Part 10

Day 14: Bayizhen – Lhassa

This is the last day before reaching Lhassa one of the highlight of our trip and my personal objective.
Everyone is in good health and has a high spirit. The cars are no so fresh, they have several ailments quickly cured with a hammer and duck tape.
One of the trailers has lost a wheel and its axle. It has 3 left, that will do.

The highest pass
Today was mostly a big climb, but what a climb, to 5,018 m. We reached it to be welcomes by the usual multitude of prayer-flags. Time to take few more pictures and we plunged down to the valley, the last one before Lhassa. At first there was some tents of nomadic tribes and their yaks, then slowly it started to be covered by golden wheat

A typical Tibetan farm
Suddenly the Potala appeared gleaming in the sun, our goal had been reached.
Tommorow is driving day off. We will visit the city while the mexhanics will try to fix the cars, our has lost most of its brakes, its acceleration and its lights, however we managed to recovered the hood that flew in the windshield after a deep hole encounter and fixed it ourself with our suitcases straps.


Day 13 Baxoi – Bayizhen

Usual wake up at 7 am, departure around 9 am after breakfast and minor (sometimes major) car repairs. They take a heavy toll of the holes and on the stones, which sometimes are the only choices short of hitting a truch or goind down in the river.
Along the road we started seeing a lot of pilgrims going to Lhassa on feet. They walk 4 steps, they raise their hands and they lay down on their face arms streched in front of them.. All of that, of course, on the road.

Pilgrims going to Lhassa, only 800 km left to go

So on top of trying to avoid the stones, the holes, the pigs, the cows, the donkeys, the dogs, the kids, now we have to watch for pilgrims.

Getting yaks to better pastures
The road was however much better today, except for a one lane bridge to be crossed one car at a time under the scrutiny of the Army, even the climb was seamless. The passes are always stunning, with thousands of multicolor prayer-flags floating in the wind.

Reaching a pass, prayer-flags

In fact these praying-flags may be found on any landmarks such as bridges, mounts, passes, steep turns and they always grace an already spectacular scenery.
While we are being controled relatively often by the police (or the Army, it is not clear), we are let go very quickly because there is no means of communication and they do not know how to handle us with our French car license plates.


Day 12 : Markan – Baxoi

In spite of sleeping at an altitude of 3,600 m everyone seems to have had a good night. The road to Baxoi were hard on people and on cars, it seems that all China is being built up or being repared. In Tibet, the Army is building the roads, everywhere at the same time. So some sections are pretty much completed and some other are hardly starting.

Jacques checking the car in the morning in front of the hotel
To reach the pass we had to go through pastures because the official road was blocked by trucks. Several times, I had to exit the 2CV to lighten it and to push it, that was the necessary edge to keep us moving. Obviously pushing a car at an altitude over 4,000m is a serious exercise. Nevertheless we reached the pass at 5,008 m. Very few roads in the world stand at that altitude, one in Chile and some in the Himalaya. Few cars and even fewer 2CV have ever been able to do it.
The way down was simple, you just let go in the hope you brakes are not completely gone. The scenery is breathtaking with deep ravines and torrents at the bottom, the feeling is a mixture of pure admiration and sheer terror. One more pass at only 4,644m and we were in Baxoi in a rather spartan accomodation but happy to find a bed.