THE LATEST
Salem Malecom! Yes, we're still on the planet, alive and kicking, and have now covered 8500 km on our trusty tredlies ....... ALRIGHT!!!
Since our last update ........ approximately a million years ago ......... plenty has happened in the life of Ride To Everest, as you could imagine.
We come to you from the land of Dallywood - Bangladesh's version of Bollywood - India's version of Hollywood - the U.S.A.'s version of Aussiewood ..... What The??? Our exact position of writing is in the "Grand Prince Hotel", Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
In Beijing all our previous plans changed dramatically! The route we had chosen through Western China along the 'Old Silk Road' into Pakistan, Northern India and finally through Western Nepal to Kathmandu, had to be revised due to circumstance, political situations, inside advice from Pakistani friends ....... and Border closures due to the weather! The situation in Northern Pakistan was extremely unstable for foreigners at the time, not to mention the fact that we had limited time to reach the Khunjerab Pass, Pakistan (approx 4000 km away!!!) - impossible! Add to this the fact that winter was fast approaching and the Pass closes at the first snowfall!!! Bummer!
Check out the more detailed accounts of our adventures on Ride To Everest on "Da Journals" pages.
14th February 2008
We did head South from Ulaan Bataar, but not in the direction we would have liked. The border crossing we wanted to pass is closed to foreigners and so we headed to Zamyn Uud, the border town with China in the South-East of Mongolia. Our second crossing of the Gobi went without a hitch. We then braved -17°C ...... MINUS 17!!! ..... temperatures, snow and ice to reach Beijing, China.
On reaching Kunming it was like going from the South Pole to the Equator - absolute bliss! By that time we had endured an average temperature of 0°C over the last 3 months - we had had enough of frozen feet and numb fingers. Kunming was a balmy 10 -16 degrees.
So we made the decision to alter our route. We will still cover roughly the same amount of kilometres, but it now turned South from Beijing, through the massive industrial coal belt to Xi'an, the home of Emperor Qin's Terracotta Warrior's. Obviously we paid them a visit and said hello from Australia! From Xi'an we travelled south-west to Chengdu on some absolutely sweet, sealed roads. A quick visit to the largest Buddha in the world at Leshan - he's carved from the whole side of a 70 metre cliff! - and we were on our way south-west again to Kunming - 'The Spring City'.
Our route took us over some absolutely gnarly mountain ranges. China is currently being devastated by their worst winter in 50 years ....... and we had to race it to Kunming! It occassionally caught us and we rode through more fog, rain, snow, hail, ice and "chocolate cake mix"!!! It wasn't pretty!
Now, sitting in 20°C+ Dhaka - the capital of Bangladesh - and preparing to ride north to India, west through Eastern Nepal to Kathmandu, and finally on and up to Mount Everest Base Camp - we have totally defrosted .......... nearly! Both of us still do not have feeling at the end of our big toes!!!
