staying. After everyone left, rain started and there was heavy thunder and lightning all around us. The rain stopped half an hour later and we started to prepare our steaks. As we were about to finish our dinner, heavy rain started and we forced to our tents. It was dark already when the policeman came back with some other officials to tell us that we had to follow them to the village and they have a place for us to stay. We decided to give in, since they were really convincing and seemed to know what they were talking about. Stuff was quickly packed, put in their car and we followed them in heavy rain to the village. Bikes were parked in the police station and we were taken to a guesthouse across the street. Unintended and once again we became the attraction of the day.
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Approaching thunderstorm
They gave us a small room with 3 beds for us and we could use the big living room to sit and chat with the locals.
We were treated like official guests and they supplied some fruits and moon cake.
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With our hosts in the guesthouse
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Presidential suite
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Fruits moon cake and liquids
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Our room
It was midnight when we went to sleep after a couple of beers and some bottles of red wine.
