I survived a 22 day mountain bike ride from Lhasa to
Kathmandu; it was in September 2003 and I travelled with Exodus. Highlights of the trip included:
· A few days in Kathmandu; this was
my third visit and I still love the place despite the noise, dust and street
sellers. Then we flew from Kathmandu with Air China on one of the world’s
most dangerous scheduled flights – over the Himalayas to Lhasa. We
were lucky and had splendid views of Everest and Lhotse – which I
remember from my trek to the southern base camp of Everest three years ago.
Ok, the flight was less than one hour but we were amused to offered just
a bare bread roll and a glass of water [still better than EasyJet!]
· Very tough cycling at altitude -
there were four passes over 5,000 metres (16,250 ft) and the highest was 5,220
metres (16,965 ft); however, the sense of satisfaction is tremendous when you
are rewarded with a fantastic view - you immediately forget all the pain of the
ascent! This was particularly true at Pang La where we could see Everest and
the snow-capped line of the Himalayas about 40 miles away beyond the brown
Tibetan plateau. Another day's bike ride and we would be cycling into the
northern base camp of the Everest!
· Previous groups had stayed at
Rongbuk monastery and then cycled 10 kilometres to the northern base camp of
Everest at 5,040 metres for a day visit. We managed to stay in a tent at the
base camp; cycling up the rocky road was tough but the view was so inspiring
there was no way I wasn’t going to make it. Fortunately, our tent
was heated by a central stove burning yak dung; we weren’t worried about
the smell – we were more interested in staying warm! The views of the
northern face of Everest were particularly inspiring late at evening and early
in the morning when virtually all clouds vanished. Of course, we
remembered that climbers had no less than 3,800 metres further to climb to
reach the summit
· We bombed down the world's longest
downhill - from a 5,020 metre pass over the Himalayas down to Kathmandu - a total
descent of over 4,000 metres (13,000 ft ). Looking from the pass, it was
difficult to see where the track would go but soon we were hurtling down and
the weather got warmer and more humid and, suddenly, I noticed there were trees
again
· Although I had been expecting it,
I was disturbed to see what the Chinese had done to systematically eradicate
Tibetan culture. All the new Chinese buildings were extremely gaudy –
with white tiles and huge nameplates in gold Chinese characters; some even had
flashing coloured lights on them! The new Chinese building near the
Rongbuk monastery, 10 kilometres from the northern Everest base camp, looked
particularly out of place in such a beautiful and inspiring valley
· Tibet was not as hot and dry as
I’d expected; we had quite a bit of rain and this created inches of
slippery mud on the tracks which had huge drops to one side and, of course, no
guard rails. The lack of pollution meant that everything looked bright
and all the colours were vibrant; light pollution was zero so we enjoyed
fantastic views of the night sky
· The peace negotiations between the
Nepalese and the Maoist terrorists failed during our trip and we had to stay an
extra day in Tibet; then, on entering Nepal, we were stopped by a bunch of men
carrying automatic weapons who were not in uniform. Fortunately, they were
Nepalese and not terrorists but they advised us not to drive into Kathmandu in
darkness. Our hotel was only a few kilometres further so we managed to
persuade them to let us through and I was glad to reach the hotel and have a
refreshing, cold beer
· We drank gallons of ‘Lhasa’
beer – beer from the ‘Roof of the World’; we also sampled
‘Everest’ beer!
· I usually prefer to camp but we
stayed in guest houses; some were very basic and quite dirty. A water
pump, that you had to prime, in the courtyard was often the only washing
facility and the ‘long drop’ loos were simple holes in the floor.
One such loo was in the open with a two foot high wall around it –
at least that one didn’t smell!
· Our group of 13 got on very well
although we were all from very different backgrounds; squash rather than
cycling is my main sport but many of the group were very keen cyclists who had
trained specially for the trip. A German guy had even trained at altitude
in the Alps and was used to ascents of 2,000 m. We had a married couple
on the trip – Mark and Heidi; Mark had three mountain bikes and they also
had a mountain tandem which they cycled in a competitive event; at one point, they
hit a rock and Mark disappeared over the handle bars leaving Heidi with no
controls – she just had to wait to crash!
· I had treated myself to a new
mountain bike for the trip – a Specialized Rockhopper – and had no
punctures. We all wore helmets and gloves all the time but we met three
guys from Sony in Cambridge who didn’t. Unfortunately, we later saw
one of them who had crashed and he didn’t look pretty but he was lucky to
escape serious injury. Another had
an expensive bike with hydraulically operated disc brakes; unfortunately, he
didn’t know how to bleed the brakes to cure a ‘soft’
lever. We fixed it for him but did
not cure the basic fault – not a good set up when in high mountains!
· All the Tibetans I met were happy,
smiling people who were very keen to help us enjoy their country. A
Chinese ‘guide’ came with us to make sure we didn’t do
anything we shouldn’t, like eating in an unapproved restaurant –
one without a small yellow disc on the door. We were advised not to talk
about the Chinese occupation or the Dalai Lama so we used the terms
‘Charlie’ and ‘David’ to avoid the ‘guide’
taking an interest in our conversations