We continued on and climbed a 4400m pass outside town which revealed a large plateau with herds of sheepgoats and Yak grazing. Down from here was a spectacular decent that took us to a steep sided gorge of yet another brown surging river. At the very bottom of the gorge was an army base with restaurants andshops. We were at first worried by the uniforms butwere surprised to find them friendly and helpful,unlike the psb. Up a few km from the base we found a truckers inn and were relieved to have a bed at last.
Britta managed to arrange a truck to take her onto the next town Zuo Gong and the four of us set out at a furious pace up to the first pass. 4000 meters now was just a hill to us and we hardly stopped at the top before storming down the other side. The landscape had changed to a much more baren look, no more forests just little bushes and grass on the hill sides with barerock visible.
We stopped at the bottom of the downhill at a little Tibetan village and were directed to a shop for food. The owner of the shop a tubby balding man in his fifties with a friendly face invited us to sit down on a bench by the stove and prepared butter tea for us in a big silver jug. The whole village came by, peering through cracks in the window and crowding in the doorway ro get a view of the strange now bearded foreigners. The shopkeeper sent them on errands like to wash dishes get water etc. And he seemed to command the respect of the whole village. He could speak some Chinese but seemed unwilling to use it with me and preferred to communicate with us all in sign language. He brought out a picture of the Dalai Lama and proudly showed it to us and asked if we had any. Coming from China we only had a picture in the Tibetan Phrasebook but he seemed happy to look at that. He prepared a rice and vegetable meal for us for which he charged us a ridiculously small amount.
From here we began the long climb to our first 5000m pass. Stopping for dinner at a Chinese restaurant beside yet another army base with surly unhappy service we paid an astonomical amount for bowls of noodles. We made camp in this hard and bleak landscape by the side of the river which was at this height just a stream.
Waking to find our bags covered in frost a quick dip in the icy river woke us up. The roadcontinued to climb and although it was not that steepthe lack of oxygen made for hard breathless work. Roadworkers impressed by our stamina invited us to welcomehot tea and mantous (steamed bread).Reaching the freezing top we prepared snowballs towelcome Roland who was a few minutes behind. Driven from the top by the beginning of a snowstorm we donnedour thickest warmest clothes for the freezing decent.After a hour or so we found sunlight and warmth and onthe approach to Zuogong met a German cyclist coming the other way who warned us of terrible roads ahead.
