What a day. Sun. Rain. Torrential rain with thunderstorm. Roadworks on a rocky, muddy dreadful road. Flat tyre on the first 500m of bad road. Welcoming by lovely Tibetan family. Tyre fixed in dry shed, followed by lunch with the family – all 3 generations. Meeting 2 other cyclists. Only another 40km of dreadful road to go.
The awful road
A question to the road-building experts out there. It seems that when the Chinese do a road upgrade, they take the 100km of road to be upgraded, and dig up all of the existing bitumen, leaving a muddy rocky mess. They then work on rock barriers on the side of the road, on bridges and other things, while the road remains almost impassable. Why do they do this, and why do they destroy all 100km of old road in one go? I am sure there is a good engineering explanation. Just asking..
The start of the 100km of roadworks
If it wasn’t for the roadworks and the rain, I would have not met such a wonderful family. Matthew, the drowned rat, knocked on their gate and they welcomed me in with such warmth. I was ushered to the shed, and a heater was brought to my side. I was then invited to lunch as it started to bucket down outside.
The lovely family
Grandpa
When I left my friends after lunch, the sun was out and it was positively warm. The scenery was stunning. I just had to make sure to stop regularly to look at it. While cycling, all my concentration was taken in keeping the bike in one piece.
The valley in the sun
The valley in the sun
45km of roadworks and a thunderstorm later, I find myself in a lovely little room with 2 other cyclists that have made their way along the same road. We will be cycling onwards together tomorrow.
My new cycling friends Summer and Andy
arctic-cycler.com 