I did quite a bit of cycle touring in my younger years but always self-organised, and typically no more than four in the group, as ‘the buy a ticket and a map, follow the wind and find places to sleep day by day style’, suits a small number. My enthusiasm for cycle touring was rekindled when Paul expressed an interest in touring, and we started with a week in Ireland. From there we toured in France, Belgium, Germany and then found the empty roads and lack of commercialisation of Eastern Europe delightful. We were ready for a challenge when Paul and I went to a CTC birthday rides weekend at Bala and saw a slideshow of a CTC tour to the Himalayas and were impressed. So, we decided that we would join the CTC tour to Nepal and Tibet despite my concern over being organised.
I have summarised my recollections of the tour, which was memorable, and challenging, and unforgettable. I think Paul’s videos sum up the holiday more than words.
We flew to Kathmandu and stayed a few days whilst paperwork and visas were organised. Kathmandu was a fun place for a short stay, full of ancient buildings, places to eat, people of all nationality, monkeys, buddhas, motorbikes, tuk tuks and shops all selling North Pole walking and climbing gear, haggling compulsory. Paul and I rode through Kathmandu on our return leg and despite the honking and manoeuvring and lack of lane discipline we felt much safer than riding in London, as speed was low, and people were not hostile. Goats on top of buses? Ladders on motorbikes? We saw it all.
From Kathmandu we flew to Lhasa with a flight path over Everest giving us incredible mountain views. It was Paul’s birthday, and he was given the best seat for views.
Lhasa is 3656 m above sea level and the strange sensation of weakness was an indication of what was to come. We spent 3 days at Lhasa to acclimatize before cycling. Some members of our party suffered for a few days, but all recovered in time to start the cycling
Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, lies on the Lhasa River's north bank in a valley of the Himalayas. Rising atop Red Mountain at an altitude of 3,700m, the red-and-white Potala Palace once served as the winter home of the Dalai Lama. The palace’s rooms, numbering around 1,000, include the Dalai Lama’s living quarters, as well as murals, chapels and tombs. The amount of gold plating is obscene – the 5th Dalai Lama stupa is coated with 3700 kg of gold alone. We were told that the Chinese general, who occupied the Potala when China annexed Tibet, used his personal army to defend the palace against looters. His objective was personal gain, but the Potala was not ransacked and is now a tourist gem.
Once on the bikes we realised that we would find the quite modest daily distances a challenge. I cannot remember the actual route, but we cycled across Tibet to Mount Everest Base Camp on the northern side and returned to Kathmandu down the claimed world’s longest downhill.
The scenery was stunning and every day the blue sky overhead contrasted the arid brown Tibetan plateau, surrounded by the snow-capped mountains .
We visited several monasteries and began to get used to the smell of Yak butter candles and the chanting of the monks and the clatter of the prayer wheels. The local Tibetans were so devout that I hope that it gave them strength to survive in such an austere and challenging country and climate, and the monks used the money donated wisely.
Our group was supported by a Nepalese and Tibetan team who drove the support vehicles, pitched our tents and cooked for us. We stayed in some hotels but mostly camped in the remote areas. The support team were fantastic and produced amazing cuisine as everything was prepared from local produce - vegetables, eggs, rice, flour – meat infrequently. All of our campsites were selected to be near a stream to provide water for washing – not drinking.
Once the sun went down the temperature just plummeted, so we had a mess tent for communal evening and breakfast sessions. The group contained some real characters, so the banter was great fun. Tiger beer was always available from the crew.
When we camped, we were often near a village, so we were invaded by the village kids. We had to keep our eyes on them as they would nick anything. The support crew always did enough food for them as they were all skinny. The kids were dirty by our standards but most of the villages did not have running water.
The support vehicles were battered Toyota land cruisers and a Chinese lorry which had a canvas top and huge wheels. The nights were very cold and in the mornings the crew lit a fire under the oil sump of the lorry to get the oil fluid enough to get it started.
The initial riding was on freshly tarmacked roads as the Chinese were improving the Tibetan road network to encourage tourism, but after a few days we were on dirt roads.
The route was planned to slowly increase the altitude by climbing and then dropping a little way, if possible, to get a reasonable night’s sleep. As we increased our elevation towards 5000 metres, I found my sleeping was intermittent as shortage of oxygen caused me to breath fast and wake up.
Climbing was hard and each dirt road hairpin was a hill climb in its own right but the scenery was exquisite. Punctures were frequent in the group as the roads were flinty. Paul and I had been advised by SJS cycles to fit Specialised Armadillos and we were puncture free.
The final approach to the Everest Base Camp was very demanding as the unmade surface was badly rippled by water runoff. The basecamp camp site was grotty, and the night-time temperature dipped below -10C and water bottles froze. However, in the morning we had a perfect view of Everest, an unforgettable sight.
The tour itinerary allowed 2 nights at Everest base camp, but we all voted to move on. The guides suggested using an alternative route using a dirt track which bypassed several sections of the major access route. The track followed a valley and passed through several remote villages with spectacular scenery in every direction. The route forded a river and Paul was offered the dry way across - on horseback with his bike on his shoulder - for which I had to pay. I got wet feet and did not even get a picture. The support vehicles had to take an alternative route as the track was too rocky, but the Chinese lorry with its huge wheels just rolled on surrounded by a cloud of dust.
Our last night in Tibet was at a town called Nyalam. We finished that day’s ride in blizzard conditions and shared our campsite with Yaks who kept licking the snow off the tents. We started the day in full winter cycling gear and finished the day in shorts and t-shirts.
The next day we dropped 8500 feet through the barren snowy mountains and the surrounding scenery turned slowly to lush vegetation. Our water bottles were squashed with the pressure difference as we descended. That night we camped in a tented hotel – not quite meeting the promise of luxury and hot water - but so warm we left the tent door open.
Our route took us through picturesque Nepalese villages back to Kathmandu. The riding was easy as the muscles suddenly began to work again at the low altitude.
A tour to remember and a tour taken at the right time as development will have changed Tibet.
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