Day 5: Zoige to Maqu and Yellow River

I left the hotel at around 7:30 in the morning and headed out north. I was happy that my bike purred without the hickups that the high altitude (I was cruising at around 3400 m) and the cold air (around 0 degrees in the morning hours) had induced during the last day and enjoyed the wide landscape with vast plains on both sides.

endless plains by fahni, on Picuna


cold mornings by fahni, on Picuna


just another M/C pic by fahni, on Picuna


cranes by fahni, on Picuna




The road was perfect blacktop. Some mountains lured in the distance in the direction that I was going and I was curious if maybe today there would be a chance to crack the 4000m mark.

mountains in the distance by fahni, on Picuna

But when I arrived at the mountains I only climbed for a short while before I crossed a tunnel and then continued on the plains. In the small town of Liangmusi I had troubles finding the S313 because I could not believe that this little dirt road was actually a provincial road.

dirt road by fahni, on Picuna

But the locals assured me that this was the one. The first few hundred meters were pure mud but it got better afterwards (before it got worse again). I was riding in stunning scenery once more and stopped often to take pictures.

no worries guys, keep it coming by fahni, on Picuna


the little blue wonder by fahni, on Picuna


awesone landscape by fahni, on Picuna



The dirt and gravel road continued and after 2 hours of riding it I grew kind of frustrated (the first time I got into some kind of a dirt road paddy) because of slow going, the continuous bouncing and shaking, etc.

bad roads by fahni, on Picuna

I Passed by some ruins in the middle of nowhere:

mud ruins by fahni, on Picuna


But luckily I finally hit (patches of) blacktop

blacktop again by fahni, on Picuna
and rolled into Maqu at around 12:15 for a quick Lamian lunch before I went out to ride some dirt roads along the yellow river which is just south of Maqu.
the yellow river by fahni, on Picuna

After I crossed the river, the road went south-west and quickly changed to gravel again.

a small roadside temple by fahni, on Picuna

The scenery was impressive once again and there were Yaks, goats, groundhogs, some kind of hamsters, etc. on both sides of the roads all the way.

little fella by fahni, on Picuna

At a short driver discharge break, one of the blue three-wheeled trucks passed by with a monk at the back. As soon as the monk saw me, he told the driver to stop, walked over and started complaining how the government was destroying the Tibetan way of life. A VERY interesting conversation and I think the fact that the monk said it would be better if I don’t know his name and don’t take his picture already says a lot. I thanked him, wished him good luck and rode on to pass a monastery and continued on.

a not-so-renovated monastery by fahni, on Picuna


On that day I realized that I need to follow the brighter tracks on the gravel and sand roads as they are the ones where all the locals ride and thez know how to get through smoothly. It is all about reading the writings on the road…

reading the lines by fahni, on Picuna

My plan was to follow the road that runs all along the yellow river. (an impossible project as it turned out because it would have been much to long) but I took one turn to much and suddenly the road ended in some pasture.

the end of the road as I knew it by fahni, on Picuna

By that time it was about 1600h. I was hesitant to ride on at first. A local M/C cowboy passed by and I tried to find out if it was possible to continue ahead. I knew that there was a road maybe 6-10 km ahead but I was not sure if it was possible to reach it. The local looked at my bike and said something like “on your bike, no problem”. No way of pointing out to him that it is not the bike alone but the combination of bike and rider which make for good progress under offroad conditions;-)

But then again, I had complete camping gear, enough fuel and water with me and if I could not get through could still backtrack. So I pressed on. The tracks became more and more narrow.

getting narrower... by fahni, on Picuna


...and narrower by fahni, on Picuna



At one point I almost dropped the bike in some mud puddle and then had to drive through some gate in a fenced off pasture. But still, I could see the tracks of motorbikes in the mud and even though going was slow it seemed possible to go on. Then suddenly the tracks ended at a steep ravine, maybe 50-100meters long with rocks and and all. The last local I had asked, had pointed at it and said that the road was somewhere behind there. So I pulled myself together, reved the engine and started climbing. My bike did well, it was only very weak because of the altitude. But after I had fought my way up, I was probably more out of breath than her…

looking back at the ravine by fahni, on Picuna

Anyway, from up there I could see the blacktop glimmering maybe 500 meters further down and I was happy and proud that I had reached it. But my happiness did not last long. I was following my google maps to the T now but suddenly was on this nice little road that was clearly marked on GM.

I mean seriously, WTF? by fahni, on Picuna

Following the course of the “road” as it was marked in google maps, it finally turned into something recognizable. But still it was mainly dirt and mud. Shortly before it became gravel again, I had to cross a big mud puddle and I was way too fast. Mud and water crossings are still not my favourite and I felt how the front tire started to swim and how I lost control of the rear. I almost dropped the bike but finally, I could still hold it even though I was standing in thigh-high mud and my boots were totally soaked. From then on it was basically the same gravel road which I had ridden before and I was pushing because it was getting dark. But by now, I had some experience on gravel and sand and I had learned “to read”, so going was much faster (60-70 km/h) and I reached Maqu again at around 1930 h where I checked into the next hotel I could find and had a very nice dinner at a restaurant run by a Tibetan family. There were two herders, the family (including an old granny with her hand prayer wheel) and me. They were very curious and asked a lot of questions, complained a lot about their situation… I had some delicious yak beef, some yak RouBing, butter tea, and beer and enjoyed it so much. Unfortunately my mobile was out of battery and so I could not take any pictures.

Mileage on day 5: 342km