9 days to get to Chengdu, easy!

I am in xixing, the capital of Qinghai province in western China. I have been incredibly fortunate to find a wonderful family to stay with. They are from Paraquay ( but german is thier 1st language) and they also speak Chinese. It is time to work out my route for the next couple of weeks. The easy option is to folloow the highway to Lanzhou, a ( by all accounts) rather grotty city to the east and then head south. The not so easy option ( but less kms) is over the edge of the tibetan plateu to Sichuan....

Manfred, my host, makes my descsion easier with his comments on Lanzhou and the possibilty of yak butter tea going over the mountains. On paper the roads are sealed.........

It is day two. It is late in the afternoon. I can see that the road is heading to a very steep pass. I have the option of staying at the bottom, This however means i start the morning with a brutal climb, Never a good idea. Once i start hopwever i really need to get over the other side to find somewhere sheltered to camp. I fill my bottle with titianium dioxide laced Tang and decide to go for it.

Looking down over the valley

At 8:15 ans in the dark i finally make it too the top. The buddist prayer falgs are falpping wildly in the fury of the wind the greets me as i get there. I swing around the bend and wince. ! 2 meter trench has been cut right through the midddle of the road . This may explain the lack of traffic further down! I unpack Igor and finally manage to get him around the ditch only to find the road now a a dirty track. I guess it was better on the way down. I ride a few kilomters downhill in the dark. Not having to worry about traffic in the morning i pitch my tent ion the closest patach of flat grass i can find next to the road, boil some vegies and noodles and collapse into bed.

The riad downhill. Its a fine life being a yak.

Time passes and i now have three days to reach Chengdu beofre my visa expires. I have crossed the edge of the pleteu and had tsmpa ( barley meal porridge) with yak butter and cheese. Looking at the map it is a couple of cruisy days, and all downhill. I come to the first big town......the bitchmen disapears to be replaced by......mud.

The power of Tsampa and Yak butter....

3 days and 300km of dirt road later i roll in Chengdu.