Hohhot to Chengdu

So, myself and Joe rode from Hohhot to Chengdu via Qinghai lake in the end of September and the October holiday. We covered 4500 kilometres and reached 4500 metres in altitude. This trip follows on from my solo ‘’Chongqing to Hohhot’’ ride which I did in August, this however is going to be a two person RR so buckle up!

As Tom said. this is a two man write-up, so I'll start by posting a map of our route. The trip around Qinghai lake was omitted at the time these maps were made, and google maps is mysteriously not working well (Because it always works well here :rolleyes1:) so I can't edit the files to accurately represent the route.

We also mad 3 separate maps so that they could be easily and quickly loaded on the phones. Also helped us to gauge our progress. A "new map" day was something to be celebrated!

All maps are at the same zoom level

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24th

Arrived in Hohhot at about 1 pm. Picked up my bike from the Suzuki shop where it had developed an oil leak due to failure of the gear shift shaft seal (try saying that one quickly!) and lost both front sprocket bolts and plate. We then picked up Joe's bike, which had kindly been left out in the rain. They also tried to rip him off for 150 quai but he thwarted them by applying logic and reason and ended up paying fuck all.


Got to golden hans at 6 and made gluttons of ourselves!

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The replacement seal


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Picking up Joe's bike


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Leaving the susuki shop


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Golden Hans has excellent beer made in their micro bremer


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At GH

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Meat anyone?



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The mosque in Hohhot


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A fake great wall under construction - future tourist trap


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A typical road in Inner Mongolia - pretty but dull riding

25th

Set off at 8.20, wet roads but no rain. Mostly cruised at 110/120 on dull straight tarmac. The weather got fairly warm after a brunch of spicy DIY wraps. Went through one major shower early evening then arrived in Orad Houqi at 6.30, 590 kms today. Found a room above a restaurant for 80 with a very nice waitress. We aim to be in Ningxia tomorrow.


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We stopped for Joe to put on his Gopro and saw this. We never found out if it was meant to look like a giant dick...


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Lots of camels but none on the menu

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North West of Hohhot

Bundled up, it was cold
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We skirted this beautiful range of mountains near the end of this first day on the road. Eventually got caught in a small shower*
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... but made for a good picture
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*Tom said it was a big shower so I am now changing my mind and agreeing. It was HEAVY

26th

Left at 9 after topping up with oil, fluid and air. Made good progress until about one when I ripped off the bottom of my rear shock linkage in a pothole. It was still held on by the tiniest piece of steel so we limped back to a half deserted hamlet and had lunch. Luckily the chef could weld and did a fine job repairing the break. Unfortunately 30 kms down the road it snapped off completely. We turned the bike into a hardtail by fixing spanners either side of the axel up to the rack, and made it the 30 kms to Wuli Jisumu. There we found a truck garage with a huge welder (we think penetration was the issue with the previous weld) who did a great belt and braces type job. I hope it holds because tomorrow we cross the Gobi and I don't want to break down there. We ended up getting rooms for 50 quai at the truck stop, and again the welder doubled as the chef! He has 3 dead sheep in the kitchen so dinner should be awesome.


We got police checked twice today, once at each of the welding shops.


300 kms today, 890 total.


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Hearty northern food

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The smashed rear shock bracket

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The first weld job


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Welder/chef #1


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Weld #2

Went up this road early in the day and were treated to this beautiful view
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Tom's bike got seriously lazy about half way through the day and had to lie down. The good old QingQi was strong enough for the both of them :icon10:
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Oh...I think something might be broken
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Un-broken... sort of...
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Welder/chef #2

27th

Left Wuli Jisumu at 8 to tackle the Gobi. In fact it was fairly straightforward, the road was under construction in places but excellent most of the time, hardly the deserted highway we'd imagined. In fact, it was the busiest stretch of road so far and we'd covered 200 kms by 11.30. We rode through Yinchuan at about 2 pm and then pushed on to Xingrenxiang, a tiny town which luckily had rooms available. We first fitted my new heated grips, it was cold today and I rode with one hand on the engine at times, then had a fantastic hotpot. The last 100 kms into Xingrenxiang were great, the first twisties of the trip. I really needed that as the endless straights of inner Mongolia had bored the shite out of me. Tomorrow we hope to be towards the western side of Gansu.

610 today, 1500 total.

Stopping for a map check. Should we go straight, or straight?
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I think we should continue straight
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Stopped for a break in a court-yard of sorts with apple and date trees, and this fellow stopped for a stare. As soon as Tom lifted the camera, he was off like a shot :)
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The end of the day, putting on the heated grips. They are worth their weight in gold (or 50rmb on taobao), and they would continue to prove their worth on the plateau.
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Tom's elfin fingers made short work of the delicate wiring
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The road heading South through the Gobi


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Now that's a set of bullbars


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Off road detour in Ningxia


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A fantastic hoptpot in Xingrenxiang

Anyone would think we have a peeing fetish!

28th

Left Xingrenxiang shortly after 8 having had one of the best hotpots ever the night before. The roads were good and the scenery better, a almost alien kind of landscape that looked as if someone had sliced off the tops of the jelly mould style mountains. At the first fuel stop I put in 55 to Joe's 34 and later on the it was 70/45. My bike will only do about 250 on a full tank when usually it will do the best part of 400. Things will get worse at altitude so hopefully there'll be plenty of petrol stations!

We stumbled upon a Buddha carved into the mountainside in southern Ningxia and then headed west towards Gansu. We arrived in Gongjingxiang, after a rollercoaster of a road, at about 5. While I had an oil change Joe went off to find a hotel, and what a hotel! 10 quai a room! That is a bike trip record, the previous best being 20 quai for a room in Guizhou, but we had to share. The hotel is basically a nice courtyard style farmhouse, the rooms very basic but fine by me. The only problem is the dog who won't stop barking, my boot impacting his backside is on the cards.
450 today, 1950 total. Tomorrow Qinghai.


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Jelly mould mountains

Good stuff, Tom, as always, even with the out-of-proportion amount of bike troubles along the way. Well, what is Chinamoto without mechanical problems?

Your route intersects with ours (Motokai and I, Changsha to Urumqi) almost perpendicularly and displays quite a bit of different terrains. It looks very interesting, something to explore next time.

Look forward to seeing more.

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Joe taking a snap of the local kids



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The 10 quai a night farmhouse we stayed in

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A solar kettle near Gongjingxiang, takes an hour to boil apparently

29th


Left Gongjingxiang at 8.15 and the undulating road got worse and worse, until it stopped completely and we had road under construction hell for about 50 kms. Just when things started getting better it pissed it down for the whole afternoon. Progress was slow, we only covered 370 kms today. Soon after it started raining Joe noticed his legs were wet so we pulled over under a bridge and found that the 200 Pound over trousers that Dan lent him are about as waterproof as a sponge. Luckily he had some old Chinese ones which work fine together with my gators. We didn't think much of Gansu, maybe because of the weather, but it was pretty dreary compared to Ningxia. We stopped for excellent Muslim noodles, bread and to take a break from the rain just before the border with Qinghai. After the noodles and a readjust of the rain gear we headed up a near vertical road into the fog and snow. It was pretty nippy but we had enough gear on, without heated grips it would've been very tough going. After stopping to take a photo in the snow the road started to descend into a stunning high plateau valley and it warmed up a bit.

We arrived in Xunhua at about 5 and took some photos of more amazing scenery. Found a hotel with an underground car park, very few things make me happier than that.

On a more depressing note I'd had my carburetor and air filter cleaned last night in the hope of improving fuel economy and was quietly confident of at least being equal with Joe. It wasn't to be though, I put in 74 quai to his 45. Bugger. I'm going to change the ECU and spark plug tonight.

After changing the ECU we found a leak in the fuel line plug, we then walked around looking for a place to eat and some leak plugging stuff. Every restaurant in town, including outdoor barbecue places, was completely dry and wouldn't even let us bring in a beer. After initially quite liking Xunhua we now can't wait to get out of here. We just fixed the leak with some ptfe tape, a self tapper, some epoxy and tape. Hopefully I will triumph in the fuel economy competition tomorrow.

I was behind on the uploads so there will be quite a few pics here - for two days. Bandwidth beware :)

28th

Heading through Southern Ningxia.
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This sure beats relieving yourself 3 feet from the road onto a concrete slab like we had to do at the farmer's house!
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The Temple
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Our 10 RMB rooms. Cockroach free, so I was happy.
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29th

Fantastic little petrol station where we stopped in the morning. I don't think it has been mentioned yet, but in most towns and provinces on the way, you cannot simply pull up to the pump to fill up. You must park on the outskirts of the station, grab a leaky, rusty, half welded can, and have it filled up. You must then slosh your way back to the bike, by which time you have more petrol in your clothes than in the can. You must then Close your eyes, tilt up the back of the can, and attempt to keep some of the petrol going into the tank all the while praying that you don't spend your last seconds on earth as a flaming testament to Chinese bureaucracy. When asked why we must go through this ritual, the attendants always responded, "for safety." ..... yeeeeeaaaah

So needless to say we liked this little station where the guy thought we we idiots for asking about a can.
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Buying noodles in the same little shop that had the solar stove outside.
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We went from sunny and cool to cold and wet in about 10 minutes. Even with heated grips, I was freezing. We had come through rain earlier, and my gloves were saturated. From this...
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...To this. Just as the fog cleared from the high snow pass, we were greeted with an UNBELIEVABLE view - Miles of switchbacks descending into a valley shouldered by rocky mountains on either side. And my phone died. NO PICS. The camera was packed away, and Tom was bombing off into the distance. I regret not getting that picture.
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I stupidly put some bananas in my top box which totally disintegrated and spread themselves evenly over the rest of the contents!

30th
Left Xunhua late at 8.40 due to blow drying yesterday's wet clothes. The scenery and roads were fantastic all the way to Xining which was a bit of an armpit. We stopped to get cash and I waited in a queue in the ABC watching a lady fail at cash machine usage, after the second failed attempt I called over the manager who helped her through the process. Then a group of likely lads with one card took an age to empty an account, it looked a tad suspicious but no-one else batted an eyelid. After finally getting through Xining we entered the road of death, dusty potholed and jammed packed with every imaginable vehicle, whose sole purpose was to take us out. We survived and started climbing up towards Qinghai lake, the road was fun and pretty empty so we gave it the beans. That road ended so we joined the gaosu and flew up the last few kilometres. We then looped around the whole northern and western sides of the lake and found a pikey guest house for 60 quai in Heimahexiang having been told that all the hotels were 180. The northern road was fast but pretty dull as the lake was out of sight most of the time. We rode up a weird half built viewing platform for a photo then went lakeside where a filthy Tibetan tramp tried to extort 20 quai from us.

Heimahexiang is a one horse town but we found some cool Tibetan trinkets for next to nothing and a great restaurant staffed entirely by kids! And what do kids love? Rambo of course! We are now having a few beers watching first blood mainly in Chinese but with snippets of English. Quality.

495 kms today, 2815 total. To get to Chengdu on the 5th we need to average over 400 a day, which could be fun at 4000 metres, no doubt it'll be memorable.


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Watching Rambo with the kids

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This toilet in Heimahexiang had a 10m drop

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A steamy noodle shop near Qinghai lake




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Pimping ain't easy homey!

A lunch break on our way to Qinghai lake. Lunch consisted of Snickers and hard-packed dried fruit. We ended up relying on those to foods for lunch pretty much throughout the entire trip, and will definitely do so again in the future.
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The view to the left showing the road we had just come up
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While we were taking these photos by the water, we met the owner of Qinghai lake. THE OWNER. I know, crazy huh? She tried to charge us for taking pictures of her lake, but we high-tailed it.
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THE OWNER... I still can't get over it
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Tom decided to power-wash the Yingang :icon10::icon10: I knew no good would come of it!
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The steed. The Qingqi seriously preformed great the whole trip. Apart from a tricky front end and user error, it was almost ideally suited.
Chinav: I am sorry I didn't wash it every night :sad:
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1st

We left at 7.30 having decided to try and make a serious dent in the remaining kilometres. My carb had water inside from jet washing the night before which made Joe laugh. We knocked off the final 120 kms of the lake before breakfast then decided to take a slightly different route. In effect we did two straight sides of a triangle instead of one twisty. We made great progress, 650 kms today, reaching Darlag at 5.30. In fact the original route, though more direct, would have totalled 780 so we probably saved a day. We now only need to average 270 to arrive in Chengdu on time.

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The red line is the actual route taken. Anyone heading this way should take note of the small detour shown mid map where we filled up at Baima, we would have been riding on fumes without stopping there. Well done Joe for leaving on his heated grips! :thumbsup:

The roads were pretty dull and we were whizzing along at 120 on the straights though the bikes were feeling the effect of the altitude, mine especially was struggling on the climbs. The only bad bit of road was before Darlag, I was getting so beat up I stopped and took 7 psi out of each tyre.

Darlag itself is tiny, we found an ok hotel and had a few beers. Met a Tibetan badboy in purple and white with 70s sunglasses who was hilarious, and was shocked by a seemingly wild pack of huge dogs menacing the townsfolk, particularly those on motorbikes. Joe said he would shoot them all to protect Sally if they lived here.

It's surprisingly warm here in the afternoons, although it did snow slightly today. We have plently of clothes so as long as it doesn't rain we'll be fine. Have been keeping an eye out for some riding furs just to piss off any hippies I meet in the future but haven't found any yet.

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Not sure who this guy is but he seemed pretty poplular :naughty:


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Part of the pack that was menacing Darlag


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Check out his sunnies! :thumbsup:

2nd

Joe left his heated grips on so we are changing the battery. I woke up a mechanic who informed us of altitudes. Darlag is 3738 and the hisghest mountain we will pass today is 4753. The mechanic provided us with some invaluable information regarding petrol stations, resulting in a 20 km detour to Baima and possibly saving us from running out. At Baima the Tibetans were setting up for some kind of festival (probably not national day!) and Joe was mobbed when we stopped to check it out. After filling up the bikes and some plastic bottles we pressed on and met a deaf mc coming the other direction. We stopped and tried to talk to them before we realised it was next to impossible to communicate. The international language of motorcycles sufficed however, and about a gazillion photos were taken. Shortly afterwards we went over a pass 4238 m, 4 more were to follow, all over 4000. Joe's qingqi runs lean at sea level so was in its element at altitude. The yingang did reasonably well, but I was revving the tits off it while Joe just chugged along.


Unusually for a bike trip in the middle kingdom, we saw quite a bit of wildlife. A tibetan fox played chicken with us, and we also saw marmott/gerbil type rodents and an eagle near Qinghai lake. Less appreciated were the yaks which showed no fear of bikes and were constantly wandering onto the road, halting my hard won momentum.

We arrived in Aba, dumped our kit in the hotel and went off to check out the temple. It was pretty large and we walked around snapping a few pics. We were surprised by the amount of 5/o I'm the area. The station had been built right next to the temple and we sat in a nearby cafe checking out the impressive arms being carried. Soon though we were escorted inside and told that we may be in danger, as an afterthought our camera was also examined and some editing took place. We were finally let go and decided to risk going out for Tibetan hotpot, amazingly enough we survived!


440 today, 3905 total

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We woke up in Darlag to find that it had snowed during the night

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The bikes looked especially cold

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Joe with his flat battery



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The local mechanic who actually gave Joe a brand new battery for free! He even came back with a flask of hot water which he poured over the engine to get it started. :clap:



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Local Tibetans near the site of the mystery festival



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Joe was mobbed by the locals

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Were we confident eating at this restaurant? Of cousre we were!



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The best looking road sweeper I've seen





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Despite my best efforts this young lad wasn't scared at all




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Lion heart



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Prayer wheels at the Aba temple

Another double up here.

1st

On the road

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2nd -------


Obviously these guys are cooler than we are, because they were doing all of this less 1 sense. Right on!
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Literally 10 meters after we met up with these guys, the roads turned rocky and lame. Stayed that way for a while - right up and over the pass
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It's not just that I was underexposed in this shot. I was also bundled up to my eyeballs trying to stay warm :icon10:
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Beautiful views
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Aba temple

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Lovely to see some traditional Tibetan clothing

3rd

Left Aba at 8.40, the first 100 kms were pretty nasty. Very muddy and freezing, we both had some serious moments but neither of us fell. I was fishtailing all over the shop but for Joe it was worse as his front was washing out all time. We came down from the bad road and queued for petrol with a load of Sunday drivers from Chengdu. We warned them of the bad road ahead and they receiprocated about a 'very difficult' high pass ahead of us. In fact the roads were great from then on and we didn't notice that we'd gone through the difficult pass until we were below the tree line.

We stopped for noodles and the cook disciplined her child by saying she'd sell him to the foreigners. We joined in the joke and the poor lad was terrified!

From there we continued on down to Wenchuan the site of the 2008 earthquake. We has initially tried to stay further up the mountain but we were thrown out of a hotel for being foreign, after being told it was fine. We arrived in Wenchuan and it took ages to find a room as most hotels were full due to the national holiday. I eventually found a great little pikey place for cheap. The only issue was the motocross skills required to reach the parking area. In the end we were very glad to have reached Wenchuan, we had fantastic hotpot and the earthquake museum was an eye opener. The huge before and after photos told a pretty frightening tale. It's pretty obvious that no expense was spared for the rebuild, and it looks way better than any other town in the area. The new buildings are stylish and full of character, not the usual concrete boxes.



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Cold and muddy but still smiling!


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One of the new buildings in Wenchuan