What for 2008?

http://5travellingamigos.blogspot.com/

Travels in South America

http://vonnysansfreedomfriday.blogspot.com/ teaching in China for the Summer

Trekking the Everest Circuit

Bike Friday has been shipped home for a well earned rest after cycling1,100km from Lhasa to Kathmandu. Now I will be propelled to the giddy heights of the Everest Circuit on my own two feet (FridayFree -attached to legs and lungs conditioned from cycling the Roof of the World).

There is so much to say about this trek and not enough space to do it all. I think the peak of the experience was sharing it with friends who had all worked hard to make the trip as comfortable as possible through some conditioning (albeit at the grand heights of 710m of Mt Lofty, our best accessible training ground for twelve months).

photo - Jen, Deb,Von, Cathy, Hoa after reunion in Kathmandu - a toast to a trek of a lifetime-did we really know what there was to come!

photo - arriving at the luxurious Radisson on transfer from the Thamel area. Comfort before the hardships???

At Kathmandu they tell us anything under 5,000m is a hill, the mountains beyond the hills are so impressive that photos will never capture the grandure except to refresh memory of the big, well known mountains including the smaller Ama Dablam being just as impressive as its bigger neighbours. This is just a taste...to see for yourself... chose your trekking company carefully, take adequate warm clothes ( or buy them in Thamel in KTM), find your sense of adventure and book your holidays now.

Now the trek starts at Lukla, a short but exciting plane flight away, a specialist STOL (short takeoff and landing) - aircraft , not for the nervous traveller....

Now we have arrived at Lukla we prepare to meet our support team and porters who will be our best friends for the next 20 days., 200 + km, altitude over 5500mtrs, more than a week over 4,000m, 20 days without a shower (except for the 3 clean girls who risked it after about 14 days), black tea and washing bowls at 6am. Even a bad day in the mountains was better in my mind than a day in a stuffy office! Minus 16 degrees was the coldest we think it was at night but our weather was perfect. Full moon, starry nights, moonlit mountains over 6,000m high surrounding camp never ceased to impress me on the frequent night wee stops!

Our crew were magnificent, making our trek so rewarding, safe and enjoyable, even fun.

Some key places to share with you all

Campsites, Glaciers, Lakes, Cho la Pass, Everest Base camp, Kala Pattar (5550m)

look out for more as I get more inspired.

Cheers Vonny

greetings

namaste

tashi dele

ni hao

Hi all,

Scattered thoughts and random ideas as I gather the stories together.

Please be patient with my lack ofproof reading, if you have ever sat in a popular nternet cafe or cyber space for a few hours you can feel the next person waiting for your terminal.

Vonny in Kathmandu

Cycling through Tibet

The days all become a blurr when you havent kept a detailed diary - to be honest some days I was too tired to care. As I piece it together I will update the blurr. A few selections of photos to tell someof the story...the rest to follow

Well, firstly apologies but internet access is few and far between even in the cities. Currently into day 13 already of the Bike Asia Cycle Across the roof of the World.

Siting in a huge intenet space in Shigatse in China (Tibet) with 340 km worth of cycling under our belt already. This is our last sight of civilisation as we know it until day 21 and that is Old Tingri - our next hotel, camping until then. Can you please have happy thoughts about minimising the rain as our tents leak and the dirt roads will be even more challenging if mud rather than dust
After monasteries, temples, including some of teh famous pictures from the coffee table books and a flight from Kathmandu to Lhasa (Everest only was apparently just sighted through the cloud) we finally took to the bikes.
2 bike Fridays and a range of mountain bikes we make a fairly mixed bunch.
The Yvonne Bike Friday Club is well represented with Yvonne Goldsmith from Alaska on her Bike Friday Gnu and Yvonne Armstrong on Freedom Friday (NWT) , the two small wheeled bikes creating a bit of interest and challenge but thats later in the story.
Two reasonably simple cycling days to begin to acclimatise in an environment where walking up stairs is a chore, camping at night in a prickle filled paddock next to the road but the crew have supplied great meals and unexpected camping mats have saved the thermarests from puncture. The boys who did a bit of off roading on day 1 got a countless number of punctures so now bikes are carried down to campsites and upended keeping tyres away from deadly prickles. Then there is teh stinging nettle the avoid, short pain, no gain ( unless the purpose was to relieve oneself of the gallons of water taken into teh body).
Water intake appears to be critical to avoiding the effects of altitude, as if cycling at nearly 4,000m is not enough! Headaches luckily are short lived , mostly fixed with a water or three and no beer for a week!
Cycle day three things got interesting. 30km on tarmac then the next 30 on dirt. Here goes Friday, see what you can really do - and the first km or two were actually mud through teh town we turned off at to head for teh Yung La Pass ( the Kamba La pass was closed) so we detoured on day 3 and 4.
An undulating but bumpy trail leasd us to a superb lunch spot over lookinng a massive river gorge. After lunch we had about 20 km to ride, but never quite made it to teh intended destination as our truck got bogged for 4 hours, and teh 4WD nearly followed it, the road was too narrow in the ned for teh truck to get througfh so we camped a bit up teh road and walked back to teh truck for dinner and breaky. Bags and tents were ferrried by teh 4WD. We woke to see snow on teh mountain tops. Anyway somewhere on this day i lost my canon pocket camera bounced out of my pocket, I spend 2 hours looking for it but had to give it up as lost/ trampled by yaks or run over by 4Wds. Only a few really superb phots lost and luckily i still have the SLR for the rest of teh trip. (I think that is Karma for not declaring two cameras entering Nepal)
To top my day off, I was waiting to carry my bike down to th e campsite and a 4Wd flew past through a puddle and drowned me, Friday, bags, teddy has now a very dirty look and after I swore at the driver I just laughed - what else on a day when things can only get better!

Day 4 of cycling (15/9) was one of teh toughest ever with 60km to ride all off road and included the Yung La Pass (4860m accordingto my GPS) we started at 3999 at camp. 15 km of undulating gaining 300m then 15km of up on a winding long dirt road inhabited by Yaks, sheep, goats, cows, nomads. Well, Friday and I made it all the way, only walkingthe bike over the river crossings, the deep muddy bits and a few tricky metres here and there. Yvonne on the other Friday did well but had to resort to the vehicle when the body fuel and energy levels ran out. (Equivalent to the tired scale of the Tour down under ride in 2006 when it was 43 degrees)

Needless to say the down was always going to be tricky - the score was weighted in the mountain's favour for teh small wheeled bikes being much more cautious than the biggr wheeled specialists. Two small V ditches accounted for both of us at separate times. I went first, front wheel jamming in a ditch and Von flying so gracelfully over the handlebars, somehow landing on my knees amd then left shoulder. Quickly assessing no serious damange and realising it wasn't witnessed I could go again, that is after I gathered my scattered waterbottles, reset the quick release on teh fold mechanism, dusted down teh gortex pants ( it had been very cold at teh top and I though any sort of padding couldnt hurt! - I was right). I was sprung dusting down and had to admit my fall. Well, most of my body hurt but there was only one way down and I knew it was nothing serious, rounding the corner saw Yvonne in a heap with Scott (hubby) picking her up, same accident as mine. Again dust off, ride away - these Fridays are tough, it seemes there is now a new criteria to teh Yvonne Bike Friday membership - summersaults over teh handlebars for executive membership. No more damage and a more cautious approach to innocent looking bits of track. We rode off teh moutain with a long 15km left to ride to Gyantse, a cute little town where we had a rest day to recover from teh tough ride. We were all stuffed. 250 km completed. The rest day we visited the Kumbum and rested - I sent several Ibuprofen tablets in search of my aches and bruises but I think they got lost and a paracetamol followup curred the ache. Pleased to say nothing was needed on the next riding day but the bruises are still looking for a way to the surface! A strange dent in the left knee doesnt seem to affect my ridding or walking.
The next ride17/9 was the EASIEST 95 km I have ever ridden ( maybe comparatively speaking after teh day before). FLAT, slight tail wind, no resistance, well oiled bikes thanks to Chandra teh bike mechanic who worked tirelesly on teh rest day to restore all bike to former glory. The weather started out freezing but never go too hot. Arrival at Shigatse and another rest day marked the 340km ridden.
Today visted Tashgilumpo Monestry, the local markets and the supermarket and the Internet shop... from here back the hotel bar I expect for a beer and catch up with teh others.
11 days cycling now before a day off once we arrive at Sun Kosi in Nepal. I am aiming to have Friday and I clock up as much of the 1140km without support vehicle as possible but only the actual day will tell, the moutains are going t be big and hopefully can allow enoght time for teh few ou us who are slow and determined to complete as mucha s we can.

Comingup we have two passes, sealed I think one quite a bit steeper than teh other. Oh well, as long as i have all day.
The worst bit of track it seems is(25/9) from Rombuk to Everest Base Camp (tibetside) but it is listed as trek/cycle so whatever happens I think we have a whole day to get there and back, we are all looking forward to that and it will get us over the big hills between us and Rombuk.

Base Camp Tibet (5200m) note the black dog appears in all photos. Weather was cold, wet. foggy with snow so I decided not to ride the last bit and Diane and I took a horse and cart but in hindsight I would rather have ridden Bike Friday.

Rombuk to Old Tingri was the hardest day of all, especially for the small wheeled and fixed frame bikes ( 2-2 for Freedom friday)
We had to leave behind The Mountain unseen, Everest did not grace us with her visible presence but you could tell something quite special was hidden behind teh clouds and sleet and snow. It was true relucatance to ride away from such a well revered place, if i had know what riding was in store i might have had more reluctance!

Cross country of teh best kind, no road only track, Yak hearders for company, spectacular scenery, hordes or 4WD with long lenses poking ut at us. Early in the day we were so cold ,probably still disappointed from not seeing Everest and the other mighty peaks and shaken from teh roads one or two of us told them in no uncertain terms to go away!

One girl in the Tea house the day before had said we could not have ridden that road by bicycle ( but we did!) especially on Bike Fridays.

Riding up muddy tracks when the track turns to river we had to get wet feet and push through the small wheels being too hard to power through with the engines we had! I am hoping there are photos as I cant do the terrain justice.

In the next segmaent mud gave way to solid steep rocky downhill then a long ride over river stonessome te size of teh Flinders Ranges creeks - oh yep, rough and tricky and OK technical but we still powered on small wheeled, no suspension on teh front but still after many many painful hours I caught up with the lovely "slow" team that had waited for me for ages.

I would be telling a big fib if I said I didnt nearly give up, and taht I didnt cry at one stage cos I did. Lucky Jamie, he has now heard the full range of swear words to describe rocks, bumps, pot holes from a generally exhausted, sore Bike Friday NWT rider but the bike never complained, only threatened to tip me off everynow and then. A beer was never more looked forward to -after 7hr55mins riding time

I hope that now answers the few skeptics or the curious as to why you would use a BF on such a trip, especially a NWT - to see if it can be done of course.

My only regret was to opt out of riding the 8k to base camp as I thought it would be too rough and the weather was horrid - now I know better!

After Tingri, the scenery began to change as we began a huge down mostly on dirt roads, partly in rain and it becomes mud. So i did not have the camera because of the dust and wet ( i lost the pocket camera so I only had the bulky SLR). I hope to get photos from others to boost the collection.

Sun Kosi The Last Resort to Kathmandu

A really lazy day here to celebrate our return to the warmer climates of Nepal.

Few of us strayed from the lounge area and that was to have a sauna and plunge pool treatment to sooth any weary muscles and bruises.

We drank the bar out of Jacobs Creek reds, indulged in the odd G&T as well as coffees and other treats after so long camping we were now in civilisation by some standards anyway.

The next day was due to be a short ride to Dhulikel but I think a minor mention of hills meant I missed that part of the briefing that mentioned a wopper at the end of the day that was to go on forever! the hill, not the day as daylight ran out three of us were rescued from pitch black cycling by the support vehicle - foiled with a few kms to ride- but if thats like Chinese km or Nepali kms it could mean quite a while in the saddle ( at least 30 mins more in the dark- not smart)

The uphill ride to the resort at Dhulikel had taken a bit of toll on tired legs and the walk up the stairs to the rather nice rooms was a challenge ( so much so I had to go via the bar for a reviving beer). having got in late I missed the view which was a treat next morning but I cant remember the mountains names and the pamphlet is in the post coming home snail mail.

View from breakfast, preparing for the last ride back to KTM.

Instead of heading straight back down the main road we took quite back roads through some fantastic small communities and even more off road riding to test the small wheeled Bike Fridays.

Naomi the leader ended upsidedown in a non too pleasant ditch when we stopped quickly and she couldnt uncleat in time - lucky no damage done (and tactfully no photos taken)

Cleaning and packing/boxing bikes in the garden at hotel in Kathmandu. As I was staying on with my bike, I didnt need to rush so I helped others and drank beers.

Day 24 Zhangmu to Sun Kosi

A very muddy pair after a 15km ride down the "no mans land" between Zhangmu Tibet and Kodari in Nepal. Scenery unbeliveable, waterfalls from the recent monsoon rains, wash away track, landslides, rocks, mudpatches and depleated brake pads made for quite an exciting short morning ride. Of course the mountain bikes flew down while the two Fridays took it slow and steady with riders and bikes arriving in one muddy piece.

After lunch in town we all tightened what was left of brakes and set off for the Last Resort, almost all of the ride downhill which is a scarey thought without a full compliment of brake pads! Due to this I was by far the last rider in for the day watched home safely by Naomi who rode in front of me to let me know what the terrain was to support the creative breaking techniques.

Uphill, just let it run, downhill use footbraking, jump off, step through and run alongside, steer into big patches of mud - whatever works except for running into children, chickens, goats or buses! Finished the day in the rain but once agin, it was not cold, we had left the freezing cold behind the day before.

The suspension bridge high above the Sun Kosi is spectacular and a popular bungee point, nearly tempted but to be honest I dont think I could actually do it - give me a parachute instead.

Is is possible to cycle from Lhasa to Kathmandu on a Friday?

Yvonne and FreedomFriday on the Roof of the World Ride with the majestic Himalaya Range including Everest in view. The road to get here was amazing, the view was just unbelievable at 5200m, well worth the resting time.

Thursday, October 4, 2007



The invitation was made and the challenge issued - is it possible to travel the Roof of the World by Bike Friday? The gathering of the Yvonne Bike Friday Club was made possible by a chance meeting in 2006 in Vietnam and an invitation from Yvonne (Alaska) to Yvonne (Australia) to join forces on the Roof of the World Tour through Bike Asia. At this point the challenge was on with a lot of intrepidation. The complication was that my Friday is a New World Tourer (NWT) which does not have suspension and it can not be retrofitted. Fitting a ThudBuster seat post and fat marathon tyres, double bike gloves and a lot of bump absorption by body made the whole ride possible (if not painful at times)
Thanks to the Team at Bike Asia for agreeing it could be done, for Jason from Grasshopper Adventures for convincing me it could be done and for Epic Cycles and Bike Friday for the parts to make it possible.
12 cyclists - 2 Bike Fridays, 2 fixed frames touring bikes ( no suspension ), the rest mountain bikes. 1,000 + km from Tibet to Kathmandu
2 tour leaders (Naomi and Jamie) 1 cycling guide (Chandra), 1 4WD and 1 truck and a terrific local crew who kept us fed and provided luggage support and backup service when needed.
Other startling and mind numbing statistics on distances, heights, mountain passes to follow but it was zero punctures to Freedom Friday, the Gnu had one, 8 miles from the start point and none to follow. Most bikes had brake burnout on the BIG down or the roadworks or both. Stay tuned for my new techniques for stopping when all else fails (day 23 and day24)...
Posted by Vonny at 1:36 AM 0 comments