Rain at first, then warm & sunny - cold later and at altitude
Alt: from 3550m to 3,900, dropping to 2,100m then
up to over 5,100 before finishing at 3,850m
up to over 5,100 before finishing at 3,850m
I'd set my alarm for 6am so we could see from our window if there were any trucks heading north, mainly to see if anything was going that way and they were setting off earlier than than we were getting up. But it was raining and very quiet so we went back to sleep. By 7am the rain had stopped, but it was still very quiet, so we again went back to sleep.
Soon after, Rory told us the mini-bus had materialised from the day before which would take all of us to a place called Bangda 邦達, which was well over the Tibetan border. If we weren't allowed and there were checkpoints, with eleven of us we would easily be seen, but this seemed like our only chance so we decided to go for it.
Fifteen minutes later we were all crammed in a little bus on what was to be one of the best journeys of my life, and also one of the most frightening!
The group consisted of:
Mike (S Africa) , John and me (UK)
Rory (Australia) & Christophe (France)
Patrick & Valerie (France)
Matt & Vicky (UK)
Joanna (UK)
Walter (Belgium)
They were an excellent crew to travel with and were always in good humour on what was to be a very long and uncomfortable journey.
Finally we were out of Deqin - it had happened all so suddenly it was a little hard to believe at first. Initially the road sticks to the hills, but then heads towards a river and drops steeply to around 2100m. The scenery was breathtaking and wild, though the drops down to the river from the dirt track we were on were huge, steep and scary. As we crossed a river we realised we were in Tibet 西藏 and everyone was very excited and patting each other on the back.
Just over one month ago I had never dreamed I would be in Communist China - now I was in Feudal Tibet.
[I don't understand or remember the river's flow in this photo - seems to flow up a waterfall we cannot see]
The road was in pretty terrible condition and in places non existent.
At the more dangerous parts of the road (such as in the photo above) where a landslide had buried the track, the driver made us get out as he drove over, but other times he just gunned the engine and drove over, the bus tipping precariously towards the large drop down to the river on one side.
We broke down a few times, first from a cracked oil sump from grounding on a rock, which was ingeniously mended with a bit of an aluminium drinks can. All the way we had to stop at little streams to put water in the radiator which was instantly boiling again. We also had many tire blow outs.
All in all progress was not too fast, but it was an amazing experience and unbelievable scenery.
We stuck with the river until 130km into the journey slowly rising back up to 3,000m before leaving it to head in a more northerly direction and climbing to over 4,100m at one point travelling up a wider valley which continues at around 3,700m heading towards Mangkam 芒康
A - Deqin 德欽
B- Mangkam 芒康
It seemed there was to be a checkpoint at Mangkam, the first major town we were to come to - ahem, so I guess we are not meant to be here - oh well...
The original idea according to our best translators was that we would walk around the town while the bus drove through empty and we would meet at the other side. Seemed reasonable enough. However, seen as Mike and I were the star translators and we didn't yet know the words for, "sneak around" or "other side" this was not what happened at all. We hung around just before entering the town, waited until it went dark, climbed back on the bus, those with blond hair or long hair donned hats and all ducked down below the windows as if asleep or better yet, invisible, and through we went. Ah yes, then we understood the driver, but when you are learning, "wait and go when dark" does sound like, "go round and meet other side."
The checkpoint was empty; the guard had gone home. Somewhat relieved we found ourselves through the checkpoint without having the traverse the outer-lying rice paddies like something out of Apocalypse Now.
By now we had done about 220km and it had taken almost 12 hours, but the next section was all up hill and, due to our illegal status was having to be done in the dark. What I think none of us realised was that we were going to cross one of the highest naviagable roads in the world going over 5,100m in altitude.
View Larger Map
A - Mangkam 芒康
B - Zogang 左贡
I lost track of time, but after some amount of it we stopped at a restaurant which as we piled in they closed all the shutters, locked the doors, I guess so no one would report us and we were fed a meal of fried spam, chillies and boiled rice. The food was surprisingly nice, but by now most of us had severe headaches from the high altitude, but we couldn't stop - the driver and us wanted to press on and get well away from the check points of Mangkam and also eventually to a lower level.
The original idea according to our best translators was that we would walk around the town while the bus drove through empty and we would meet at the other side. Seemed reasonable enough. However, seen as Mike and I were the star translators and we didn't yet know the words for, "sneak around" or "other side" this was not what happened at all. We hung around just before entering the town, waited until it went dark, climbed back on the bus, those with blond hair or long hair donned hats and all ducked down below the windows as if asleep or better yet, invisible, and through we went. Ah yes, then we understood the driver, but when you are learning, "wait and go when dark" does sound like, "go round and meet other side."
The checkpoint was empty; the guard had gone home. Somewhat relieved we found ourselves through the checkpoint without having the traverse the outer-lying rice paddies like something out of Apocalypse Now.
By now we had done about 220km and it had taken almost 12 hours, but the next section was all up hill and, due to our illegal status was having to be done in the dark. What I think none of us realised was that we were going to cross one of the highest naviagable roads in the world going over 5,100m in altitude.
View Larger Map
A - Mangkam 芒康
B - Zogang 左贡
I lost track of time, but after some amount of it we stopped at a restaurant which as we piled in they closed all the shutters, locked the doors, I guess so no one would report us and we were fed a meal of fried spam, chillies and boiled rice. The food was surprisingly nice, but by now most of us had severe headaches from the high altitude, but we couldn't stop - the driver and us wanted to press on and get well away from the check points of Mangkam and also eventually to a lower level.
But there was to be no respite at first and we headed up and up amazingly over 5100m [about same as base camp for Everest; on 18th Sept 1996 I went though Taglang Pass between Manali & Leh in India at 5,328m which advertises itself as the second highest navigable pass in the world] and it got colder and colder. Thankfully, when eventually we did head back down it really did alleviate our altitude sickness very quickly, though it did give us worry on the brakes which were either steaming or smoking - which ever, not a good sign.
We spent the night in a warm valley in a little hotel at a place called Zogang 左贡 at about 3850m having travelled a gruelling 378km (235 miles). The sky was crystal clear giving us the most spectacular view of the stars I had ever seen - awesome day.
We spent the night in a warm valley in a little hotel at a place called Zogang 左贡 at about 3850m having travelled a gruelling 378km (235 miles). The sky was crystal clear giving us the most spectacular view of the stars I had ever seen - awesome day.
We went to bed exhausted, but exhilarated by what we knew would be a very unique and special day of our lives.
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