Trip so far,
well its been cold, very cold, riding most days in two layers of thermals, long pants, jacket, and beenie and neck warmer. I also forgot about the short days, so its dary from 7 pm until about 8.00 am, and generall I can only get going around 10.00 am because its too cold to do any thing else. So I have only been managing 30 km per day because of the cold.
That said, its spectacular though, many of the Tibetan herders are in their winter houses, mud brick places, and take their yak and goat herds out for the day.
Some photos
21/12 Deptart Xining, for Ta’er Monistory, 33 km in 2:43.
Nice cycling day, slightly warm, some traffic out of Xining, stopped for lunch at a school where two men were selling bread rolls with veiges inside to the school kids, very nice.
Visited the Ta’er Monistory, a large monistory that the Chinese are promoting as a tourist place.
22/12 29 km 3:36 stopped short of a pass and camped on the side of the road.
23/12 30 km,
over the pass, 3820m, and into a very cold head wind, it was down hill but all I could manage was 15 kph as otherwise my fingers would freeze. I found in a small town a Chinese motel and stopped there for the night, the owners family gave me diner, very nice Chinese food.
24/12 37 km, 2:15
Slight snow in morning, but good day cycling down hill into GuiDe, which as a cross street town mixed Tibetan/Han/Hui people. All the Tibetan herders come into these towns for supplies so its quite offten kaos when them shopping.
25/12 33km 3:24,
Headed further south along S101 road toward Zekog, spectacular sceanary, back to climbing a pass.
26/12 9.7 km 1:17, almost into open grass planes now, stopped to visit a Monstory and stayed the night, trying to teach some english to the monks who wanted english practice.
27/12 Sick day in monistory, some stomach problem, Tinidazonal is a wonder drug.
28/12 34 km 2:39
Good days cycling and feeling much better. Camped by side of road again.
29/12 36km 2:21
Started as a good days cycling quite flat, but ended in a massive dust storm, which lasted several hours. I found a well house and setup camp inside. The water was flowing out of the ground and freezing once it got to the surface.
30/12 40 km, 3:00 a record
Cold but good camp in well house, good day cycling, starting to get into the cycling again. Found a town for lunch and stopped in the next town for a hotel.
31/12 38km
Good days cycling, into open grass land, with mountain range in the back ground. Camped in a grass field in the sun for a change.
1/1 Stayed put in tent it never got warm enough to head out.
2/1 35km 2:33
Cold start but saw enough sun to try and head out, the next town was 35 km away, Cycled into town with a very cold cross/tail wind.
3/1 56 km 3:16
now thats a record for the trip, cycled with tail wind on the mostly flat and over a pass into the valley which leads to Tongren. Was given Tsampa for lunch by some local Tibetan people. Tsampa is a bit plane here, as there is no Yogert around and without sugar. They use dried kurd for flavour, which gives it a slightly cheese taste and lumpy.
4/1 44 km into Tongern
So all along the valley is Monistorys and Tongren is a big monistory town, which Ill visit tomorrow, as its overcast today and some cleaning needs doing. Most cloths I have been waring all the time with no chance of washing as its been so cold.
Heading to Labrang in the next few days, about 100 km away.