Blog 7 - Tibet

Us at Glacial lakes

Early morning start, with clouds above and below us! Up at 5000 metres

China Tibet highway

30.7.10

We have been on the road 2 months now! Last night, for the first time, we were antisocial! Every time we stop (for 60 nights!) we are besieged by locals wanting to look inside our trucks. We have had several huge days of hard driving, and were full of dust, and exhausted, so we crawled thru from the cab to the living area, didn’t put down our steps, and hid!!!

John’s show and tell

Today we learn that our route to Lhasa has been closed (about 100kms away) by a rockslide causing bridge collapse (98metre bridge). We now have to backtrack over these mountain tracks for a couple of days, and wait for the Chinese Govt to approve our alternate route, which may, or may not, get us to Lhasa! (Every village we pass thru must be approved!)

Swamped by the gorge

Hard 4 days awaiting our fate

The scenery here is spectacular (have I said that before??!!!) We have driven thru, up and over mountains constantly since arriving in China! And Tibet is just more & bigger mountains, with snow on the tops. Temps ranging 5deg-36deg in a day! We negotiate our way thru donkeys, burros, and yaks all wandering the streets at their leisure, and thru fascinating villages, desperately trying to capture photos of this different life.

87 Switchbacks (and now we have to return!)

Road broken

Altitude sickness is giving us all (except John) a hard time. We have slept at some very high altitudes, over 4000-4800m, and headaches are constant companions. Seeing many nomad camps – some with huge herds of yak, sheep, and goats - fascinating.

Nomad camps

Some beautifully decorated tent villages, too. These are more permanent camps.

1.8.10

Three days later, still sitting at the lake! Still awaiting approval for new route! No shops or food, so pigeons are looking good! Desperately hoping road may be opened, as preferred route, to view the Himalayan Mtns. Thank goodness Australia is not a police state!! We take our freedoms for granted.

We have been adopted by 4 local grotty kids. Yuck! Cute for the first ½ hr....... Tibetans only bath 3 times in life! Birth, marriage, death! They have a distinctive “yak butter” smell.

We eventually get approval (require 4 written, signed,) to backtrack, then sit in a horrible little town of nothing, waiting, waiting... for forward approval. We lock ourselves in against the ‘invasion’ as there is not a word for “No” in Tibetan!

Michael under the rock face

7.8.10

Frustration now the order of the day! So many delays. The main highway from Shanghai to Tibet is shocking! And now we realise we cannot make it to Lhasa! Such a disappointment, but we are driving 10hrs every day to make up time, & only cover between 80-200kms a day! However, the scenery is drop dead gorgeous! Fantastic colours – rich red hills, peppermint green to emerald fields high in mountain valleys, glacial rivers, and a furry yak or 100! The small towns are another thing altogether. Just horrible- discarded rubbish everywhere; people squat in the roadsides for toilets; towns muddy and full of huge pools of stinking water!

Main Street of town

We met a truck on a mountain road yesterday, and John had to reverse 100metres upwards, with rocky cliff one side, and a sheer drop of 300m+ on MY side (bravely, I got out and walked!) Kym’s truck got scratched in another ‘squeeze-thru’. Awesome camp at abandoned farmhouse.

Our new home

Camped under a stunning monastery last night. Visited a ‘real’ (as opposed to ‘tourist-y’) monastery and were shown thru. Amazing lifestyle of prayer and adoration. Quite a treat. We made the mistake of taking photos and got mobbed by Monks wanting copies of the photos! (We have a printer!)

Time to update the blog! Sitting at yet another road blocked with broken down truck. After 3 hours we decide to create our own track, but got stuck too! (We have waited 10 hrs or more at times)

Smokin’ John to the rescue

Crossing many mountain Passes, but if they aren’t over 4700metres, ho hum! Drove over one Pass at night, and it was terrifying. Several times we create our own roads, and the boys persuaded their trucks up a 30metre cliff, (that’s a river below, not a creek!) while we girls bravely took photos!! When John & truck slid all the way back down to the river, it was not a pretty sight!

30m Cliff Face

Another day, John fell asleep at the wheel… so frightening! Life is not without its dramas.

John missed it!

After about a week, we eventually leave the Plateau, which seems to go forever, and we drop from 4900m to 2600m and the trucks come alive, cookers, matches etc work, swollen biscuit packets shrink, bottles resume their normal shape! And we breathe easily instead of resembling frogs gasping in the night! Our impressions of Tibet? Spoiled by bureaucratic issues and a week lost, but awesome scenery, challenging roads, friendly, inquisitive people in intriguing traditional outfits.Back to China...even worse drivers, and smog, smog, smog!