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Road to Lhasa
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4463/...04fbdf73_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-24 at 18.16.47 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We left the hotel just after 745 and easily got on to the highway as there were no vehicles at all. This is a difficult access as the lanes are so narrow you can not pass easily. Sara has taken her panniers off also to try to make it easier after almost not making it last night. Her’s are so low they can hit the barriers curbs. We had eaten at the hotel and so wanted to make some distance early for our 492 km day to Gong He. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4433/...181b44bd_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-25 at 19.24.18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4453/...de1106a9_b.jpgFILE1561 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It is very industrial and polluted to Lanzhou. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4455/...86602144_b.jpgFILE1678 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4464/...cc1ef6da_b.jpg The number of tall apartment complexes is astounding. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...68505bed_b.jpgFILE1576 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4468/...7be3ded6_b.jpgFILE1637 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4480/...e38fffed_b.jpgFILE1699 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The money being spent on infrastructure here is unbelievable with roadways, tunnels, and elevated train tracks. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4463/...6b8fc036_b.jpgFILE1704 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We stopped about 30 km past Lanzhou for a break and to make a coffee. The driver and Toni left before us and said we would catch up. Dan posing for photos.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4446/...b1623c4f_b.jpgFILE1684 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The next toll is 36 km and in fact you exit one, go 4 km and enter another. We made it thru these easily and as we passed by the next rest station we saw the guides there about 400 m away and they jumped into the van. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4458/...da0c8f9e_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4497/...fbb065f2_b.jpgFILE1666 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Then at Xining we got separated as there are 2 bypass roads. They had told us to stay on the G30, which is the right bypass road. We had messaged them to confirm that we would take the right, but for some reason they took the left. This meant that when we got to Huangyuan and messaged them they were now actually ahead of us. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4449/...2bd3d8a1_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-25 at 21.16.14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We stopped there to message and met a bunch of Chinese bikers also on their way to Lhasa. They are totally decked out and all had the coveted A plate from Beijing. The station would not sell us gas as we did not have a police permit. No worry we had enough and were just trying while we waited to figure out where our team was. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4461/...14816a01_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
In the end they were just 10 km ahead on the side of the road. The 4 lane divided highway suddenly ends on a 2 lane city road and the limit is 60 for the first 30 km, but then its back to the highway. You climb up the mountain and one 5 km tunnel lets you out at 3400+ meters.
Then it is down down to Gong He (Qbaqa on open street) at 2900 m. We stopped at the first gas station, but here motorcycles have to go to one certain station and so off we went. They would not pump into the bikes, but at least the jugs they used are metal with a long metal spout and they do not leak. Plus at 10 later it was a lot faster than the 4 l leaky kettle with the rubber tube. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4489/...3ca58da6_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The town is not much to speak of, but the hotel is surprisingly good and thankfully today clean. We had not eaten since 7 except some snacks as there were no service stations after Xining. Starved we headed out for fresh noodle soup. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4459/...8dc5b9ae_b.jpgIMG_0049 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Then we had a long walk about the town and it seemed longer because of the elevation. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4513/...8b1433c8_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Oxygen anyone?? https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4495/...40c0a235_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We had a great night sleep, but woke up before 6 to the rain. It was light and in fact had stopped by the time we set out at 730. We did still all put on the over suits mostly as it was only 8 degrees. We have a very long day of 682 km to Ge Er Mu (Ge’er Mu, Geermu, or Golmud it is confusing as towns all have traditional, Tibetan, and Chinese names).
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4502/...3f5acbcb_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-26 at 21.46.33 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4482/...8b79540b_b.jpgFILE1718 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4514/...5a2e697a_b.jpgFILE1733 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4487/...7f619b7b_b.jpg |
First we booked it 145 km to Cha Ka where the road forks and stopped for some noodle soup for breakfast. It was still only 9 degrees, but by noon it was a pleasant 15.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4445/...d6253740_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4450/...37f78ba4_b.jpgFILE1768 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4492/...5cf63593_b.jpgFILE1774 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We continued west to Delingha or Haixi, the capital of Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4458/...96050a0f_b.jpg |
We stopped here to refuel and the gassed the bikes no problem at the pump! It is now 1 pm and we have 320 km to go and so we made another 45 km to a service center and had some lunch cooked under a tarp in the parking lot. The soup was good, but we could not manage the organs just the veg and fresh made noodles. The local ladies were very keen for some photos.
https://youtu.be/wnXOywp0FRk https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4476/...00478930_b.jpgIMG_0052 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4454/...68d14478_b.jpgIMG_0058 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4510/...8d698a11_b.jpgIMG_0065 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The toll stations here are in general much easier as they are wider and the agents don't try to stop you. There is now only one road to Lhasa and so there is no toll fee for bikes so they let us thru.This toll gate was a bit narrow and Dan’s rain jacket got hung up until the sweeper unhooked him. Lulu was right at handlebar height so was even more tricky.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4511/...84eeb04d_b.jpgFILE1863 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4461/...e42ea71b_b.jpgFILE1869 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We arrived to the city, which is pretty cosmopolitan with tall building, parks with huge sculptures, and lots of restaurants. The parking is inside the courtyard and the bikes had their own spot, which the guards showed us they were watching with the night vision cameras when we came in from cleaning the chains. We are are feeling pretty good at 2900 m. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4453/...b5f0b859_b.jpgFILE1886 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We were met also by our Tibetan Guide Pam, who just arrived after a 16 hour train ride form Lhasa. He will take over from Toni once we hit Tibet. We walked over to a massive Muslim restaurant where when you drive you go into the huge covered courtyard, there are two levels of room and each table is in a private room (the windows can be curtained off for privacy). The food was amazing again and we sampled Yak meat (delicious and not gamey). The hotel we had was very nice and very comfortable and the breakfast buffet was huge. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4477/...3aae23af_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4462/...cac714df_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Today is is sunny, but 4 degrees when we set out at 8 am. We have 418 km to Tangulazhen on the China national Highway 109 that connects Beijing to Lhasa. (We have been on this route since Xining and this portion is called the Qinghai-Tibet Highway).
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4514/...3b8b89bd_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-27 at 18.29.11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We will be starting our assent to altitude today from 2900m and Dan and Sara started Diamox, which is a medication that prevents altitude sickness. We will be sleeping tonight at 4600m and this difference is way above the recommended 400 m per day above 3000m. Not much we can do as the next lowest place is Lhasa 1100 km away. Orvar and Trevor decided against prophylaxis against the doctors recommendation. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4506/...b54c0446_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4457/...90c3018e_b.jpgFILE1910 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
You only drive about 20 km and you hit the First checkpoint. The level of security checks in Tibet is mind boggling. There is control over everyone's movements and they know where everyone is at all times. Gas is also controlled and you have to register and line up to buy it. This is a big control point and is the pre-check for the Tibetan boundary we will cross half way thru tomorrow. We did not have to do anything but had over our passport, Chinese DL, and plate card to Pam, who did everything. The police took just under an hour and we finally got the call from the higher powers in??? Beijing that we could pass the checkpoint.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4462/...00f0e09f_b.jpgFILE1912 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4457/...3a6c4eb1_b.jpgFILE1926 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The road is paved, but badly grooved and damaged in sections. There are huge whoops and today riding the bike was like riding a wild horse at times. Your ass was off the seat quite a bit. There is almost a continuous line of trucks full headed south and empty headed north as the 109 carries 85% of the goods in and out of Tibet. The oncoming ones can often be in your lane trying to avoid some rough road and many times today there was 2 semis oncoming at you. We took the dimming covers off our accessory lights and this helped. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4486/...e55cd764_b.jpgFILE1937 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
There is finally some scenery and we made a stop at a road side temple.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4458/...0696c7db_b.jpgFILE1943 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...6aa898d8_b.jpgFILE1982 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4483/...dca94a57_b.jpgFILE1995 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4482/...99995369_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4456/...4e778040_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4460/...4e4e5d7e_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4453/...90bd1561_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Hi Guys
I am keeping up with the RR, and I see you are getting very close to Thailand now. As I am presently riding in North Thailand it would be my honour to meet up and shake all you Guys hands for such an interesting RR you are kindly posting for us all to read. So if you can post or PM me your expected route with dates in Thailand I would love to meet up somewhere along the way. Ride Safe Steve :scooter::scooter::scooter: |
We made another 80 km to where we got gas (from a jerry can, but at least it held 10 litres and had a great no drip spout) and had some lunch (most expensive so far 12$ for one meat stir fry and some rice). It is only going to get worse as we head south.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4444/...2149c7c0_b.jpgFILE2061 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Now we have another 150 km or 2 + hours to Tanggulazhen. As were having lunch the traffic was stopped by the military and 86 huge trucks in a convoy pulled out headed south. We caught up to them in 50 km, but amazingly there was almost no oncoming traffic and we could pass 5-6 of them at a time even up the hill to the second pass of the day at 4639 m. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4449/...5b1f6373_b.jpgFILE2081 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4478/...8ba1108e_b.jpgFILE2022 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4457/...4ea82de9_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-25 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4469/...72e22d02_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4505/...77e2d533_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-27 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4487/...bf14aab1_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-28 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4444/...a6c2eea7_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-29 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
About 50 km later we found the reason for the limited traffic. A crew was putting tar on the road of a bridge with small shovels. There was about 10 of them blocking the traffic in both directions. The semis could not get thru and the cars going north had pulled beside them and were blocking the south bound lane as well. We went around and then squeezed past the row of cars on the dirt verge.
Now just 50 more km with still lots of trucks to pass, but without much difficulty. Finally we arrived to the town and again gassed up with a good spouted can (It is the small things really that make your day!). We were amazed to see a Maybach filling up here and driving on these terrible roads. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4445/...57bf473c_b.jpgIMG_0082 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The hotel looks pretty sketch from the outside, but it is actually much better than expected and nice. Heated floor and on demand hot water. It is the most expensive place (400 RMB or 80$) we have stayed yet more than Beijing or Xian. We are happy our Lhassa hotels are “included” as a 3 star runs 200$ US a night. None of us is feeling that bad, but neither of us felt like eating dinner. Dan against my advice had a beer and really regretted it the next day. The town is pretty polluted with coal smoke and this does not help us with the lack of oxygen here. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4491/...9abab46a_b.jpgFILE2126 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4485/...4b5c21d0_b.jpgIMG_0083 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4459/...0fcc0ffb_b.jpgIMG_0084 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4512/...cee033da_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-31 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Dan got a free beer “for being handsome “ https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4468/...83e24673_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-32 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4502/...bf86f9fc_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-33 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We were in bed by 10, but up several times to pee as Diamox has a diuretic effect. Then we had banging on the door at 330 and it was Trevor saying Orvar was not well. He had gone down to the bike to get water and was dizzy. We woke the guides and they got some O2 from the car. Sara went in to assess him. He did not have altitude sickness, but more of the same general fatigue and poor nutrition. While she was there Trevor started vomiting. Now this is something to worry about as he clearly has altitude sickness. Sara started them both on Diamox anyway and we all tried to get some sleep. Orvar has lost a lot of weight and is not taking care of himself, but he does not appear to have Altitude sickness at least.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4444/...e9d89c24_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Trevor was nauseated and had a headache in the morning and he bought an O2 travel bag and some nasal tubing. After sucking back one bag he felt pretty good and the hotel filled it up again for him to take for tonight. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4511/...8082d226_b.jpgRoad to Lhasa-36 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
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