After Everest it has been difficult to get excited about the remaining few days travel, however, Tibet was not finished with us in regard to awesome sights. As we continued across the plateau we stopped at a hot spa hotel for a swim and from there got a fantastic view back over the plateau to Everest probably 100 miles away, in fact that day was the clearest of all and we could see Everest for miles as we travelled on towards Nepal.
If that was not enough our last 5,200 metre pass took us to a viewing point of the Western Himalayas and once again we could see numerous 7 and 8,000 metre peaks from the top of the pass, again not a cloud in the sky.
This however was the last of Tibet and we descended through a forest lined gorge all the way down to Kathmandu, passing through the border at Zhengmu. The most notable features of this gorge were the 2,000 feet plus waterfalls cascading down the sides from the Himalaya peaks just out of sight above. The road was atrocious and so only Pippa got to see the most impressive waterfalls as I struggled to keep the car from dropping into a gorge !
Kathmandu did nothing for us, dirty, hot with poor roads but the surrounding area has breathtaking beauty and unlike Tibet is deeply wooded and cultivated. The Yak and Yeti Hotel was fun if only because of it’s name and the fact it is the most famous hotel for mountaineers in the world although the cockroach in my rice was definitely not a celebrity. Most Everest climbs seem to start and finish here along with the thousands of trekkers who walk the foothills.
A final super drive south from Kathmandu through more passes and valleys saw us arrive at the southern East/West highway that transects Nepal. This was the end of our mountain adventures and the beginning of a dreadful 1100 Kms three day drive to Calcutta.
Nothing can fully describe the bone shaking, car wrecking roads of Northern India and to say we made it was an achievement all in it’s own. The Bentley suffered terribly and arrived in Calcutta badly damaged from the shocking potholes that saw us abandon the exhaust on the road side, empty the boot onto the track leaving a 12V Car Battery and wheel spanner (probably or maybe hopefully through the radiator of some careening bus).
The last we saw of the exhaust after I had demounted the remnants from under the car was two little men running off down the road with it, presumably to be fitted to another car later that day.
Pippa and I were so relieved to get into and through Calcutta that we hardly even remembered to congratulate one another on completing the rally !. I determined that I had seen enough of India on the three day drive, that it hasn’t changed since I worked here in the early 80’s and that the best place to stay was inside the Oberoi Grand hotel until my flight home two days later.
To say we disliked the last three days of the rally is an understatement, having nursed the Bentley all the way from London it was sole destroying seeing it being wrecked just as we completed the 15,000 km drive. Ironically, the tyres which we had not expected to last the whole route did with tread to spare and so the 4 new old ones I shipped out never left the roof of the Landrover. However, thank heavens we also shipped out the inner tubes, as the heavy duty Michelin ones saw us drive from Bishkek to Calcutta without any repeat of the earlier daily punctures.
The charging system did come back into it’s own during the last days when, in order to ensure the horn and lights worked, I bypassed the regulator completely and stuck a nail in the charging circuit fuse. This kept the second hand Pamir battery fully charged the whole way to Calcutta and meant we could lean on the horn as much as the next man !
Pippa was a star in the last two days when I was feeling so tired after driving for 10 hours continuously in the most manic traffic conditions imaginable when she took over and drove for a few hours to give me a rest. All worth it when ‘big hands Bruce’ was waiting at the Oberoi as we arrived having wooed her all the way from Australia to Kashgar ! Hope it all goes well for you Pippa.
So the end of an epic adventure, probably the hardest drive I have been involved in and one that had two or three monumental highlights – Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Everest.
It’s off to Cambodia for me now to meet up with our charity country manager, some contrast that is going to be. If you have enjoyed the blog and would like to know more about the ISF or make a donation then please go to www.indochinastarfish.org.
Paul
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