Shenzhen to Mount Everest

[futianshenzhen]

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Another one of our off road excursions

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[milton]

Tom,


Thanks for the ride report, filling in on what I have sadly missed. I had my Jialing ready, but a family matter prevented me from joining.
Qinghai and Gansu look as inviting as ever. Look forward to more of Tibet, which unfortunately will have to stay on my bucket list for now.
Thanks for sharing and keep the good writing flowing.
Cheers.

[futianshenzhen]

Cheers Milton! Yeah it's a real shame the Shanghai contingent couldn't come along but there's sure to be more trips in the future.

OK I'm gonna get my arse in gear and finish this bugger tonight!

[futianshenzhen]

19


Left at 10.30 after a particularly unsatisfactory Chinese breakfast of pickled veg and rubbery baozi. We went through a checkpoint pretty much immediately which didn't take long once Nyima handed over photocopies of our documents, then got waved through the next couple of more informal road blocks. The fourth checkpoint stopped us but was another quickie. We did another brief off road excursion for some nice pics before being waved through a couple more checkpoints. If you slowed down and looked willing to stop you generally got waved through the smaller ones as they were more interested in cars and trucks, there was no avoiding the major ones however who needed photocopies of all our documents.

We endured a massive ballache buying petrol and arguing over teapots then turned off onto the tourist road to Namtso Lake, tickets were 120 each but Nyima was free. All the cars had to register for speed checks but there was nothing for bikes so we sped off up the steepest climb we had encountered so far. The pass was 5100 and the bikes were noticeably struggling but not to the point where it became annoying, we still had more than enough power to be flying past all the cars. We had our first view of the lake from the pass then went through our 7th checkpoint of the day and on to Namtso tourist village, a collection of porter cabin like one storey buildings made from polystyrene insulation and thin aluminium. I'd seen a lakeside mountain that I had a suspicion we could ride up and went off to explore, Nyima said 'no chance' we'll wait here but there was a track up the backside of the mountain which I made it up before riding back to get George. It would have been impossible to ride up with a pillion but George and I rode back up to the summit and took some great pics of the huge lakes. From the top the water looked very inviting, almost like a Carribean island, and as there was no running water at the hotel we decided we'd go for a quick dip. At around 4700 metres it would be the highest swim either of us had ever done and we were sure it'd be ball shrinkingly cold! There was also some concern about whether swimming was allowed but we decided to go for it. We changed into swimmers and flip flops and wandered down passed the bemused looking Chinese tourists who were all totally overdressed in huge north face jackets and hiking gear. One guy said 'no swimming' and another said said 'swimming...cool!' which left us in a dilemma, we were fairly sure it was probably a sacred lake but we were hot and with no chance of a shower I (being a modern culturally sensitive man) said let's just run in fast before anyone can stop us. As we neared the lake shore a couple of Tibetans said 'no' but I was in before anyone could stop me showing of my front crawl and George dived in too. It was absolutely baltic so we were soon out and being greeted by many tourists who thought we were totally 'niu' and wanted photos with us. The locals were a bit peeved but we played the dumb whiteboy card, promised never to do it again and they were placated.

The hotel was 260 each, Nyima was free. No running water with a spine chilling lavatory a short walk away.

228 kms today.

4870 total.

[futianshenzhen]

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Our first view of Namtso Lake from the pass

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[futianshenzhen]

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[futianshenzhen]

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Also taken from the pass

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[futianshenzhen]

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These were taken from a hill next to the tourist village on lakeside where we stayed
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[futianshenzhen]

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Also taken from the hill, the dirt hillclimb was fairly challenging, the Austrian guide we would meet later said he told his tour groups it wasn't possible
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[futianshenzhen]

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More from the hill and the poo stove at the hotel
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