Trouble With Wind

 

The ride from Shigatse took 2 days with a picturesque campsite next to a river at just over the half way point.
 
The second day was uphill for half the day to the top of another pass where we expected an easy ride downhill to Lhatse. As we started the downhill we could see twisters and dust storms sweeping across the valley below us. We couldn't see the headwind but as we hit it we could tell it was around a constant 40kph against us and when the first of the dust storms smashed into us we could do nothing but stop, close our eyes, turn away from it and brace ourselves against the bikes. This battering continued intermittently until we reached Lhatse where we were welcomed back below swaying trees at the Tibet Farmers Hotel.
 
More 'wind' through the night and the following day, accompanied by many rushed toilet visits by Chris, resulted in an unplanned rest day !
The day after we pressed on with one empty tummy and a pair of weak legs. We set off for a 1200m climb to the top of the Gyatso La (5220m). Chris, running on empty, ran out of energy or "bonked" as us cyclists say 10km before the top. The headwind that day wasn't helping either. As we had plenty of daylight and a few sweets he struggled on towards the top. Around 5km from the pass we were both forced off the bikes by what was now a gale force headwind. At over 5000m you have around a third less oxygen in your blood and with strong winds and ambient temperatures well below freezing the wind chill will give any exposed flesh frost bite within 30 minutes. We pushed on hoping for some calm on the other side of the mountain but the storm increased as we crested the top and passed below the roaring noise of prayer flags, the wind ripping straight through them. We remounted our bikes and tried to pedal into the wind, a side wind would have had us off in a second. With the bikes in gears your Granny would use we set of down the steep slope. It took 30 mins of frantic pedalling to travel 4km and to drop the 200m to a Doaban, a road repair building.
 
Shivering and with blue bits where blue bits shouldn't be we tried in our best, slurred, Chinese/Tibetan/English to explain our predicament to a family ensconced in a glass fronted porch within the compound. If pictures say more than words then we must have looked a picture as we were shown into a similar glass fronted porch, in what sun there was, and young child brought us a flask of piping hot water.
The young girl, who was about 5 and didn't have much else to play with, thought we were great especially when Chris tried to keep her occupied by making bicycles from old wire off the floor. After about 3 hours and as dark approached we moved into the young girls house where her mother and neighbour had started up a roaring stove. We all huddled around as more water was boiled to constantly refill our cups. Chris continued to keep the young girl amused with drawings of animals, bikes and animals on bikes. It took her a while to realise we didn't know what she was requesting without some sound effects. With a bit of mooing, clucking, bleating and growling we soon had several pages filled with little animals, people and monasteries. We got a little respite when she trotted off to do the washing up - which she did expertly and without even a whisper of complaint.
 
Seven O'clock came and nobody returned to open another room for the two us, an arrangement we only loosely understood after a rushed Tibetan phone call following our arrival. We were starving and our body's cores were still cold, we wanted to eat but weren't sure what would be the acceptable thing for us to do - and waited. After the girls mother had offered us some noodley gruel and we had declined we rushed to get our packet noodles from our bags - to everyone's relief we could all eat. We tucked into our noodles bulked out with some more from the family store box whilst the two ladies ate gruel, a little Tsampa and the hairy leg of a raw goat - the hoof and hair making a nifty handle as the women carved chunks with a stanley knife blade. After seing what her new friends were eating the girl also tucked into a packet of noodles and rumaged around to find a fork (not chopsticks) to be just like us. This was highly amusing to the little girls mother.
 
After food and several episodes of "sexually adventurous baker based drama" on VCD our key still hadn't arrived!
It was decided that we should have the neighbour, Neema's, one roomed house whilst she would sleep with the girl and her mother. We were packed off with another flask of hot water and made to feel really at home. Although we had slept over 4000m before, we hadn't for a couple of weks and the lack of Oxygen made for an uncomfortable night of headaches and racing pulses. AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) guidelines recommend you climb gradually when over 3000m -trying not to gain more than 400m in one day. We had more than doubled that the previous da, presuming we would get lower. As the climbing addage goes "climb high, sleep low".
After some rest we awoke at 8, before our hosts, had breakfast and packed.
Around 9 when the sun was just starting to rise above the hills we were brought another flask of hot water. We filled our bottles and asked what we were expected to pay. The night before we had been expecting to pay about 30Yuan each and maybe a little for the noodles. Our host could have asked for anything up to 100 Yuan as we were stuck and with no choice but she wouldn't take a penny! We were touched by her generousity as we clearly had a lot more material wealth than her.
Warmed by her actions we continued our descent to Shegar clad in down jackets and as much GoreTex as we could muster. Normally this attire is far to much for cycling, even at altitude, but with the sub zero temps and added wind chill we were still bitterly cold. We stopped at the valley bottom in the sun and brewed up some tea. Things didn't seem so bad after that and Shegar, with electric blankest, was just a few km on.

Visit border cycling for more information on guided cycle trips.