For those of you following our progress on maps, the days we did were:

21 days:

• Kathmandu to Barabise (89km)
• Kodari (27km)
• Zangmu (8km)
• Camp 1 (27km)
• Nayalam (4km)
• Acclimatisation Day off
• Camp 2 (20km)
• Dulung (25km)
• Sumo (44km)
• Dingri (65km)
• Camp 3 (54km)
• Tashi Dzong (47km)
• 2 days camping at Everest Base Camp
• Baipa (12km)
• Latse (83)
• Camp 6 (70km)
• Shigatse (86km)
• 2 rest days off
• Gayatse (95km)
• Lungmur (47km)
• Camp 7 (73km)
• Chusul (77km)
• Lhasa (64km)

It had taken almost a month of organization and planning and back andforwarding to arrange but we finally left Kathmandu on the 8th of April.We had met up with 7 other cyclists who would form our tour across Tibet:

• Matt, Donna and Mark are cycling from Perth in Scotland to Perth inAustralia (see: www.pedalperth2perth.com )
• Andy is a German speaking Swiss accountant and wanted to cycle from Tibet through to Pakistan.
• Edwin is a Kiwi who is cycling around the world having started inLondon (see: www.howsmycycling.com )
• Meg is lady of a certain age who was cycling from the north of Norwayto Calcutta but has decided to add a bit of a side trip on!
• Scott is from Milwaukee via San Francisco and is cycling thecircumference of the Earth (see www.theargonauts.com )

Some of the above have trip reports posted, all of them write better thanme so check out their websites for some excellent writing and photography.

KATHMANDU:

Last minute food buying saw the owner of Katmandu's largest foodsupermarket looking on extremely dubio usly as 9 hungry cyclists panic bought all their favourite foods. Mountains of chocolate and biscuits were piled intoshopping trolleys, some of it even made it into the truck we had hired to accompanyus across Tibet.

Leaving Kathmandu is never easy and things were not to go smoothly for useither. One group member was missing when we had to leave, last seen quaffingbeers the night before like prohibition was on the way. Someone was going tohave a massive hangover for the 90km ride to Barabisse. We had made sure ourbikes had been serviced before leaving and new shiny chains fitted, what Ididn't realize was that new shiny chains and very worn out chain rings don'twork well together. 15km out of Kathmandu it became apparent I was going tohave to get a new chain ring or cycling in the lowest gear the thousandkilometres to Lhasa. Several franticphone calls later and our now extremely green about the gills colleague wasdispatched to the local bike shop to buy me one and I headed on pedalingfuriously trying to keep up with everyone else.

The scenery we passed through was lush and forested. Teams of farmers werethreshing their harvest, as we passed huge wooden flails would be rhythmicallyswing to separate the grain from the husk. Butt naked kids would leap intorivers and run screaming across the road.

Kodari is the one street town which forms the Nepalese side of the border,across the river was Tibet, a line of truck perhaps 2km long waited their turnto be ransacked by rapacious customs. It took about an hour to organize 9people and 13 tea chests full of food onto the friendship bridge and finallyinto Tibet. Our guide, Jobu and driver Don Ten were waiting for ourluggage.

This left (most of) us an easy luggage less cycle 8km uphill to the Chinesecheck point at Zangmu where the delights of a Chinese Karaoke bar just outside ourwindow kept us awake all night .

One company in Kathmandu had advertised the next few days of our trip as"The longest Downhill in the world!" unfortunately we were (of course) doing itthe other way! Everyone was very upbeat as we cycled up a huge gorge withmassive drops next to us but a sudden rainstorm at the end of the day brought backthe realities of cycling at altitude. The rain was unbelievably cold by theend of the day - Andy's lips were blue from the cold he was shaking and had to behelped to dress in dry clothes.

A couple of days later we had gained enough altitude that an enforcedacclimitisation day was called for. The now dry scenery was treeless and devoidof any apparent life. Most of us took the time to do washing, eat lots andcarry outsome much needed maintainence on the bikes, including fitting that new chainring. Nayalam gives one horse towns a bad name, there is nothing there but along line of Chinese run shops in which everything is expensive andsuspiciously priced in units of 5 for foreigners. Rather shocked by the pricehike after crossing the border we ended up in the wonderfully named "Low RateFood" where the chap who ran it treated us to vast piles of cheap(ish) food.

Starting off the next day I discovered that whilst I had fixed the chainringproblem a much more serious one had come up. I had bent the rear mech dropoutand therefore had effectively lost the lowest 3 gears. Not good news at 3,500mabove sea level when you're planning to go upto 5220m!

The next few days were spent pedalling furiously uphill along a seeminglynever ending series of hairpin bends as we climbed our way up to 5,000m passesand then juddering descents as the corregated road tried to shake out the fillingsfrom our teeth. Climbing on a bike at altitude is hard work, every halfkilometre or so I would stop for a mad attack of gasping and panting.These have steadily become fewer and fewer as we have become acclimatised.Strangely my working heart rate has dropped hugely since I have been at altitude itis now only averaging 99 beats per minute whereas at the start it was morelike 150bpm.

If you put 9 people in a truck every evening to cook someone will comedown with a cold and pass it on. By the time we reached Rombuk Monastery (part of aside trip to Everest Base Camp, 40 hairpin bends, 5000m pass, blah, blah blah)more than half the group were coughing and snorting and choking. The locals,far more SARS aware then we were at the time, gave us a wide berth. Rombukmonastery has a view from its campsite no Director of Tourism could have dreamt up,the massive face of Everest rises up into the clouds during the day and thesunset at evening time.

8km further on was Base Camp, groups of Italian hikers clad in thousands ofdollars worth of gear strutted around looking down their noses at these scruffycyclists. We got talking to some Americans who were really excited aboutour trip, they didn't fit in, they were as scruffy as we were, they listened ratherthan shouted across the valley. THEY WERE CLIMBING EVEREST!! and then skiingdown! Really nice guys, mad as hatters but really nice. They hope to summitaround my 40th birthday, (May the 15th....no cards ...sob) so check out theirprogress at http://www.everestnews.com/everestnews2/skieverest03.htm.

We were fairly well aclimatised by this point, or so we thought. Leaving thetown of Baipa we were ready for a long day, we had about 60km to do before thepass (a mere 5204m). It was freezing cold, we had begun at daybreak to maximisecycling time. Jenny was struggling with the cold her extremities were numb.She stopped and hopped off her bike when she realised she would fall offotherwise and nearly fainted, luckily Donna and Mark found her. I carriedon ahead unwares of what was happening behind. By lunchtime she was exhausted a r combination of altitude and cold had weakened her to the point where shecouldn't continue and she had to climb into the truck.

The pass continued to climb slowly but steadily all day, grinding down ourresistance. I have never been so tired, I was beyond thhe puffing andpanting stage. I reached the point where I was ready to give up but sheer bloodymindedness kept me going "just another 5km". I kept grinding on in myridiculously high gears (remember no bottom 3 gears) at about 5kmphslowly, slowly. Finally I was at the top, 5 kilometres above sea level, and whathappens? We met a group of 3 fantastic ladies, Australian teachers on ajeep tour and promptly fell into shop talk. One of them works in Katherine(Northern Territory) in the School of the Air (www.schools.nt.edu.au/ksa/ ) wherekids from a catchment area 3 times the size of the UK are taught by radio!

Of the 22 days it took to reach Lhasa about a third of the time we camped.Most evenings fell into the same routine. We would finish about 5pm, put up thetents and maybe wash if the water wasn't too cold. Then we would get hot water onfor our unvaried diet of pasta or rice. Water takes AGES to boil at this altitudeso by the time we had made pasta it would be 7pm. Next came water for drinkingas we were meant to be drinking 5 litres each per day. By 9pm we would bewatching the pots wishing they would just boil and let us get to our nice warmsleeping bags.

Some days looked easy on paper, 2 days out of Lhasa we had a piddling passa tiny 5015m so it shoudn't be a problem now we were fit! As we climbedalongside the wonderfully snowcapped peak of Nujin Kantsang (7,191m) the road beganto steepen and steepen and finally top out at a breathtaking 19% slope(remember this is at 4,750m). I was never anywhere near fit enough for this, Edwinpassed me with full panniers going like he was on the flat, Jenny screamed bybarely falter ing in her steady progress up the mountain, me? I got off and pushedthe last 750m as it was much faster than the 4km per hour I was managing. Butthe reward was lunch below the icefall, yak herders crowding round to seethese odd foreigners with their hairy legs and massive appetities. I wonder whatthey made of us?

ARRIVED LHASA 3pm 2/05/03

The dust devils heralded our arrival in Lhasa.They scooted across the wide valley floor as next to us the Bhramaputralazily meandered it way towards Bangladesh. The realisation that we have finallymade it to Lhasa is slow to dawn. It's has taken us almost 10 months on theroad but every last second of the sweating and pain vanishes into insignificance aswe catch our first sight of the incredibly beautiful Potala. Since I was asmall child I had wanted to be here, never for a second imagining it wouldhappen. We're so pleased to have reached this far.

Passing through Tibets' central regions, the images of Tibet from booksand TV leap out at us. Old pilgrims walking to Lhasa swinging their prayerwheels, Yak herds charging along the road towards us (not what you need to see with a500m drop on one side). Kids who have never washed (or so it seems) screamingout their welcome "THASHI DELEK MONEY SCHOOL PEN". Wrinkled faces of 'old'women (maybe in reality in their 40's) with Turquoise beads around their necks.Smiling young guys with plated hair which have red wool and HUGE whitebeads woven into them. Massive Tibetian mastif dogs (thankfully so far tied up)snarling and barking their own particular welcome. The ploughing of fieldsinto intricate patterns to conserve every last drop of precious water inthis highest & coldest of deserts. Vast areas of NOTHING, barren emptywastelands, our guidebook calls it "a moonscape", yet still there are people eekingout a living here, doing what God alone knows.

The 22 days of cycling fro m Kathmandu included the "Longest Uphill in theWorld" (all 160km of it), 6 mountain passes over 5,000 metres and someover 4,000m. Altitude has played a great part in our lives for the last 3weeks.Sleeping is hard, constantly our breathing stops and we wake in a fit ofgasping, we are woken constantly at night to pee, as our bodies try to get the bloodchemistry right. Yesterday we descended 1100m to the oxygen rich altitudeof 3,600m. The 60km ride into to Lhasa was so easy after our constantclimbing in atmospheres that were frequently missing 30% or more oxygen. At lastthere is HOT water to wash away the grime of the road, scrubbing quickly removesmy 'tan' and it's back to pastey white Scotsman mode! Harrumph when will Iever go brown?

We are greeted with the news that Tibet has been closed to foreign tourgroups as of the 27/4/03. Our Dutch tour operator (don't ask it's a long story)also then said that the paranioa in China about SARS has reached such heightthat we may be thrown out of our hotel in 2 days. Seems the Chinese thinkforeigners are the main cause of SARS, so get ride of the 'white ghosts' and theproblem will solve itself!!! Chinese from Peking can move into and out of Tibetwithout any problem but we may be asked to leave very soon.... Anyway tocut a long story short we may be moving along fairly quickly, MAYBE!

Wednesday 7th May:

Unbirthday for Chris held in Dunya Bar as the real one will be in thewilds of Eastern Tibet....

Thursday 8th May:

Chris begins to feel his age - just a week or so early...

For more pictures click on the following link www.pedalperth2perth.com