August 01, 2000
Low, not lowest, gear
We awake to a dark climate. Cold and cloud have consigned the sun to temporary oblivion. Snow falls as if this were not July but January. We go back to the Hui place for breakfast. It is soon time to...
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August 02, 2000
Bunking with the cops
We don't have much to do on this day off. It is cold and most of the time is occupied with keeping warm. Four of us go for a walk while Gong Jianping stays warm inside. It is a barren...
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August 03, 2000
Head-on collision
Gong Jianping is feeling a little better. No headache, just a bad stomach. He says he wants to ride. By now we're sure that Brice's headache wasn't AMS. And if it were AMS, he's acclimated now because the headache is...
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August 04, 2000
Wind and Fire
The morning greets us with nice weather. The road is quite hilly. It's the least favorable topography, for it leaves the cyclist spent but with no serious altitude gain to show for it. Today we'll cross Fenghuo Pass. We stop...
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August 05, 2000
Chinese and White guys V. Tibetans
Waking up at 4747m (15,570 ft). This is our highest sleep yet. I was denied. But eventually we'll be way down at 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) in Lhasa, and sleep will come fast and furious. We head outside to...
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August 06, 2000
Ghost town
The guys are still sleeping. Brice is up. He has a chest cold and at the rate we're pushing kilometres I wonder if he is vulnerable to infection. But he wants to keep the show moving. My own chest cold...
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August 07, 2000
Nothing doing
Turns out the room was full of coal smoke all night. I just cursed and cursed while the others slept. After all, why did I come here? To enjoy what the United Nations calls the cleanest environment on earth. And...
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August 08, 2000
Above 5000m
Wen Quan is at 4800+ metres but doesn't feel like it -- not even during sleep. No trouble breathing. But only slept a couple hours. The rest of the night I lay awake, the brain very much switched on. Just...
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August 09, 2000
You f***ing bitch!
This morning we've got approximately 40 clicks into Amdo. It's a pretty good ride and we're eating up kilometres. Most of the way is downhill following a river. We're barreling down a long straightaway, the kind of road that begs...
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August 10, 2000
"Where is your permit?"
Left that dao ban with a case of la duza ("hot tummy", diarrhoea). I think it was the yak tea. While I emptied my bowels, Brice chatted with a local family waiting for a bus. Yet another pass to climb,...
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August 11, 2000
Networking
I'm inclined to take it easy. I need to rest and sleep. In the afternoon I go out to make some phone calls from the post office, and then wander around the horse festival, or 'Sai ma hui'. The tents...
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August 12, 2000
A Star is Born
The CCTV team and Xinhua duo join us for breakfast and discuss the plans. They want to film us leaving Naqu and then shoot more footage on the road for a few dozen kilometres. It's raining cats and dogs, it's...
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August 13, 2000
Rock-lifting contest
We awake to good weather. Staff from the roadhouse accompany us outside for the ritual cycle-luggage mounting ceremony. The guys set off ahead of us as we try to round up a postmark or some other work-unit stamp in this...
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August 14, 2000
Time to lose altitude
Brice and I are looking for oil. The gents are ahead of us, as is now the practice. They are slowed by Gong Jianping, so we can take our time setting off. Stopping to commune with nature on the outskirts...
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August 15, 2000
Descent
Today we descend to Lhasa, the endpoint of the first leg of the trip. The road is much less passable than we expect. Granted there are no cars, but the road is in a state of upheaval with construction equipment...
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