-- From Lijiang to Lhassa
From Lijiang the way towards the Tibet plateau took asphalted roads or paved ground concrete and tracks from mountainside overhanging rivers and torrents with muddy or limpid water, or in bottom of covered alluvial valleys of cultivated plots where groups of Tibetan peasants harvested and where animals fed stubbles after the harvest.
The border between Yunnan and Tibet is located a little before the town of Yanjing.
The road
tracklog
from Lijiang to Rawu
from the 19/09/2006 to the
22/09/2006
The morning of 19/09 was occupied
visiting the town of Lijiang. The centre town around the central
carpark consists of recent houses built in the old Nasi style. Beyond the
central place, the old city develops its streets along the river behind
two large metal wheels with paddles. The unit is pleasant, but without
more because all the nicely restored old houses are occupied on a side of
the river by gravers of liturgical objects, clothing and other trinkets
for tourists and other side by restaurants. Admittedly it was pleasant to
stroll there by a warm sun of end of summer on bottom of the mountain Yulong Xueshan 5,596 meters high.
After various purchases and a turning to an Internet café to publish a
new page of this site, we left about 13:00 to Zhongdian which we reached
around 18:00 after a long detour in the mountain have regard to a
crumbling of ground cutting the road 214. The road from Lijiang to the road 214 is
asphalted and curves in charming mountainous landscapes with pleasant
villages. Then the road 214 until Zongdian is in concrete flagstones very
travelling.
Paddle wheels
Lijiang
19/09/2006
The old city side restaurants
Lijiang
19/09/2006
The old city side shops
Lijiang
19/09/2006
The deviation by the
mountain
on the way
19/09/2006
We established the bivouac in Zhongdian on a small public carpark in front of a square where it was given to me to attend an astonishing spectacle of a crowd of people dancing a folk round on a music diffused by powerful loudspeakers starting from 19:00. The town of Zhongdian is inhabited by more than 80% Tibetans.
The night folk round
Zhongdian
19/09/2006
The day of the 20/09 started as
of 07:00 and was announced beautiful. Indeed the road is asphalted, then a
long portion in the mountain is paved to become again asphalted until
Dechin where we made the diesel complement to go until Lhasa. Then the
road became a more or less difficult track. The day was indeed radiant.
The landscapes were splendid. The temperature rose until 33°C whereas
during the night in Zhongdian it was of 1°C. Altitude varied from 2,500
meters to more than 3,000 meters high.
Alas the end of day finished less better. In a delicate passage between two
rocks fallen on the track, I cut the right front tire around 18:00. I
due to change the wheel before the night. Roland as Michel brought
me a
very invaluable help. With three people the work was completed about 20:30. We
further took again the road to be stopped a few kilometres by a traffic
jam
created by a truck in difficulty in a muddy passage. We crossed the
difficulty. Around 22:00 new stop at 3 kilometres before
Yanjing, a broken down truck blocked the track for trucks.
Michel, Elisabeth and I decided to bivouac on the spot on standby of the
rising of the day to take the decision, to await the repair of the truck
or to try crossing side ravine!
The paved road
to Dechin
20/09/2006
The track
after Dechin
20/09/2006
The 21/09 at daybreak, we noted that the crossing of the obstacle was possible by taking calculated risks, a few centimetres side of the broken down truck and a few centimetres side ravine. We continued our progression on road 214, a ground track, after having found our companions in Yanjing. Finally we were in Tibet. We lunched in Markam about 14:00 in our first Tibetan restaurant. At 15:30 we took the too famous road 318 where our friends of the Association of the Silk Roads had difficulties at the time of the journey in 2000 and 2002. This strategic road maintained by the army is a dirt track well surfaced with short tarred section. It curves in mountainside to the top of a deep ravine where an impetuous torrent runs by crossing two collars with more than 4,000 meters high. We stopped in Dengba about 18:30. Liu and my companions took rooms in a hotel. It was still a beautiful quite sunny day with a temperature higher than 30°C in the afternoon.
Tibetan farm
on road 214 after Yanjing
21/09/2006
The way of the 22/09 was done on a beautiful mainly asphalted road. Of course it had there some delicate passages and portions of bad road. The day begin with a road in a broad alluvial valley whose fields had been harvested, but still covered with straw. The going up to our first collar at more 5,.000 meters high took a broad very travelling track. Then the progression was done in bottom of valley at an average altitude of 3,.900 meters. Finally we reached Rawu after the crossing of a last pass to more than 4,400 meters high. Rawu located at the edge of an eponym lake owes its existence with the presence of the Chinese army. We crossed several convoys of the Chinese army.
First 5,000 meters high
on the way
22/09/2006
Then the trip tackled the road to the last pass at 5,013 meters high to reach Lhasa.
The road tracklog
from Rawu to Lhassa
from the 22/09/2006 to the
24/09/2006
The 23/09 we left around 07:00 after a rainy night, the road is good and tarred. Admittedly there were some passages of dirt track in the mountain which slowed down the progression. Tibet-Sichuan Highway! (road 318) curves in a beautiful forest of thorn-bush, then goes by the famous gorges of Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmapoutra) between Namche Barwa (7,756m) and Gyala Peltri (7,151m). The gorge reaches a maximum depth of 5,382m (three times the Grand Canyon). About 12:00 we lunched in Tagme in a Tibetan graver of a soup large bowl of spaghettis with vegetables, an egg and pieces of pork for 7 yuans (0.72 euros). Shortly after Tangme the strategic trunk road 318 on ten kilometres became a very narrow muddy track, for only one vehicle, between ravine and cliff. The Toy of Roland and Henriette opened the road to stop vehicles going down so that our trucks can progress peacefully without having the obsession to be vis-à-vis truck. 50 kilometres after Tagme road 318 became again asphalted and travelling. The 454 kilometres from Rawu to Bahel were covered in 12 hours stops included. During all the day the sky was covered and the top of the mountains were in the clouds. We established the bivouac in the courtyard of a hotel in Bahel.
Landscape of the gorges
of Yarlung Tsangpo
23/09/2006
Tibet-Sichuan Highway
Autumnal colors
23/09/2006
The 24/09 we covered the 338 kilometres from Bahel to Lhasa in six hours. On the way we saw many camps of Tibetan nomads. Arrived at Lhasa around 14:30 we took a picture of our vehicles in front of Potala. Then we established the bivouac in the Library carpark.
a nomad
on the way to Lhasa
24/09/2006
We remained three days in Lhasa to fill administrative formalities, to dress the wounds of our vehicles and to visit Lhasa before leaving towards the Chinese Nepal border.
