To Markham free camp by River: Interacting with the locals

April 9, 2007

We could hear the sleet hit our tent during the night, and the ground is barely white when we get out of our tent. It... is... cold! We fix hot coffee and hot cereal and that helps warm us up.

We maneuver our bikes down the grassy slope to the road. Just around the curve, we see one of our visitors from last night, herding his yaks up the road toward us. Rachel takes a picture then her fingers are so cold that she can't hit the button to turn the camera off. Patrick tries to warm her fingers by blowing and rubbing them, and gives her his wool gloves, Rachel's gloves are damp making them ineffective.

We descend the 2 km to the low point then start following the river upstream. The road surface remains hardpacked and the grade is gentle.

Today really is about interacting with the people we pass by.

Patrick takes lots of people pictures, they all are excited about seeing themselves on the camera screen. We wish we had a small printer to give them a copy. One woman outside her home is pounding something with a rock on a log. Rachel goes closer to see the log hollowed out like a bowl and something that looked like barley is what she was pounding. She indicated it is for drinking.

The road construction work and their camps continue. We come to one tent and 2 men wave us to stop and make a drinking motion. We are ready for a break. Once off the bikes, a man tries to lift Rachel's bike. We go inside the tent, it's dark and takes time for our eyes to adjust to the dark. In the center is an iron wood stove. On one side is one platform covered with blankets, on the other side is the cooking area. A Muslim man is making bread in a huge kettle. We use our own cups and have tea along with some of the bread with our peanut butter. They decline trying the PB.

The day also is about changing jackets and hats as the weather constantly changes. Once it started to sleet, we added yellow rain gear. Our warm hats we had exchanged earlier for our baseball caps when the sun was out, now goes back on to keep us warm. Then the sun would warm us up and the rain jackets come off. Later in the afternoon it starts to hail and the rain jackets are back on and the baseball cap again exchanged for the warm hat. And so it goes.

It is noon before we check the time. Again we are invited for tea by the side of the road by 3 women and a man. The tea is poured into our own cups then they start adding things...a slice of yak cheese, then a scoop of yak butter, then what looks like grated coconut, but we don't know what it really is. There also is a round flattened bread that a piece is torn off for us.

Then... they have to go back to work digging. One woman comes back and asks Patrick for money. Instead, Patrick leaves a package of Oreos near their bags. Then we are on our way again. We have only done 24 km.

We say less "nee how" (phonetic, Chinese hello) and more Tashi delek (Tibetan hello) to people today. The last part of the day is hard work. We have a headwind now and gaining altitude towards Markham. We expect to camp about 5 km before Markham to get through the checkpoint in early morning, but when we round a corner we are face to face with the town already. Our thinking is that if the PSB (Public Security Bureau) are really looking for us it would not be hard for them to catch us. We have been passed by police and other official vehicles regularly, they just wave at us like everyone else. It's when we would check into a hotel and register or when we pass through a checkpoint that would become difficult for them to ignore us.

So the plan is to camp and sneak pass the checkpoint at night when they are closed. Time will tell if our strategy has any merit. We find a camping spot down by the river amongst trees. We're not hidden but no matter, the locals would discover us anyway.

There is enough sunshine for us to dry the tent and air the sleeping bags. As we are drinking our coffee 3 kids come by and observe. We eat some instant noodles and after we are done, they build a small fire to warm our hands. At about 7pm we go into the tent to get out of the cold and wind, the kids depart.

Tomorrow again an early start to get past the notorious Markham checkpoint. This is where people are caught without the permit.