March 29, 2007
To free camp: Sandwiches to go
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Patrick found us a campsite just after we found water to filter from the hose that the trucks use to wash the dust off and cool their brakes. We have an audience while filtering. A car with Chinese also stop to use the public toilet. It's about 5:30pm and we just finished most of the climb and altitude gain...
The day started with a 4km climb to Tina's Guesthouse for breakfast before doing the 25kms out of Tiger Leaping Gorge. The road surface changes from asphalt to sections of unsealed road sometimes with fine loose dirt and big stones. We have a big section early on without much traffic, occasional glimpses of the river and beautiful canyon. The far end we reach the "tourist trap" section...where all the buses stop, tourists can be carried down the gorge on straw chairs. What a zoo! We are happy that we didn't see this first as an introduction to the gorge.
We reach the town of Qiastou about 10:30am and find the Gorge Tiger Cafe. Outside the cafe, the Australian woman owner sees us and says "Do you want breakfast?" So we go in and have museli and yogurt. She is quite the energetic owner of a business. She spots backpackers arrive and guides them inside, juggles getting people drinks and food, and organizes for the trek of the gorge giving a little "safety lecture" to use sunscreen and have plenty of water. Before we leave, we order two cheese and chicken sandwiches "to go."
Then we are off and climbing for about 40km, we climb further, at first through not too exciting and populated area, lots of construction going on building roads and dams. About 1pm we stop for a coke and eat the sandwiches. Eventually we start seeing farmers, grasslands, and the huge climb as the road winds around...and Rachel see her first yak! (Reminiscent of the first zebra she saw in Africa "I can't believe I've seen a zebra in the wild" in 1993).
The town is still about 20 kms away. Our water is running low and there is one steep section; we see Hoba Snow Mountain and Jade Dragon Mountain in the distance. We are thinking of camping if we find water. In 40 km we've climbed 1300 meters.
We round a corner as the road levels out a bit when we find water and a campsite. We are only slightly hidden from the road, so we wait until dusk to pitch the tent. Earlier, we picked up petrol and Patrick works to get the stove going and we have a hot cup of coffee and noodle soup.
As the sun goes down, it gets colder. Soon we are in the tent and warm.
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