Adventure Himalayas (1CT2401)
Welcome briefing...everyone excited. From 35° C down to 0° C and up from 400 m to more than 5.000 m!
Our target for today is Luang Namtha in Laos, which means a border crossing across the mighty Mekong river. All done! A relaxed morning ride on the Thai side, a smooth border crossing because everything (I mean everything, a load of paperwork!) was prepared upfront and a more and more developing ride in Laos...what a beautiful and relaxed country spiced with windy roads + challenging one with some pothole sections and slick surfaces which puts you on 100% concentration: All what you need for a great ride!
Today we will ride to China. First on the bumpy beautiful pothole road the last 50 km thru Laos, then a hopefully smooth border crossing and after another 60km on a windy jungle road...let's see what we get :-)
Our first riding day in China - a complete one on very twisty roads in Southern Yunnan, surrounded by forest, rubber, tea and coffee plantations, after a more busy stretch and lastly a great 40km landing into Lancang
Today on a wider roads with great sweepers along 2 rivers and over 2 passes to Lincang and finally climbing some elevation...still far and high to go to Tibet! In the evening we will visit the small night market in Lincang and have some street food.
The 300km today we will be on wider roads, following again a couple of rivers north...agriculture changes with rural areas and some smaller cities. The mountains around us are getting slowly higher up to 3.000 m now and in Dali, the former backpacker dream city and our stay for tonight is already on 2.000 m.
A shorter day today and we are able to visit the 3 pagodas, the landmark of Dali. I passed them already 4 times on Edelweiss tours and would you believe I never vistited them up to now. Here we are, the oldest of the three about 1.200 years old and 70 meters high formerly sourrounded by a Buddhist monastery. A tranquilo place despite there is a big parking lot outside for tour buses... We enjoy and also the ride after over a 2.600m pass, the highest elevation we reached so far. A coffee stop in the courtyard of a super beautiful Yunnan library and arriving in Lijiang Ancient town, listed by the UNESCO. Another beautiful day!
Some sleep in and enjoy the great breakfast with the famous view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains (highest of the 13 peaks 5.595 meters !), some take the motorcycle for a ride, Jose plays golf, the support team does some organisational things...with around 20°C and sunshine a beautiful restday!
Shangri La...what a name... which got famous through the novel of James Hilton, The Lost Horizon. Our first target for today is the Tiger Leaping Gorge where once upon a tiger shall have jumped from one side of the Jinshajiang to the other side...and even if not though beautiful! After leaving the AAAA tourist attraction we move on on windy roads over a 3.600m pass and another 3.719m pass. Riding down on the other side we arrive in a different world, meadows with grazing Yaks and houses in Tibetan style...
In depth investigation about routing pays off! What a beautiful morning ride on a smaller remote road spiced with rural life and some Stupas with Tibetan flags from time to time. After the Great Bend of the Jinshajiang we will ride a not frequented pass road going up to 4.336 meters, record up to now on this tour and much much higher than any Alpine pass! :-) And sleeping will be today on 3.500 meters. What a great ride today!
Leaving Deqen we ride down a steep valley and reach the Lancang which is later further down called the mighty Mekong. Up here it flows with speed cutting a steep canyon losing thousands of meters going south, an impressive curvy ride along. And we reach the border to Tibet another impressive moment. After we climb a 4.300 no name pass thru constantly changing landscape. A coffee stop on top when the sound of thunder reminds us to proceed...light snowfall on the way down and we reach Markam our point to turn West after all the time going North from Thailand. Some crazy car drivers we meet all heated up wether to go towards Lhasa or coming from there...The G318 is THE thing for Chinese to be done once in a life time and for us as well! :-) A great ride anyway across another 4.300m pass on the curvy, bumby, challenging road. Well done everyone!!
A crazy ride up to a 3.900 m pass where we did not even stop (getting snobbish after all these high passes:-). Broken road, road construction, trucks, buses, motorcycles, everyone fighting for his way up or down. Interesting though coz on the motorcycle you often find a way slipping through. Following a river valley we tackle the next pass with about 4.300 m. Changing landscape, snow capped mountains around us we ride up another 4.000 m pass famous for its 72 bends on the other side down. Stalled in another road construction the race is on once the road opens..totally wild everybody hunts down the mountain into the steep and rough Nujiang river canyon the road built into its cliffs...just amazing!
Everything should be smooth today, no road constructions, better and wider roads...yes on long stretches true but then all of a sudden one is stuck again on these wild roads. Wide plains changing with forests, canyons, pristine rivers, the Ranwu lake, pilgrims prostating on the road,Yaks, Dzos, monkeys beside the road, passes over 4.600m and the first 7.700 m mountain in sight...Tibet at its best!
Firstly we follow the river Nyang, a nice sweeping road and pretty fast. After we rode up the Mila Pass, another 5.000 m pass on our list before going remote via Tibetan highlands towards Zetang. We are supposed to be the first foreigners taking this road which was blocked for tourism in the past...
Interesting Zetang, the Tibetans are amazed by us foreigners. Very friendly, smiling, helpful, welcoming us here in their country. Today we drive along the Yarlung Tsangpo river before we tackle the first 4.800 m pass for today...a twisty road up there later in the fog and firstly no view of the beautiful Yamdrok Tso below. All of a sudden the view is there and we can see the lake. On its shores we take some fotos before we ride up the 5.045 m Karo La pass. The landscape is now desertlike, rough and not made for human beings, though beautiful. The mountains are getting higher and glaciers hang in their walls above our heads. We loose a 1.500m height and see the Gyantse Dzong in a distance and visit the monastery from the 15th century...just impressive this atmosphere. What a day!
Today is THE day! Mount Everest Basecamp is the target! We look out from our 8th floor breakfast room and see blue sky, let's hit the road. A couple of checkpoints, fuel up and one last ticket point and we leave the Friendchip Highway towards Nepal in order to get closer to the giant with 8.848 m. 99 hairpin bends waiting for us and everyone enjoys the ride up and down from the Pang La pass with 5.240 m. We are now really on the roof of this earth, the rough landscape and mountains around us just beautiful, the colors breathtaking. The last stretch has to be done with a bus meanwhile, but nevertheless when one arrives at the Mount Everest Basecamp it is one of the moments which one cannot describe. Simply overwhelming and the basic Rongpu monastery opposite side of our simple guesthouse tonite is adding something to the atmosphere close to the sky...
After a night on 5.000 m we get early up and enjoy the sunrise playing with its light on the Chomolungma, the Tibetan name for the Mt Everest. Not one cloud, we are very lucky! But it is time to say good bye to his majesty and to find our way back to Xigaze. We enjoy once more the ride on the 99 hairpins with perfect grip and can see the Everest and his neighbors for a long time until we pass the Pang La...
After another night on 3.900 m we follow in the morning the Yarlung Tsangpo and turn somewhere to North into the middle of nowhere. Some tiny villages, agriculture, a small river, around us sky high mountains and the road we are on. After a noname pass of 4.900 m we finally climb at the end of this beautiful remote valley the Suge La Pass, at 5.450 real meters, maybe the highest driveable pass on our earth! Just wow and our tomorrow's target is the Nam Co Lake. We have to cross our fingers for good weather!
Unbelievable after all these adventure days, it is our last riding day today! An early morning ride brings us on top of another 5.000 pass, the Lachen La with 5.190 m. On the other side we can see the Namco Lake already at a height of 4.700 m, another superlative. Coming closer we decide to skip the touristy part and find an individual way to the shore line...how beautiful is this! After playing a bit with the motorcycles in the sand, foto shooting, Andreas trying one of the strong Tibetan horses (even though they are quite small) we hop once more over the Lachen La in order to find our way to Lhasa. And what a great way we chose, we follow a beautiful remote valley until its end and climb another 4.900 no name pass with 0 traffic. Great riding with super grip. Through agriculture along the Yarlung Tsangpro we enter Lhasa through the backdoor and experience once more the authorities at a fuel station...All good, everybody having fun with it, but once more a reminder that our whole Himalaya Adventure tour is not self-evident and a lot of organization upfront/ in the background and during our operation with our local support is necessary. And then we pass the Potala Palace with our motorcycles...after 20 days on super adventurous terrain and through all climate zones! Congratulations to our experienced riders and to the team!! You all did a great job in order to successfully complement this exceptional tour!
No rest today, we go for sightseeing! Firstly we visit the Potala Palace, founded by Songsten Gampo in the 9th century, expanded over the centuries by Dalai Lama the 5th and his successors...an experience in itself but a must see and after a lunch in one of the older restaurants in the Barkhor we visit the Yokhang temple the religous center for the inhabitants of Lhasa but also the pilgrims prostating here over thousands of kilometers! Very impressive...
Since yesterday we went for sightseeing we spend another relaxed day in Lhasa. Sleeping in, experiencing the Barkhor, walk over to the Tibetan museum...and later in the afternoon we meet for another farewell dinner. Thank you for participating in this exceptional tour to the Roof of the World! What an experience with you guys, tough and mean when it came to the rough sections with the Chinese G318 SUV and Jeep drivers, all in some sort of competition, and then the vastness of Tibet with nearly no traffic...Trough all vegetation zones, starting from the more or less jungle from 500m from Thailand through Laos, through amazing Yunnan, climbing more and more in elevation, staying our first night above 3.500m, riding thru the incredible Nujiang Canyon, facing road construction works, waiting with the outgoing sociable locals, unexpected forests and wild rivers, a rich diverse nature until the desert landscape starting in Zetang...Riding up to the Everest basecamp - even though now the last stretch with E-Bus in order to protect the nature up here - a special atmosphere welcoming us on 5.000 m facing the North face of giant Chomolungma with 8.848 m. It is a special night up here as well, basic, the food simple, the views gorgeous. Via the beautiful Nam Co lake on 4.700 m we approach slowly :-) Lhasa on backcountry roads...crossing another 5.200 m pass. A journey in superlatives on the motorcycle! Anytime again! Brigita & Vili, Alison & Brian, Michael, Vincent, Andreas, Marc and Jose...Thank you very much! See you again somewhere on this beautiful earth! Holger