Thangka of our Trike Ride!

The painting above is a traditional Buddhist Thangka (a way of telling a story in pre-literate Tibet). It just arrived from Kathmandu and depicts our journey. In top-Right is Lhasa and the Potala Palace - bottom-Left Kathmandu, The Himalayas separating them and the Friendship Highway snaking through the landscape. It shows Carol and I in numerous points along the road and even a Yeti on the mounainside! 

Kinder Slideshow

The Mercury Newspaper misreported the date of the film launch at theState Cinema. At the moment there is no date set and it may be an in house event for Headway. It is looking like Late January at this stage for a finished film. Sharyn is doing a wonderful job of editing the film already!  

Next week I'm taking my trike to South Hobart Primary School to show the Kinder kids and giving them a short slideshow of our trip too.

PPX

Qomolongma (Everest) from Rongbuk Monastary. The rock in the foreground is part of a Mani-pile, were each rock has the mantra 'Om mani padme Om' inscribed on it.

The Thang La: at 5140m was the last major obstacle And the start of the 4600m descent.

At Everest base Camp we found happy Chinese soldiers stationed up there and eager to have their photo with us!

Mel pauses to check out the mountains during the deepest road descent in the world.

Crazy Zhangmou: the border town on the Chinese side. The last town on the Friendship Highway. There must be 20 Switchbacks on what seems a near vertical hillside! The richest place in Tibet because of all the contraband.

Chris jones contemplating the descent from Everest.

Moonrise over Tibet

In Kathmandu at last!!!

Day 26 - Kathmandu

We had a guide - Jenny - to show us a non-suicidal route into Kathmandu. We rode through a convoluted matrix of villages and back streets, past monkeys and temples, a mass of motor-bikes - with people wearing - god forbid - helmets.

All the way to the guest house and THE END OF THE TRIP!!!

All fit and strong and enjoying the thick atmosphere at 1200m.

 I think Sharyn has got enough awesome footage to make a damn good film. Thanks again for all your support. 

PP & CH xx

Getting the trikes across the suspension bridge that crosses a 180m deep gorge!

Shadow

Qomolongma!

We have reached Everest Base Camp after a hard slog on dirt roads strewn with bowling ball sized rocks and pot holes.

We summited the Pang La (5150m) in snow flurries and descended some crazy endless switchbacks on a rubble road straight from Dr Suess' Green Eggs and Ham.

It was then uphill all the way for two days to EBC. We had glorious weather at Qomolongma and I realised a long sought after dream in seeing the goddess mountain up close.

Now got to carry on with the dirt roads. Trikes holding up well. Looking forward to getting onto the bitchumen again!

Cheers,

PP

Cairn to Cadi and Eli, Everest BC.

A repair to the underneath of my trike from Mel and Chris and a tyre inner-tube. The road was so rough it sheered a quick release pin. The repair held up for the final 450km!

Qomolongma Base Camp!!!

12/10/11
Nyalam to Last Resort
Zaimu - what a mad place. A border-town built on Switchback after switchback down a near vertical cliff. Apparently the richest town in Tibet because of cross border contraband. 

The quality of the roads went from brand spanking Chinese bitchumen with guard rails to Nepali dirt with lots of risk and mayhem.

We went from ice and frost of a tibetan morning to tropical lushness and TREES! Then we crossed the suspension bridge to the last resort, where we plunged in the plunge pool and had gin and tonics! 

Feeling sad that the trip is almost at an end...

Carol on the Thang La

Xishapangma

Dawa, Tsering and Samdrup

Thang La

The Thang La

11.10.11
Thang La and Lung La -
The last two passes of the trip behind us. Dreadful nights sleep. set off at 7am! 14km to top of first pass then down and 14 km to top of second pass. Then it's the deepest road descent in the world at 4500m.

The last 3 km of the last pass were into a headwind. My knee hurt and Mel delivered some anti-inflammatories and an emergen-C. I then tried all the tricks in the book to take my mind off the job in hand - a 3 km straight. Mantras, headphones, bead counting, you name it. 

I finally made it through the arch of prayer-flags miles behind Carol and was bundled into a house before I'd had chance to study the surroundings. On opening the door again I was faced with Shishapangma,  and Melungtse  all in their wedding gowns. 

Almost there!!!

Just one days ride from Kathmandu.!!! Just completed the last hill to Dhulikhal. But the thick air at 1200m meant the climb didn't pose too many problems after the rigours of 5000m.

Internet didn't really work in China - No blogger! but now we are in Nepal so I'll post heaps of photos and stories in the next couple of days. It has been a great big month of our lives.

PPX