Goodbye Tibet 17th June

Not long out of the town and we are presented with more road works and unsurfaced roads. It seems that every major road in Tibet is under construction of some description. The first pass today will take us over 5000m again and I thought we were supposed to be getting lower when leaving the plateau.
Roads are rough and this is going to take a lot of hours




Honest these dirt roads are supposed to be the 318 to Beijing but it is really hard to believe
It keeps rising up through the mountains and then it drops down again

No edge protection and one very big drop and you still get all the trucks using this route and they do not give you any room.




So with all the traffic and construction it took nearly 7 hours to complete only 95 miles. Time for a regroup before we all move on

Also it was a time to plug my rear tyre when I picked up a nail which got spotted by a construction worker when I was trying to negotiate round the pile of stones he had just tipped.
I had this thing in for 25 miles on rough roads and when we parked up and I was plugging it, a local pointed out to Robert, he had picked up a nail as well. Good job the plugging only takes a maximum of 10 minutes and that includes filling it with air again.




Tyres back up to pressure it was time to move on as we still have a lot of miles to cover
After 120 miles the road suddenly changes to smooth tarmac and pace can be upped. However you do need to watch out for rock falls in the road. Sometimes they use concrete but all is welcome after the construction road for so many hours

This road also takes us over the Yanktse River which marks the end of Tibet. Of course, as per the usual Chinese rules, no photos are allowed of the bridge. “AHEM”

The road has to go over another pass before we get to our hotel for the evening.
One thing we have recently seen a lot of is convoys of the Chinese army of more than 40 trucks.
The pictures show the twisty road of concrete but with all the army trucks on


Oh you are not allowed to take pictures of the army either. Luckily this was at a distance
Once over this final pas the countryside looks very different to what we have been use to and there are a lot of Yaks on the land. Don’t you think it looks a little bit like Scotland?

So after 12 hours of constant riding in dust and the heat, you are always welcome to a hot shower and some nice food and maybe a beer or two.
So first job is to fill the bikes up with fuel and as I wait for the others to fill, we are surrounded by loads of guys on their single cylinder 150’s and they immediately look at our bikes. Mine is usual favourite and I think that is due to it being red. Yes that is a guy sat on my bike with a beige jacket and back pack. No I did not invite him; he just got on it which is usual as we are finding out.

So we get to the hotel and we then find out that there is no hot water and the cold is questionable. The rooms are pretty filthy but the bed linen is clean and there are no keys to the rooms, so you have to rely on a maid to let you in
No you might remember me saying that the route had been changed and therefore this hotel had not been checked out but was given to us b our guide. Needless to say he was embarrassed and stated that the hotel would be removed from their agency list
OK flannel wash and then get some food as we are all very hungry.
OK the food is from a restaurant (that word is used loosely (and we have to walk down the filthy street
This is not going to be a pleasant evening!

9995 miles –Litang, China