Sunday 13th May:

We woke with no dripping condensation in our tent. The sky was beautiful and blue and we had successfully had a great nights sleep. We took in our surroundings and looked at the fields below as well as the surrounding mountain peaks - the views were as spectacular as ever, enhanced by the blueness of the sky. "Action K" repaired my damage tyre by patching it up and I would eventually swap the rear and the front around in order to give the weaker tyre the least amount of load as possible.

Soon I became overcome with a terrible nausea and could not overcome it. I was fearful that I was becoming very ill and that our riding would be coming to an end as a result. I informed K how terrible I felt but did not quite divulge how awful I felt hoping that it would pass. She suggested that I lie down for a while and not move. This I did but as soon as I felt that the nausea had gone and tried to get up I would again be overcome with the feeling of sickness. I ended up taking a Pepto Bismol and surprisingly this worked quickly. I no longer felt sick but I did feel weakened, particularly in my arms. K packed up the tent then went exploring the old road whilst I sat and rested some more. I watched her disappear around the hillside and occasionally she would come into a distant view as the walls of the old road would lower every now and then.

Upon her return she sat down where I had been sitting. As I reached across to take something from her I knelt on the most ferocious stinging nettle that I have ever encountered. The burning sensation that immediately followed was intense, I hobbled around in disbelief it's effectiveness. My shin had a patch of nasty welts swelling on it. I hobbled around more. K found another type of leaf that we thought that I should rub on it (the theory being that dock leaves grow near to nettles) but all that this did was leave a big green smudge across my leg.

Eventually the burning sensation passed and we sat together and looking at the sky K noticed that there was a mother of pearl effect from the light shining through the clouds - it was amazing to see and we looked at it transfixed for a while.

Finally we left at noon, the quarry men had returned to work already but were again on a break when we left. We rode by a shepherd who was taking a nap from watching the herd as we descended back down to the dirt road. We headed toward Medro Gunkar - we had not filtered any water thinking that we would be able to buy some in the town very soon but later would find ourselves needing to meet this requirement. The road varied from good even surfaced dirt road to rocky construction. We rode by the workers who were tarmacking the road a few kilometres away and they excitedly waved hello. The stretch that had the new surface was very small but it ran through the village that was flanking it and we wondered how the life of the apparently sleepy rustic looking village would soon change as a result, we were happy that we were passing through in the present.

The road again changed to a long stretch of rocky construction which sapped our energy although we did not realise it at the time. I was also on the constant lookout for my tyre for fear of the cut in it worsening despite K's fantastic repair. We had still not reached Medro Gunkar and were wondering how we were to get to it. It was on the other side of the river valley and looking up and down the course of the river we could not see any bridge - the bridge would also be very obvious because it would have to be large in order to span the river. We stopped for a snack and watched a herder slingshot stones at an escapee goat who had decided that it was going to liberate itself from the flock which could be seen munching on the nearby hillsides. It was amazing to hear the sound of the small rocks fly by, they sounded like missiles and it is no wonder that the shepherds use this effective method to round up their livestock by scaring the wits out of them. After the stone was launched the long slingshot would wrap itself around the shepherds legs. We sat and watched for a while. Soon the shepherd came over to look at us, I offered him a Shanxi date to eat and demonstrated that he should watch out for the stone inside having noted that he was missing many teeth. Taking the date he continued on his way with rounding up the stray animal.

We continued riding and decided that we should pump some water. We could not get to the fast flowing river due to a nearby man made drainage channel that we could not cross which barred us from reaching the cleaner looking water. We had to contend with filtering water from a murkier looking source but the filter being so effective provided us with enough water in order to get to the next town (at this point we had given up with the idea of Medro Gunkar because we had still not seen any bridge). At this point we were joined by a young Tibetan boy on his bicycle, he was perhaps no more than 12 years old, he parked up and sat down next to us and watched us closely, occasionally whispering to himself. To our dismay he took a cigarette packet out of his pocket and soon sparked it up, smoking as though he was big man, as all children do mimicking the behaviour of influential adults. As we were about to leave K noticed that she had a puncture. We stayed put, unloaded the bike and got on with the repair as our young guest watched and smoked.

When the puncture was repaired I went and flagged down a passing digger truck that was being used for the road construction some distance away. It was quite amusing. I asked the driver in Chinese how far away Medro Gunkar was, especially how far it was to a bridge. Luckily for us he said that it we were only 4 kilometres away from the bridge. This really raised our spirits and we rode on happily knowing that we would reach the town despite having to ride back down the valley on the other side of the river in order to get to it.

We arrived at a small town where the road that we were travelling on intersected with the road leading to the river bridge. We checked that we were heading the correct way and proceeded to towards the opposite bank finally. As we were about to cross the new cement road bridge, "Eagle Eye K" spotted an older suspension foot bridge nearby. We decided to cross by using this instead.

Next to the older bridge there were some ruins of old adobe buildings. The bridge itself was floored with horizontal planks of wood suspended with twisted metal rope. Above us on the bridge there was a large red star. Hanging to the side of the bridge there were bundles of what we assumed were sacrificed newborn calves/ goats. Perhaps they had been sacrificed for the river or surrounding mountains.

Having crossed the bridge we then passed through a small village, the route through which was muddy and we felt like we imagined that the flooded way resembled the roads of medieval Europe. We joined the main tarmacked road and with a headwind road towards Medro Gunkar. We passed a ruined a monastery as well as a newer monastery. The river was closer to us and it was very beautiful to see it flowing by at a rapid pace.

Just before we reached Medro Gunkar we spotted a campsite with a few Tibetan tents that was located in a pasture next to another river. We made note that we should come and explore this as a camping option after we had purchased our supplies and eaten. Arriving tiredly in town we found a restaurant. We each devoured another plate of egg fried rice each and shared a dish of chilli aubergine. It is hard work to order food sometimes when there is no English menu or English speakers.

With our tummies filled we decided to head back to the campsite...

... the rest of the story is to follow soon...

Thanks for reading :-)