Up the Hill

We depart Dunhuang for the three day drive up from the plains of Xinjiang to the capital of Tibet, Lhasa.   We are expecting a difficult three days mostly revolving around the roads, however this is not in fact the biggest challenge David and I face.

The road surface is in fact pretty good tarmac with the exception of large dips and ridges which force the Bentley suspension to bottom out and rattle the whole car.   During this period we break one of the fuel tank guard brackets again and due to a parking mishap in Na Qu knock the exhaust pipe through into one of the silencers.   Besides this the charging system remains erratic but controllable with the nightly charging of one of the two batteries we now carry.   Most positively the inner tubes held out and we have had no further punctures or flats, fingers crossed this continues.

The second surprise is that the Porsche comes up the hill with us, our guide was unable to get them on the train due to permit restrictions and they were forced to take to the road.   Although it was a struggle for Chris he managed to coax the car over the 17,000 foot passes where the Porsche became truly gutless.   We did some work on the timing and found the points barely open on the first night, sorting out these issues made quite some difference but the car is still very erratic.  

On the first day we drove over the initial high pass, this day took us up through barren countryside until we reached a plateaux at about 14,500 feet.   This grassy high plain was surrounded in the distance by snow capped mountains rising to about 20,000 feet and along this plain we saw our first glacier heading down towards us.   Although the scenery was exhilarating to begin with one soon became accustomed to it and was looking forward to the next big view !

The day was marred by a bitterly cold wind which made sitting in the Bentley a very uncomfortable experience.   After the loss of our clothes in Osh, Liz Grieves had bought us both a Russian fur hat and a scarf along with a thick jacket for David.    Thanks heavens she did as over these three days we wore just about everything we owned.   The cold coupled with extreme altitude made doing anything strenuous extremely tiring and we arrived each afternoon frozen and exhausted.   Luckily neither David or I suffered from AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) and were able to avoid the dangers resulting from that.   In fact although some of the group had mild affects we largely avoided any serious problems even though we ascended so rapidly, the most likely time AMS will be acute.

After three days at heights over 15,000 ft one becomes fully acclimatised but unfortunately nothing can prepare you for the bighting cold of sitting in an open car in sub zero temperatures.   We even experienced snowfall, freezing rain and hail, luckily for only short periods !

However, back to the scenery, on the second day it became truly amazing when we went over a 17,400 ft (5,244m) pass in snow and completely surrounded by towering peaks, the real Himalayas had arrived with a vengeance.   Again however, much of the drive was on the high plain which, except for the cold reminded us of the Alto Plano of Bolivia.

It was on this second day that we seamlessly entered Tibet, without even knowing it.   However, we arrived in Na Qu ahead of the guide and this was a major mistake, within minutes of reaching the wrong hotel we had the Police swoop down on us to find out who we were and why we had no guide with us.   They were very pleasant to us and even helped us find the other Na Qu hotel but they took our guide to bits when he arrived so much so that for the third day we had to suffer a convoy system the last 350 Kms into Lhasa.

The hotels we stayed in, if you can call them that, are the worst we have seen, freezing cold, no food and a non existent breakfast so we are both looking forward to warmth and a big juicy steak in Lhasa !   However we did manage a really good Yak stew in Na Qu which although a bit tough was warming and full of vegetables and potatoes.

David was finding the cold all too much and has decided to abort the rally in Lhasa.   With the prospect of another week at very high altitude and in freezing weather it is just not good for him.   So from Lhasa I struggle on alone, hopefully with one of the support crew as a navigator.   This is really disappointing but neither David nor I had really expected quite such cold and, to be honest, were not well prepared for it.   However, we have had a good time up until now and I shall miss my astute navigator and fellow adventurer.

Worst still is my trip to Everest is up in the air, since our guides roasting in Na Qu we have to travel in cars together and getting everyone to agree to stop below Everest so some can detour up to it is proving difficult.   Chris and Liz want to get home to the World Cup, Bernard and Dina have booked unchangeable flights for the day we arrive in Calcutta and that leaves just Conrad and I who are dead keen to visit Everest North Base Camp.   Who knows, watch this space.

Anyway the trip up the hill has been memorable and we have met a lot of Tibetan’s and Chinese along the way which has been fun.   Given out lots of sweets to kids and taken some breathtaking photos which I hope to get on the Blog shortly.

As we arrived in the St Regis hotel in Lhasa, David and I sighed with relief to be over the cold for two days and into a warm hotel….