Saturday 12th May:

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise after another night of rain - although it was not as heavy as the previous night it still kept us awake for much of the night. In an act of the most unusual behaviour for me, I jumped out of the tent and went about taking photographs of the nearby peaks which were now covered in snow. The change in shades in the Lhundrub valley was amazing as the first rays of sun found their way around the mountain peaks and orientated their way up the valley floor. Vultures circled above our campground and unnerved me for a moment with my wild imagination, although this very soon changed to my fascination with them. Many birds flew by our campground and would also stop and chirp close by for a while not seeming to care about our presence.

"Action K" and I heard a sound on the backside of the stone floor of the saddle being trodden. We both made our opposite way around the stone mound to see what was the cause. We saw a pack of six stray dogs making their way up the hillside toward us. I quickly joined K fearing that that may eat me (I know, I am pathetic but yesterdays growling image was still in my mind). We both picked up a stone each and peeped over the mound to see them. It seemed that they were far more scared of us than "I" was of them for they had already made a U turn and headed back down towards the dirt road.

Again we had to wait for our tent to dry, there was much condensation on the inside again also as well as the dampness of the rain on the outside. K had fired up the stove for much needed warming tea and we spent this time discussing what to do with our day. Surrounding peaks that had not previously been covered with snow now had far more than a mere dusting of white and it was obvious that the snowline was far lower than the height of the pass which we had intended to climb. After much discussion and debate, we decided to ride up the valley a little to see if we could see the pass in the hope that it was not as snow bound as we thought (wishful thinking).

Eventually we loaded up the bikes and departed. Having made our way to the dirt road we could already see that lower peaks were heavily covered. We disappointingly had to admit that we were not equipped for such endeavours and that trying to ride a heavily snowed pass would be too risky particularly at an altitude of 5000 metres or so. The weather front was also very bad to the north (the direction we would have gone) and the prospects were not at all good.

Sadly we headed back towards Lhundrub town deciding that we would follow our route anticlockwise in the hope that the weather would clear up by the time we reached the backside of the said pass and be able to tackle it at a later date.

In Lhundrub we purchased some Tibetan bread and water (for we had not had access to water at out campsite), many people gathered around K as she watched the bikes whilst I made the necessary purchases. Under the watchful eye of onlookers we refilled our water bottles and having said our "goodbyes" continued on our way. We retraced our path back down the valley of the previous day, stopping for fifteen minutes or so to eat some bread.

We experienced more of the same - people waving to us etc. As we rode along we cheered up and decided that we had made the right choice in making a U turn, the weather was brightening up and raising our spirits. We were also still a little tired and in such condition it was certainly not a good idea to have taken on the breathtaking pass.

We made our way back to a small Tibetan town where we thought that our turning may be to take us up another river valley - roads are also very few so options are small in number. We had guessed correctly (for the roadsigns were in Chinese and we do not have a Chinese map) and gladly made our way along a new road that had a smooth surface of dirt. We passed a small hydroelectric station and followed the redirected river for a while. It was obvious that the land surrounding us had been reclaimed by the control of the passage of the water, thus much new agricultural land had been created. It was great to ride along the dirt road, this always pleases me much more than tarmac and we were both incredibly pleased with our decision.

Everything began to have a far more rural feel, there was very little traffic and the villages became far more rustic looking. Sometimes we would see a dwelling that looked like a ruin only to see that there was somebody inside a doorway or that there was washing hanging on a line. Many of the dwellings were designed around a compound where the family's livestock would be kept during the the night - during the day the herd would be grazing on mountainsides under the watchful eye of shepherd or cow/yak herder. People were pleasantly surprised to see us ride by and again we spent much time waving and saying hello. We rode passed an abandoned fort and some monasteries and continued along the road going deeper into a less modernised area - it was fantastic. We had beautiful river views and saw fields being ploughed by Yaks and workers crouching and perhaps planting new crops.

Having ridden almost ridden 20 kms along the dirt road alone we decided that we should start to look for campsite numero tres. We had already eyed a disused road high up the valley walls which must have been in use before the road that we had been riding on and before the flooding river valley had been bought under control. "Eagle Eye Action K" spotted a great place above a quarry where the old road looked as though it had side walls. It did mean that we would have to make our way passed the many tractors carrying loads of sand from the quarrying to nearby roadworks and thus would arouse attention that we did not particularly want. We decided to make a go of it anyway when there was a gap in the presence of the workers before they returned to the site with their unladen carts. As we rode towards the quarry along it's approach road in order to get to the old road my rear tyre hit a sharp rock pointing out of the ground. As my wheel slipped off of the rock my rear wheel immediately deflated with a gust of air that was far more efficient than any exhaling that my lungs are capable of.

Gutted. Not only did I have a puncture but upon closer inspection I had a half inch cut on the inside of my tyre which showed as a quarter inch hole on the outside. Whilst replacing my inner tube the quarry men returned too but it seemed that it was only for a quick discussion as they soon all drove off in their tractors. We watched them group together some way down the dirt road and appear to go down to the river which was now following it's natural course. Having inflated my rear wheel, we took this opportunity to ride up to the old road and found it more than adequate as a camping ground. Ensuring that we could pitch our tent away from any falling shale and that the steep walled sides of the road would not cause the surface to turn into a drainage channel should it pour with rain again, we decided that we had yet again found a perfect spot. We could look down on the dirt road, we were out of sight of anyone below and we had more than enough protection from any wind channeling down the valley. Nearby we also had a supply of clean fast flowing water that we could easily filter and perhaps do some washing in later when the quarry men had finished their work.

No sooner had we pitched the tent the quarrymen had finished their work for the day (20.00 hours). There was one however that was left behind who had been joined by a woman and some others. The woman took a walk up towards the old road, perhaps she had spotted us because less that fifteen minutes later one of the quarrymen came up to our tent and sat down next to us. We exchanged some words in pigeon Chinese and fathomed from him that Medro Gunkar (our next destination for we needed some supplies) was only 2 kms away. I offered him some water and the three of us sat in an awkward silence for some moment until he was called away by the people that remained in the quarry. K stood up and watched him descend down the hillside, soon he and the others were waving goodbye to her as they drove off on the back of a tractor together. We were now alone and "Action K" fired up the stove again (there were a few problems) and we soon had our staple food of noodle soup and trimmings - it was as delicious as ever.

The sun disappeared and the brightness of the sun was replaced by the shine from stars and planets. It was not that these were more numerous in number than normal, it was that they shone so much more brighter and vividly than they do at home or at lower altitudes and seemingly less... congested? They just seemed bolder.

It was a night of no rain and very little wind and I for once did not have to wear most of my clothes to bed :-) It was our third night of behaving like fugitives. Our new campsite made us think of hobbits and we half expected to see orksies coming around the corner of the old road a few metres from our campsite.