Warm but mostly cloudy
We woke early and were up and about by 7am, sneaking to the edge of town to try get a lift. The three horses in the photo wandered up the road and then saw us and started to turn around and then just stopped where they are in the photo eyeing us and not moving.
We had thoughts of stealing them and riding to Lhasa, but before we could put our crazy ideas into action, they wandered back into town and we were left alone at the side of the road.
Very few vehicles were going past us, but those that were were not interested to give us a lift. By 10:30am we'd had no success and thought perhaps that we were too close to town making the locals afraid to pick us up in case they would get hassle from the PSB. We walked a couple of kilometres up the road until we came to a natural cave in which we could shelter if it started to rain, which from the clouds above seemed a good possibility.
While waiting there we met a Chinese lad who was on an epic journey from his home in Beijing heading to Lhasa on an old, really heavy mountain bike - quite a trip!
Finally at 1pm a jeep picked us up and gave us the most comfortable ride we'd had so far in China. We hoped he was taking us the 80km or so to the huge landslide which we had now come to terms with as a reality, but, alas, after half an hour he stopped to go into quite a plush residence.
We were dumped onto the road, but he didn't ask for any money for the lift which was a first. However, this meant we were in the middle of nowhere on one of the quietest roads in existence.
The few people around stared at us like we were freaks, but we were immune to this by now. It wasn't until an hour later that one guy approached us and, through sign language, made us understand that no vehicles were going to go by and that we should walk. So we picked up our bags and walked for about 3km until we saw the reason there would be no traffic - the road had been completely covered in boulders and rocks from a landslide and water was running in torrents over them. No car was going any further for a long time along this section of the road.
This put us in a strange position. It was good in a way to finally find out why our journey was being so difficult - this was the one and only road for a huge distance around us and if it was not possible to go the whole way east-to-west then it became obvious why no-one except very very local traffic was travelling upon it. But now we knew that on the other side there would also be no traffic and we were pretty certain this was not the big landslide everyone had been telling us about, so what about the next 60km that we estimated was to go until that? There was almost certainly going to be no transport at all.
We sat down for five minutes to consider our options, but that was a waste of time really as we all knew we would go on regardless - we'd come too far to think of going back - plus the PSB were behind us. We thought we heard a military jet plane flying over, but could see nothing and soon realised that what we had heard was another avalanche up to our right, much higher up in the mountains.
There was nothing for it but to take off our shoes and socks, roll up our trousers and wade through. Mike went first and got through the deepest, fastest part reasonably quickly.
This put us in a strange position. It was good in a way to finally find out why our journey was being so difficult - this was the one and only road for a huge distance around us and if it was not possible to go the whole way east-to-west then it became obvious why no-one except very very local traffic was travelling upon it. But now we knew that on the other side there would also be no traffic and we were pretty certain this was not the big landslide everyone had been telling us about, so what about the next 60km that we estimated was to go until that? There was almost certainly going to be no transport at all.
We sat down for five minutes to consider our options, but that was a waste of time really as we all knew we would go on regardless - we'd come too far to think of going back - plus the PSB were behind us. We thought we heard a military jet plane flying over, but could see nothing and soon realised that what we had heard was another avalanche up to our right, much higher up in the mountains.
There was nothing for it but to take off our shoes and socks, roll up our trousers and wade through. Mike went first and got through the deepest, fastest part reasonably quickly.
I tried to follow his steps, but very suddenly the flow increased and the freezing cold water was flowing very quickly as high as to my bum. Then the rocks and boulders a little up stream started to roll in my direction from the new force of the flow. I had little choice but to retreat and fast, which really wasn't easy carrying the heavy rucksack and with legs fast becoming numb from the ice cold water, plus trying to keep upright on the very unstable boulders under my bare feet. Suddenly I had no breath as the altitude also took its toll and my legs buckled and I was in the water. The intense cold must have shocked me so much that I practically jumped up and managed to climb out suffering no more than wet jeans.
We realised that the extra water may have been caused by the landslide we had heard just before and waited for the water and rocks to settle down a bit again, then John & I holding each others' arms for support waded across again.
Finally we were across, but it had taken us over an hour and a half to go just 50m along where the road had once been. Our feet were incredibly numb from the cold, but this hid the pain from the bruises we had suffered from the rocks being swept against our ankles in the very strong current.
[We later found out that this landslide had only happened late the night before. If only we had not been caught by the PSB...]
Knowing there was no chance of transport we put our shoes on and walked and walked not really having any idea what to expect.
After 10km our voyage was stopped once more and again we were going to have to put ourselves in great danger. This time what had probably under normal circumstances been just a little tributary stream had become a raging torrent of water, which had altered its course and was no longer flowing under the bridge that had been built to carry the road. Instead it was tearing down the hill making new embankments as it went along. Twenty metres further down it joined the big river which you certainly would not want to be swept into.
There were some locals there and they had pushed a log of a thin tree across to make a temporary bridge. However, by the time we had scrambled down the steep, muddy banks you can see in this photo to water level the river was flowing very fast over the top of the tree making it far too dangerous to risk crossing, especially with our big packs.
We know we had to go across - behind us was nothing for miles and it was getting dark, but we also realised the danger of where we were, a long, long way from help if one of us were to fall in. As we stood pondering what to do, we saw some stones shift and realised the trunk had been blocking their progress downstream creating a little dam as they were wedged up against it. Now the top of the log was clear and being the nearest I just went for it. It was incredibly scary to tightrope across and the part below where John is (in the white T-shirt) in the photo looked very deep and the roar of the water and the rocks moving was just incredible.
With huge amounts of adrenaline pumping through our systems we seemed to fly up the embankment on the other side even though it was very wet and muddy.
By now it was 7:30pm and it was almost dark.
Some people who had stayed behind to watch us cross seemed to be telling us there was somewhere to sleep further up the road, but unhampered by heavy, wet rucksacks they went on ahead and we lost track of them. By 9:30pm it was totally pitch dark and we were in something of a forest and could see no lights anywhere ahead.
As the situation we found ourselves in sunk in and the excitement of the day wore off our bodies started screaming at us that we hadn't eaten since breakfast and our drinking water had run out hours ago. We stumbled on for a while, but our torches were pathetic from weak batteries and the damp, and although we could basically make out the path, it was uneven and we were exhausted.
We found a little clearing in the trees at the side of the road and collapsed into our sleeping bags and prayed it wouldn't rain.
Quite a day!
We realised that the extra water may have been caused by the landslide we had heard just before and waited for the water and rocks to settle down a bit again, then John & I holding each others' arms for support waded across again.
Finally we were across, but it had taken us over an hour and a half to go just 50m along where the road had once been. Our feet were incredibly numb from the cold, but this hid the pain from the bruises we had suffered from the rocks being swept against our ankles in the very strong current.
[We later found out that this landslide had only happened late the night before. If only we had not been caught by the PSB...]
Knowing there was no chance of transport we put our shoes on and walked and walked not really having any idea what to expect.
After 10km our voyage was stopped once more and again we were going to have to put ourselves in great danger. This time what had probably under normal circumstances been just a little tributary stream had become a raging torrent of water, which had altered its course and was no longer flowing under the bridge that had been built to carry the road. Instead it was tearing down the hill making new embankments as it went along. Twenty metres further down it joined the big river which you certainly would not want to be swept into.
There were some locals there and they had pushed a log of a thin tree across to make a temporary bridge. However, by the time we had scrambled down the steep, muddy banks you can see in this photo to water level the river was flowing very fast over the top of the tree making it far too dangerous to risk crossing, especially with our big packs.
We know we had to go across - behind us was nothing for miles and it was getting dark, but we also realised the danger of where we were, a long, long way from help if one of us were to fall in. As we stood pondering what to do, we saw some stones shift and realised the trunk had been blocking their progress downstream creating a little dam as they were wedged up against it. Now the top of the log was clear and being the nearest I just went for it. It was incredibly scary to tightrope across and the part below where John is (in the white T-shirt) in the photo looked very deep and the roar of the water and the rocks moving was just incredible.
With huge amounts of adrenaline pumping through our systems we seemed to fly up the embankment on the other side even though it was very wet and muddy.
By now it was 7:30pm and it was almost dark.
Some people who had stayed behind to watch us cross seemed to be telling us there was somewhere to sleep further up the road, but unhampered by heavy, wet rucksacks they went on ahead and we lost track of them. By 9:30pm it was totally pitch dark and we were in something of a forest and could see no lights anywhere ahead.
As the situation we found ourselves in sunk in and the excitement of the day wore off our bodies started screaming at us that we hadn't eaten since breakfast and our drinking water had run out hours ago. We stumbled on for a while, but our torches were pathetic from weak batteries and the damp, and although we could basically make out the path, it was uneven and we were exhausted.
We found a little clearing in the trees at the side of the road and collapsed into our sleeping bags and prayed it wouldn't rain.
Quite a day!
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