julie stephenson

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.

This post will be up later once we are reconnected with that most important part of modern life – the World Wide Web.

Last night as we met for dinner we received the news the road for today had a lot of road works taking place on the section from 100k to 150k and it is closed every day from 8.00am till 6.00pm. The decision was made to start early at 3.00am and get past that section before it was closed.

Maurie and I left at 2.00am as we are a lot slower at climbing hills than the others and wanted the head start. The first 93k was great going but a lot of climbing so we had that knocked over by 3.45am.

At that time we drove off the good stuff onto the road-works and hit the most horrendous bump on a bridge and Penny ground to a stop. I checked all the usual wires that fall off under the dash on some big bumps and it was not that simple. On opening the bonnet to check the distributor wire my heart sank to the very bottom when I found the carburettor bowl which was very close to the chassis had been broken.

Penny is fitted with an SU and the things that raced through my mind were; I haven’t seen any aluminium welders in the towns; I won’t get parts for an SU in China; how do I get back to fix this?; how do I then catch up if I can get it fixed; and is our trip really over at this point with 12,000k to go.?

My head cleared after a bit and I remembered Frank had an electric drill, I saw a bit of copper pipe on the fuel tank breather I could use to spigot it together; I remembered I had some quick metal to join and seal it; I could remove a spacer between the carb and the manifold to stop it happening again; I had the shorter bolts for the job once the spacer was removed; and hey presto the plan of action was formulated.

Just as all of this came together in our heads the rest of the group arrived to the bad news. A quick discussion was held and we decided to tow Penny through the 50k of road-work with Reg’s Landcruiser, so we got past the road block section before 8.00.

We also needed to do some recon work to find our way on to the road to our night stop. This was soon sorted and Penny was hitched up and we were off with Garry just ahead of Reg looking for the bad bumps and calling them back on the China two-ways wwe got on China Day one.

This tow process was through road-works and bad road over one of our highest passes in China at 4,560 metres. The road was that bad at one time, that Peter in his Peugeot needed a tow up a slippery hill.  By 8.30am we where through the bad stuff and on newly formed and sealed road so at I think about 9am we pulled up for breakfast and to effect repairs on Penny.

I must give special thanks to Mitchell who has smaller hands than me and was such a godsend as some of the bolts that are very difficult with my big paws and usually done by James or Julie for me.

Everyone waited while the repairs were done and all were very pleased when she burst in to life about an hour later. I was especially pleased and happy with the repair, and I’m certain that the repair will get me to the end and beyond.

At this point we were still about 150k from a bed for the night. We all set off with light hearts and great expectations for about 30k until we came upon the road closed for the final coat of hot mixing that section. One option was that we could pay the farmer beside the road 100 yuan each and drive through his place but this was against Alim’s policy as we would be doing it all the way to Town. After some negation we were let through when one machine was moved ahead enough for us to squeeze through the gap.  Off we charged again with great gusto till me met the next hot mix crew working, but this one was just finishing up so the delay was just enough time to eat some fried rice I had saved from last nights dinner.

On the last uneventful run into Shiqu I was getting sleepy so Maurie drove the 40k to the out side of town on which he coped very well with the transition to a 90 year old car. I took over again at the outside of town as he didn’t feel he was ready for that mayhem yet.

Our arrival in town was far from uneventful as we found the hotel we had been booked into had closed for some reason. After some hunting around Alim found us a hotel with shared facilities which everyone was happy with due to the fatigue of the long day.

We had been at greater elevation than 3,900 metres since 5 this morning and our hotel tonight is at 4,200 metres; 13,800 feet in some people’s numbers; so we need to do everything that bit slower.

At 6.30pm we all met in the hotel lobby and headed off for dinner. Some nights we all eat together at a place that Alim chooses or we break up into small groups and walk the streets and find small eat places or street vendors. Tonight we all ate in the one little shop and everything was cooked once we arrived which we were very happy about.

Today saw our arrival on the Tibetan plateau. We left our overnight accommodation in Kangding at 2700 metres to start climbing for what seemed forever. On leaving town the weather was so nice that Maurie and I decided it was a roof off day so we stopped and removed the roof for what was our silliest decision; as 20 minutes later we are at the side of the road putting it back on as the rain had started and to find warm clothes as the temperature was dropping rapidly.

We went  over the top of the ridge at 4300 metres with the hope that as we went down the other side we would warm up. No – so we only dropped a couple hundred metres and travelled along on the plateau. Another stop was made for the good gloves and more clothing before we got warm and cosy. Reg told us later in the day the temperature was 4^o C at the top – so that explained all the clothing stops.

On topping the mountain pass, we passed the tradition Tibetan flags and Stupa that is on most mountain passes. The rest of the day has been flags everywhere and prayer wheels being driven by water.  Since reaching the top we have been at 3400 metres and higher and it will continue like this for the next 6 or 7 days.

Not long after getting up on to the plateau we all stopped near a roadside shop to make a cuppa and while there tried the local tea made on Yaks milk. Yaks milk tea has a very different flavour, which on the first sip you never want to try again. However it’s a flavour that grows on you very quickly with each sip getting nicer and by the bottom of the cup I’m happy to have a second cup.

On the way to our overnight stay in Dawu, Frank and Ross along with Maurie and I decided to stop in this little town to find lunch. As we pulled up on the street side the chaos started with us being surrounded by about a hundred people with them all over the road and the traffic not being able to get past.  We just shut up our cars and walked off up the street and found beautiful fresh bread in one shop and the nicest hot dumplings in another shop.  We returned to the cars to find people sitting in Frank’s car for photos shots. The only way out was to get in our cars and drive slowly so the crowd parted. It was by far the biggest crowd that I’ve ever seen drawn in by old cars on any trip. Up here on the plateau wheat is grown instead of rice hence the nice bread being available and all the livestock is Yaks and horses.

Till next time thank you to everyone who follows my travels.

Todays drive started out looking placid and mundane as it was to be 500 kilometres on the Jingkun Expressway.  What a surprise it turned out to be.

Most times when we enter an expressway the toll lady can’t make the decision whether Penny should be allowed on the expressway, so there is a phone call to the office and after some delay we are given the ticket. Today’s delay was a little longer as the console operator asked the police to come and check all our paperwork.  After about ten minutes of paper checking, we were thankfully on our merry way north.

On crossing the Yangtze for the last time this trip we headed up the valley of one of the rivers feeding it. This valley was narrow and the freeway seemed to be just all bridges and tunnels. Although the drive was freeway, the scenery was spectacular with all the farming coming right up to the edge of the road in places and mountains lining the valleys.

After the lunch stop for road side food we entered a part of the drive everyone was amazed at. For 45 kilometres of the drive was just bridges and tunnels.  The valley was so narrow in places that the freeway was elevated over the stream below. The most interesting part was that twice we did almost complete circles actually inside the mountain!!! – to emerge from the tunnel to be under the bridge that we entered the tunnel on but 100 meters lower down the mountain!! That piece of road was the greatest piece of design and engineering a lot of us have ever seen. For the day we most likely drove about 70km in tunnels; with the longest being 10km and many in the 2 – 3 km length.

As the day progressed and we approached Yaan for the night which is the area were Pandas were first discovered in the wild. We drove through mountain sides of their favourite bamboo..and hope to see some Pandas in the next couple of days.

Tomorrow is Panda day and the start of the climb to the high country.