Mushypea

“Hello, hello, money, money”

You know you’re getting near to a border town when the kids start holding out their hands for cash.

My goodness what a week!  I left Lhatse (last Monday) at 5.30am and said goodbye to my new Italian friends ans started the long bike ride up to the 5250m pass of Gyatso La to the west.  It was still dark at 6am and I was going over the last bridge coming out of Lhatse when I heard barking and made the mistake of looking round to see two dogs pegging it towards me, fire breathing from the mouths!  SHIT!  Bloody dogs!  I hate them!

I pedaled as fast as I could but I was shagged first thing in the morning.  Eventually both dogs gave up but the damage was done – I had to rest for 15 mins before I could get back on the bike.  Actually I found the best way to handle these evil pests is to simply click your tongue and say ‘hellooo’ in a really feminine tone – it works on the younger ones anyways ;o)

I knew it would be tough but 7 hours in and there was still no sign of the top, or  ‘La’ as they call the passes out here.  After a further two hours of climbing I reached the top of Gyatso-La and was rewarded by seeing the white capped mountains to the west, I had made it to Everest National Park!  This gave me renewed energy and so began my descent into the village of Shegar, the jumping off point for Everest base camp.   Normally I’d be gunning down the mountains but due to the amount stones and corrugation I just couldn’t get over about 15km/hr – really frustrating.

The terrain changed dramatically on the western side of Gyatso-La – just as I remembered from the Indian side many years ago.  The small villages looked well kept and the rivers were flowing smoothly allowing the crops to grow healthy and the animals looked happy grazing on the green grass.  I heard thunder and looked round to see a huge dark band of showers coming towards me so I jumped off the bike and put on my water proofs, gloves and hat.  It pelted down for 30 minutes!

I don’t know what it is about being on my own for long periods of time at high altitudes but I really like it.  It’s funny cos there’s no one to talk to I kinda end up talking to myself  “come on Dave, you’re almost there”, “I hope this rack is ok”, “I’d love a cup of tea with a cup and saucer”, “you can’t hurry love, no you’ll just have to wait” – ‘PHIL COLLINS – NO GET OUT OUT OF MY HEAD!’

Some 4 hours later I arrived in the Shegar and treated myself to a cheeky budweiser (first beer in 2 weeks).  I pushed on to Tingri the next day ,a small 1 street town popular with 4WDs stopping the night before going to Rombuk Monastary and Everest Base Camp.  I past the turn off to Everest Base camp and got a rear puncture in the mid afternoon heat.

It was a very hard day, flies kept pestering me but only when I put my hat on ??  This kept me entertained for 20 minutes while I would take my hat off – no flies – put it back on again – flies!  They were like little thunder flies in the UK – then it dawned on me – I looked round and sure enough the biggest rain cloud you ever saw was chasing me!  Shit!  “No you’ll just have to wait, it’s a game of give and take” NO NOT NOW COLLINS!!! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

60km got me to Tingri and I was greeted by 20 odd mangy looking dogs sleeping on the road occasionally looking up as if to say ‘just try going past us, foolish westener’.  To be honest I didn’t really care by then if they did bite me – i hopped off the bike and walked past them – then it clicked – they only like running after me at speed – note to self  ‘walk’ past dogs in future.

I woke up the next morning to the sight of Cho Oyo glistening the background as I packed the bike up.  To be able to cycle with Cho Oyo and the more famous Everest in the background was amazing.  I just couldn’t help looking to my left as the sun came up to see them both mountains willing me on.  It was quite hypnotic.  Three times I had to stop to take it all in.  Elton John tried to spoil the moment, he remembered when rock was young when he and suzie had so much fun – he kept telling me – NO ELTON< GET OUT!  Think Oasis, think Oasis!

OK so from Tingri I headed to Lalung La and Thang La, two of the highest passes I would do today.  At the top of the highest, Thang La 5050m, I could clearly see Everest saying goodbye behind me and the gateway mtns in front wishing me well on my travels down to the Nepalese border.  Although the last few days had been the toughest I had ever experienced I was a little sad to goodbye to the mtns, they had looked after me so well.

I had the roads to myself, the weather had been great and scenery breathtaking.  It was time to descend for 150km into Nepal, but first stopping at Nylam and Zangmu border town.

I thought I would blitz the down hill but the head wind was so strong that I had to walk the bike for 30km down hill!  I was gutted, tired and grew impatient.  I hadn’t planned for this, this bit was supposed to be easy.  Traffic came past at great speeds and blew dust straight into my face for 30metres or so as the headwind grew stronger.  I felt beaten,  I threw the bike down several times and by 5 o’clock was no where near my destination.  I was very tempted to hitch and twice I stopped  trucks but just couldn’t bring myself to hop on board changing my question from ‘can i hitch’ to ‘is this the right way’.  To hitch at this stage would mean i hadn’t cycled the whole way.

At 7pm I cracked – the wind was so strong I was struggling to walk 10m without a break.  I shouted “FUCK” at the top of my voice and sat down behind some rocks and really thought what the hell am I doing.  Just when it all seemed too much, Jason Donovan called in to advise me there are too many broken hearts in the world and that was it – I got up and gave myself a talking to.

I pulled on my gloves, cleaned my sunnies of dust and pushed on through two more villages til 9pm  when I put the tent up by the side of the road.  I cooked up some 2minute noodles in the tent while the wind howled – ofcourse it wasn’t a brilliant idea to put the tent on top of a small hill but I didn’t want to be seen.  I slowly drifted to sleep.  Half an hour in I heard a growl.  I thought it must be the dodgy noodles so ignored it.  Then I heard the unmistakable noise again ‘grrrrrrrrgh’.  FUCK!  Don’t do this too me – who the hell have a I pissed off to deserve a downhill that I have to walk up, Elton John and Jason Donovan for company and now a f&*cking dog at 10pm in the middle of no-where?  I scrambled around for my head torch.  I had the brains (!) to cover my plate and billy can in dirt thus hiding the smell and putting them 10 yards away.  I got out of the tent slowly and there in front me – two big yellow eyes!  SHIT!  OK dave, good idea, yeah get out of the tent – like a self opening can of pilchards for the pup.

I used my super powerful 1 Watt head torch to frighten it away.  The dog blinked – i don’t even think it blinked in terror to be honest – more like it was contemplating which bit to attack first.  Then, he went away.  Probably to go get his mates but I didn’t care – I was so nervous and tired my body just shut down and I fell asleep in a curled ball in the tent – but not before I lined the tent with all my heavy big stuff so that if they came back they would bite into metal gas containers and smelly shoes :o)

The next day the gods shone on me.  I woke up at 7am to the sound of a truck going passed and unzipped my door to find the most beautiful sun kissed village opposite built high on a mtn side.  I packed up and noticed something…no Elton, no Jason and no Head wind!  I got excited jumped on the bike.  I covered 15km in 45mins weaving my way around the roads saying tashi deli to the locals and waving to the kids.  I arrived at Nylam just in time for the bike chain to snap and scoffed two pancakes and an omelette before dropping off the tibeten plateau into the green, mossy, waterfall strewn terrain of Nno mans land between Tibet, China and Nepal.  Oxygen began to fill my lungs again and by nose wasn’t blocked with dried blood any longer – I CAN BREATH!

The rivers are over flowing and the waterfalls are magnificient.  I am about half way down now – next stop is the Nepali border.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 6th, 2006 at 21:06 and is filed under TIBET. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.