So after a very hectic day on Everest and a hurried morning departure, I am excited at the opportunity to continue my adventure. We start on some great asphalt and head for our summit of the day, K2, the 4th highest peak, before dropping down to the border of Nepal. It’s absolutely the coldest day we have had and we’ve had some fricken cold ones. Big gloves with liners, heated grips, micro tee, long sleeve turtle, MSR micro fleece, electric vest, Joe Rocket jacket and Gortex cover. Pants with micro long-johns, gortex liners and two pairs of socks. I feel like the Michelin Man. But I am warm! It’s clear and beautiful! The roads are dry, the bike, after all of yesterdays issues is running and handling great. It’s a massive mountain range that almost surrounds us. We stop for customary photos, everybody is feeling good and are all excited about another border crossing into Nepal. We start to head down the back side of K2 and the temperature starts climbing, by the time we reach our first police checkpoint of the day we are all boiling with all our cold gear on. We start peeling off layers to just basic protection gear. After the check point we start down into a huge, steep, narrow gorge. Once again the road is cut into the side of the cliffs with hardly any guard rails and huge vertical drop offs. I want to try and get a picture to show the giant drop but get to freaked out that I’m gonna tip the bike over and plummet to the bottom!

Speaking of pictures, unfortunately all the photos on this blog are from my iPhone. I actually have taken close to 2000 plus photos from the road with my Canon SLR, it has a pistol grip that I can easily remove from tank bag while I am riding. Hold it with my left hand and aiming the camera freehand and take some great action photos without having to stop all the time. Problem is my laptop is in my suitcase in Bangkok waiting for my return. I will download camera when I return and update blog.

As we are approaching the border town and before crossing into Nepal the entire surroundings have changed. It’s like we have entered into a beautiful jungle. Its humid and everything is green, huge palm tree’s,giant ferns. The most magnificent waterfalls are at every turn, sometime going over the road itself! It’s all kinda crazy! We have the coldest day of the trip this morning and now 2 hours later it’s the hottest. We stop before crossing for what will be our last Chinese food meal, after 42 in a row! Actually I did have a Yak steak with Chris and Cliff in Lhasa.

So we are leaving China after 14 glorious days of some of the most challenging conditions I have ever ridden. The usual no nonsense stiff Chinese border guards, no smiles or acknowledgements, nothing. They do a full inspection of all our bags, always a giant pain in the ass! Then after what seems like an eternity we are granted permission to leave China. We are instructed that we must walk our 600+ lb bikes across the bridge over the river to Nepal. Huffing, puffing and sweating we complete the portage. I am always amazed that at most border crossing’s,usually two countries separated by some natural divide, mountain range or river, you are transcended into another world. Switzerland/Italy, USA/Mexico, Singapore/Malaysia and now China/Nepal. Back across the river, the machine gun toting guards are in there perfectly pressed uniforms. Spotless facility, with properly set up booths for processing. Now, cows, porters, mostly old women, carrying giant loads, trash and broken down cars and trucks..guys playing pool in outside bars. Moneychangers begging for your business. A completely different world, just 100 yards away. I love this place! Reminds me a lot of South America. Immediately the people are smiling and waving at us. They are curious as usual about the bikes but stand back respecting our space. Was not this way in Tibet. We had a lot of issues with people sitting on our bikes and dicking around with all the controls.

We locate immigrations, a shitty little building between 2 Bars and half of the group goes in for processing while the other half stays back to watch the equipment. There all back in 5 minutes. I go next and walk in where the guy waring Khakis and a stained shirt is scribbling in his log. He smiles at me, welcomes me to Nepal! Cool. While I am waiting for my stamp a another guy behind the counter offers me a slice of apple from a semi dirty plate with a couple of flies hanging round for good measure. I am reminded of that scene in one of my favorite movies, “Papion” , with Steve McQueen. The scene when Papion is at the Leper Colony and the leader of the lepers, offers him at hit off his slimy cigar, to refuse might be considered insulting. So I grab 2 slices and pop one in mouth. After everyone’s cleared, we load up and head out. Muddy one lane dirt track with tons of two way traffic clinging to the hillside with giant gorge on one side! Sound familiar? Fricken Dragons Tail all over! Water-crossings with big boulders, waterfalls, big trucks trying to squeeze buy. It’s awesome. My Singapore buddies are seasoned professional now! Only a couple of slow speed tip overs and we turn into our Guest House for the night.

Riverside resort, ON the river is more like it. It’s gorgeous, big tents under A-frame tom roofs. Nice mattress’ and bedding. Big open air communal showers, with the roar of the rapids and noises from the jungle trees.

Totally in nature. Dedicated to reusable resources. More tomorrow. Adios!

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 23rd, 2010 at 7:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.