The Long Drop

 

The road fell away dropping us several hundred meters over about 10km but when we reached the first of the villages the valley had flattened out and the corrugations and the wind began. Realising that the next town, Nylam, was too far to reach gave us our last opportunity to camp. So, we set up the tent next to a tiny stream that becomes the Sun Kosi (one of Nepal's main rivers) which we would be following all the way down the valley.

It took a long time for the sun to reach us in the morning but knowing that it was the last cold camping start made it bearable and eventually we were packed and off.
We rolled down the valley initially but started to doubt the fact that this was the longest downhill when we approached the first rise. Several ups followed at which point we really questioned the criteria for 'longest downhill'. With the strong thermal wind rushing up the valley to further aggravate us we were feeling quite cheated by the time we got to Nylam, another 40kms from the border. Our mood wasn't improved as children hassled us for money, we rode through and when even lunch was a small portion for a large price.
Nylam actually translates to 'Gateway to Hell' and really had the feel of a communist block border town. However, it had one redeeming feature  - the road out of it! The badly made, unsurfaced road plummets you from 3750m to 2300m over the next 30km and even continues to drop way past the border. Initially it drops you to what looks like the gorge bottom, past rocky overhangs and past landslides from where you realise the road just keeps dropping.
 
After scree and waterfalls with mossy cliff faces the greenery begins and we suddenly realised we were in the early stages of a vast lush gorge. The smell of the plants and water was like walking into a tropical hot house or surfacing from a pothole.
The  road clung to the sides of the gorge with the river coursing several hundred meters below. Our campsite was 1000m straight up above our heads and our next stop was 1000m beneath us. Needless to say, it was an amazing road and an incredibly fun ride though not without hazards.

At points the Chinese were preparing sections of the road for improvement and we realised why there had been so little traffic as we reached a landslide. A digger was working to clear the boulders as trucks and land cruiser drivers waited patiently. We, on the other hand, hoisted our bikes through the mud and rocks  (with a little help from a bystander in his slip on shoes) and smugly continued onwards.
The trail was gloriously technical with rocks, drops and mud but we didn't slow down despite our laden bikes. We passed a massive new construction site where a new suspension bridge was being built. The Chinese hadn't placed any warning signs on our section of road and we headed straight towards massive steel cables being stretched across our path. We stopped well before we lost our heads, despite the confusion caused by construction workers shouting, presumably warning us - we were so used to people shouting encouragement it took a while to work it out!
The fab road just kept getting greener and wetter as we descended further. We had to stop again as we reached a little girl with a pink warning flag. We braked, smiled and waited as she ran off into a tunnel where hidden machines were noisily working. She returned and after 5 minutes we were allowed to continue through. The insides of the tunnel were being given a thick coat of concrete to stop the rocks crumbling and falling. The concreting continued intermittently with huge sections of dangerous rocks being sanitised above us.
At times the trail ran so close to the edge of the gorge that we could catch spectacular glimpses of the water charging through the rocks below us, the drop was so massive that the raging water could only just be made out. When we stopped to look upwards our starting point was so far above us it had become invisible, lost in the sky. Part of the road passes through an old ramshackle construction, built to channel a waterfall over passing vehicles. Looking like part of a derelict mine workings, the construction let as much water through as over and we splashed through much to the amusement of several passing road workers. A short section of road brought us to Zhangmu, the Tibetan border. Zhangmu is built into the side of the gorge on a series of switchbacks that last several km. Trucks and vehicles line the narrow paved road waiting for goods or border clearance. There are now shortage of bars, restaurants and hotels. The border checkpoint complete with immigration and customs is by a large set of gates at the foot of town. We chose a hotel as close to the border as possible for an early start in the morning. We arranged for breakfast to be served in the hotel at 8.30, when nobody turned up we interrupted a Chinese family across the road, busy setting up their restaurant for the day. After fried rice we waited at the border, Tibetans busily trying to work out what all the bits of our bike did. At 10 the border was opened, we were allowed through first and passed through Chinese immigration control and walked straight past all the customs posts and X-Ray machines, it appeared as is the official was busy somewhere else and we just sauntered through. There was 8km of no-mans-land  and switchbacks before the Nepali border. Parrot and monkey noises filled the air and we could see little terraced fields and Nepali villages on the other side of the steep valley. The border with the Friendship bridge looked like madness below us.
 
As some of the last people to cycle the road down to Nepal before tarmac we felt incredibly privileged, it would have been nice to try the route with no bags but we probably would have gone over the edge! The rocks, drops and mud got the adrenaline pumping, the sights, smells and taste of the gorge had a similar effect on the other senses. This had to be the perfect way to cycle out of Tibet.

Visit border cycling for more information on guided cycle trips.