Into Tibet

we did some big days of cycling between kashgar and yecheng. i think i would have appreciated the paved roads more if i knew what was coming up. shit roads and more shit roads for the next 2 months.
ok, so we stuffed up and got to the top of the chiragsaldi pass (4980m) a bit late. and a snow storm was coming too. it was cold and dark on the decent to mazar, but part way down, the clouds parted and we could see the moon and stars. and i remember andrea had really some cold hands and peter gave her his gloves and rode the rest of the decent with no gloves.
the morning after a cold night in the tents. i remember getting up before the others and the sun hadn't quiet come over the mountains and we were still in the "shade" . i had a down jacket on but still was pretty cold. i had a look at the thermometer next to peters tent and it said -6 degrees celcius.
peter and franz somewhere. franz was carrying about 25kgs extra gear than peter.

Aksai Chin Plateau.

"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again -- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more."-Pico Iyer

the askai chin plateau is a pretty amazing place. its so remote and rugged with what seems like nothing but dirt and rocks. it's also a bit of a challange to cycle there. for me the main obstacle was the altitude. headaches, shortness of breath during the night and a persistant cough are reminders of my time on the askai chin plateau. but i'll be back there, so it couldnt have been that bad.......or my memory is not so good.....:)
your cycling along shit roads in what feels like the middle of nowhere, you come around a corner and you see this! welcome to rutok. this was where our friend franz was turned back by the psb a few years before so we were a little nervous. no problems for us.
this is typical tibetan accomodation. we also had some early morning entertainment, but that story has adult content.
just chatting with the locals. sign language anyway.
heading out of ali on the 80klms of bitumen before we are back on the familiar shit dirt roads. frenchman silvaan on the front with franz then myself. we spent a few days in ali having hot long showers, eating large volumes of fresh cooked food and just generally hanging around resting.

KKH and China

the pic above was taken in pakistan along the karakorum highway. we were here in august and while during the first week it was a bit hot the weather was good to us. the KKH is a pretty easy place to cycle tour, there is always food and if you dont want to camp, a place to sleep. the road is good and the climbs not too long or steep.
this is in china, and this particular day gave us some serious wind. when it came time to camp we couldn't find, a: anywhere flat and b: anywhere out of the angry wind. this little camp spot is just under a bridge along the main road. flat and out of the wind.
cruising along a newly bitumened part of the KKH in china.
this pic above is me and rob heading up to a pass of 3150m. we met rob in pakistan and ended up riding a fair bit with him in tibet. he was 48 years young at the time and is a strong rider and a great guy to travel with. there were 6 of us travelling together at this time. myself, peter my dutch mate, rob, franz an austrian we had met in vienna and then later met up with in pakistan, and michel and andrea 2 germans we also met in pakistan. so it was quite the little tour group.
this is at mazar. this is andrea, me and michel. we arrived here late the previous night after having reached the chiragsaldi pass maybe a little bit too late in the day. descending 1150m in the dark with a pissy headlight was interesting. i managed to get in front of a chinese army truck and could use its headlights to help me see the road for the last half of the descent.

Western Arthurs.

this is lake oberon which is up on the western arthurs range in southwest tasmania. i spent 6 days walking this range and did not come across another person in this time. on past trips alone, i would usually get lonely, but on this walk i did not. i rather enjoyed the solitude.
me in my rain gear, the usual south west tassie uniform. the water bag is on the outside because it sprung a leak on the first day. it was cheap, and it is now in the bin!
campsite on high moor. i was expecting a bog hole of a campsite but was extremely happy to find that it had been boarded to prevent damage to the fragile area up on the moor. because of its remoteness and inacessability, the wood is flown in by helicopters. it gave me a chance to try and dry some wet things.
this little obstacle is known as "tilted chasam" . its steep, wet and badly eroded. this was one of three sections i had to packhaul on. note the expedition footwear......dunlop volleys!!
back on the arthur plains, heading through some of the area that was effected by the very recent bushfires. i was keen to get out and ended up walking 9.5 hours with two 10 minute food breaks.