Having lost a couple of days because of the delay with the vehicle licence and JC’s driving licence, we cut the itinerary to head for Beijing as early as possible, which means bush camping for a week straight. Today is a drive day on roads on snow covered mountains.
We stop to camp by a railway track and we are 4800m (c. 15,000ft) above sea level. It’s still light when we stop and it beginning to get very cold.
The cook group tonight were going to attempt to cook chicken, but it is too cold. Those not cooking feel sorry for the people trying to cook outside, but not enough to vacate the wind shield safety of the truck. After hours attempting to cook, we are finally fed gravy soup with near raw potato and vegetables.
We attract the attention of the local police although we seem to be in the middle of nowhere. They tell us that some of our tents are too close to the rail line, although we are at least 15m from the elevated fenced off track. We are told by Kevin, our Chinese guide, that we are not allowed to take pictures of the rail track. When I ask why, he just says ‘no why!’. The Police are with us through the night and at one point they shine a light into my tent, which I am sharing with Laurie to help keep us warm (and also I had accidentally torn her tent when pitching it...). I zip it up in their face.
Earlier in the day, Laurie had gone for a pee in a typical Tibetan toilet, i.e. a hole in the ground. Here she spots a man watching her from below in the drop zone.
We had planned to go to Mapham Yu Tso, the highest fresh water lake in the world. However, we are told the road to it is covered with ice, so we decide not to go. UK to OZ were going to pay for this, the entrance fee being 80 Yuan a head, so we are told the money saved will be spent on us later, although this won’t include any hotels in the coming days.
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