I must start today’s post at 3.30am when I woke up for the standard night stroll looking out the window was one of the great sites you get with high elevation and crystal clear skies. The stars were a sight to behold. It is always a shame that when the sky is that clear it’s too cold without getting all rugged up to go outside and take in the full beauty of the sky.
We started our day with great expectations of a relatively easy day of 370km, all on paved road. Dreams changed to reality just out of town when the roadworks started. 3 1/2 hours later and 70 k’s we crossed a pass at 4570 metres elevation to the end of the construction. At this pass Rescue Reg was called upon again as the Peugeot need some extra grunt to get through the mud and up the last steep little pinch. Frank’s Willies and Penny only just made it over under their own steam.
We descended from this pass to turn right on to the national road 214 for the remainder of our trip to the night stop. This 290k was beside and on the longest freeway construction sight I’ve ever seen. For the whole trip there wasn’t one kilometre that didn’t have people working on it.
Except for about 20 k’s when we descended off the muddy pass and turned right on the 214, the complete journey today was at greater then 4200 metres in elevation. As long as the roads aren’t too steep, all the older cars are coping with the elevation well.
At one stage on the 214 we were slowly climbing until we went over the range at the highest elevation for the trip so far at 4834 metres. Coming up to the top we could see the storm clouds brewing on the other side. As per normal for storms at that elevation it wasn’t long before we were getting rain, sleet and hail with the mix of this in one area 50mm deep on the road for about 500 metres. As we met trucks in this slush we end up getting small amounts in the cab, but not enough to be uncomfortable.
One thing of note is that since sunrise yesterday we have not seen a tree. Due to the lack of trees every house is collecting and drying Yak droppings for the winter heating and cooking.
Our overnight stop is Madoi and like most Chinese towns has lot of construction going on.
