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http://lesvoyagesdenanette.blogspot.fr

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Karakoram, Pakistan

We spend some 5 weeks in the Karakoram area in Northern Pakistan, without the bikes this time.

 

Some update

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I'm back home now, and back to work. Didn't have time to do much update on the blog lately, but I'm working on it. I'll try to put some texts and photos online as soon as I can... If you read French, you can have a look at some of the articles on our adventures in Western Tibet :
   - Route 219
   - Tibet, c’est parti pour l’aventure
   - Premier checkpoint de nuit
   - Coup de pouce pour Mazar
   - Coming out sur la route du Tibet
   - Aksai Chin, immense désert glacial
   - Enfin au Tibet
   - Pangong Tso
   - Rutog, toujours en liberté
   - In trouble
   - Retour chez les Ouïgours (article à venir)
   - Friendship highway (article à venir)

Khumbu Trek

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               The article is coming soon ...

           ... until then, you can have a look
                      at the photo album

Friendship Highway - News from Kathmandu

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Shigatse

After being kicked out of Tibet, we had to find a way to escape uygur mutton again and the Chinese authorities. Celine flew straight to Nepal while Pierre and I flew to Xining and took the train to Lhasa before resuming the cycling journey, with a permit this time. Of course, riding with an escort who tells you it'd be better to leave your gear in the car before each pass can be a bit cumbersome, and doesn't feel much of an adventure, but it's the requirement to get this damn permit and ride freely (i.e. "legally", theoritically free from trouble with the authorities) in Tibet. That said, it was definitemy worth it.

On the way to the forbidden land...

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Some quick news from Xining. Yeah I know, this is indeed not in Tibet (if you haven't bought an atlas yet, it's not too late...). After we spent one month cycling almost freely on the amazing Kashgar – Kathmandu road, the PSB eventually caught up with us shortly after Ali, a stone's throw away from Mount Kailash. Sent back to Kashgar with a police escort. 48 hours by jeep to backtrack what took us a month by bike!

One week with the PSB

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             Coming soon ...

In trouble !

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A Chinese cyclist we met in Sumxi told us about a checkpoint just outside Ali. So we camped a few kms before the city and crossed it around 4am. We found the streets bustling despite the early hour (or late, it depends) : staggering drunken passers-by ,  flickering multicolour shop windows, taxis... Yet surprisingly, we spot no sign of a police car. The checkpoint is actually 2 kms past the center, and guarded by a policeman problably busy watching tv. The rope, which is supposed to serve as a gate, is lying on the ground. Riding on it is a piece of cake. There is not a single dog to bark at us. We pedal in the night, and most of all in the cold, wrapped up in our down jackets, with our feet and hands freezing. We take a breather after one hour. It's a smooth 20km ride up to the pass that we reach shortly after dawn. The light is superb, and the view on the snow-capped summits overlooking the Gar Tsampo valley (the Indus's main tributary) magnificent. Following that river some 100kms would lead us into India, and a bit further away into Pakistan.

Rutog, still free...

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First encounter with the Tibetan police today in the town of Rutog. We wait for dusk to enter the town. A police car goes up and down the main (and only) street but doesn't seem to care the least about us. We find a small hotel above a phone and video store, more discreet than the big Central Hotel monitored by the PSB. No running water, buckets in the corridor by way of urinals, and public facilities inaccessible at night for we are locked upstairs when the shop is closed... We dine in a real restaurant - vegetables and eggs. It doesn't seem much but it does feel good.

Pangong Tso

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C'était pour moi un des buts du voyage, revoir le Pangong Tso, ce grand lac d'altitude qui s'étend sur une grosse centaine de kms entre le Tibet et le Ladakh et que j'avais trouvé si magnifique l'an dernier côté indien. Se dire que les deux chemins les plus courts pour rallier un bout du lac à l'autre sont d'un côté via la Jammu Cachemire, les plaines du Penjab, le Pakistan et l'Aksai Chin (soit 3500km), de l'autre côté le Népal, les plaines du Gange et l'Himachal Pradesh (pas loin de 3000km), tout ca parce que deux géants jouent les gamins qui ne veulent pas faire la paix, me semble ahurissant !