To Nyalam: Alt 3750 and the Last Pass

May 25, 2007

There is frost on the rainfly, and it's a bit overcast with some light hitting the mountain to the right of us. After breakfast and packing up, we head for Yarle Shung La (5200m) summit, the last pass in Tibet.

The temperature is -5C and who knows what the wind chill factor is...Rachel's hands are quickly numb making it difficult to hold onto the bike handlebars, and the cold and fatigue makes her legs not seem to work. It doesn't take long where Rachel needs to walk. By the time we reach the summit some of the clouds have lifted.

Through the array of flapping prayer flags we see the Mountain range and Mt. Shishapangma. There are also some wind driven prayer wheels and many cairns with white prayer shawls. Patrick gives Rachel his heavy wool gloves while he takes pictures. Gradually she warms up out of the wind and the sun comes up. As we take off in the downhill, we see the Kiwis regroup in the distance. That is the first hour and half of our day.

Then the day gets worse.

The road is undulating (not downhill), sandy roads making riding difficult, and the wind would push Rachel into the sand, sometimes causing the sand to swirl and hit our faces, deja vu Patagonia. We are out of essential supplies--fuel and toilet paper, so we need to make Nyalam tonight. We see the Kiwis off and on then finally they are ahead of us and out of sight. We cross the Pochu River and there is another 4km climb, we pass the white chorten that marks Milarepa's cave, one of the oldest religious sites in Tibet.

We then hit road construction and the part that is supposed to be "practically downhill from here" is not--it's undulating and a bad surface road. It is 5:30pm when we reach Nyalam. The main street is lined with land cruisers and trucks due to road closure. We quickly find a room and go to dinner. The food is good, we have burgers and fries and share potato momo's...something, anything not noodles and rice dishes.

We find an internet cafe to check emails since it's been over a week since our last internet access. Rachel responds to her previous manager, Janette and goes on line to re-apply for her old job as OR Educator, the position will be held for her until October.

By now it's 10pm, we return to the hotel, just outside the entry is the small green bike with a suitcase lashed to the back...it belongs to the eccentric German we met in Old Tingri.

Our room is nice and quiet, except we can still hear the wind. We sleep well.