September 19, 2015 Golmund to Dulan

Today dawned with blue skies and few clouds – great riding weather, although, like yesterday, it was cold enough for us to put on the heated jackets. 

The first stop was the gas station for a fill up.  In this area, fuel stations are few and far between.  John also tries to find the ones that let us fill up at the pump rather that using the “teakettles”.  We had to wait for shift change, but this station agreed to fill all the bikes at the pump.  Notice that they sell CNG-compressed natural gas here as well.  Then, back on the road...

We headed out for more desert riding.  For the most part it was boring, but pretty.  The mountains are further away and the road is mostly straight.

Around midmorning we had some entertainment.   A group of young men were out for their Saturday morning off-road ride - they came riding out of the desert from nowhere, on bigger bikes than we have seen so far anywhere in China (except our own).

They spotted us and gave chase.

This guy joined our pack for a while.

When John pulled off at a station for a break, he and his buddies pulled in behind.

The guys admired each other’s bikes.

Then Mike asked if he could take a dirt bike for a ride.  He couldn’t get it started so the owner did it for him, and off Mike went.

The Chinese guys were laughing and joking –

Mostly, because Mike is tall enough to just stand over the bike.  These are basically the same motorcycles that race in the Dakar off-road races - 450cc, loud and fast.

All too soon we had to say goodbye and head our different ways.

Other motorcyclists were out braving the cold.  We have to give these guys credit; they’re all bundled up while most of us have our heated gear plugged in.

For the rest of the morning it was more sand, distant mountains, and fairly straight roads.  We are on the Tibetan Plateau, somewhere between 8 and 10 thousand feet above sea level.  That explains why we are so cold in the desert.

 Close to noon, however, we came over a pass and saw a fertile valley.

There was a farming community, including a mosque.

 We pulled into a gas station to refuel.  Unfortunately, the manager insisted we use the “teakettles” to fill the bikes.  To save time we only filled the bikes with the smaller gas tanks, as the others had enough to get to the day's destination.

Why does Yingchu have this expression?

Because; Mike and Alain "cheated" and took advantage of having a motorcycle in close proximity to the gas pump.  The attendant was not very happy, but it’s had to tell because so many people wear the masks to protect against the pollution.

We traveled a few more kilometers on the road passing prayer flags along the way. 

We are now as close as we will get to Tibet, and riding along the edge of the high Tibetan Plateau, also known as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau or the Himalayan Plateau.

With an average elevation of 4500 meters (14,700 feet), it is sometimes called “the roof of the world”. It is surrounded by the mountain ranges; Himalayan (south), Kunlun (north), and Qilan (northeast). 

Shortly before noon we turned off the road towards a scenic spot and a picnic lunch.

The narrow concrete road let up to the base of the mountains, over bridges, passing momma cows and their babies.

Green and Janis had driven ahead in the van and presented the group with a delicious boxed lunch.

We couldn’t have asked for a more pleasant place to pass the noon hour.

Heading back out to the main road, more sheep and cows:

The passing flock of sheep, driven by a motorcycle riding-shepherd and a couple of dogs, pulled us to our feet to take pictures.

Once up we decided to drive further up the road into the mountains.

A Buddhist shrine caught our eye.  It’s seems an odd place for such a beautiful monument to be placed.

Driving past some more cows and calves, we soon came to the end of the pavement.  While some decided to go play in the dirt, we heeded the warning in the daily planning book, turned around and drove slowly out to the road.

 Past more cows on the loose.

We waited for the rest of the group while watching a couple of cows have a horn-locking tussle in a nearby field.

Once back on the national road, we had only about 20 miles to go before reaching our hotel for the evening, the Gold World Hotel.

A diversion onto the new freeway,

Didn’t really speed things up since we still had two way traffic.

I was glad to get into our hotel by mid-afternoon. We had plenty of time to shower, change and rest before we met everyone in the lobby for dinner.  But as we opened our door to leave the room, the electricity went off.  Not sure if it would be on when we returned, we checked the electronic key to make sure it would work without power.  It did.  Since the elevators didn’t work, we took the stairs to the first floor, only to find that it did not connect to the lobby.  We climbed back up to the second floor, huffing and puffing because of the altitude.  We’re more than  8,000 feet above sea level.  After walking the full length of the hotel, we descended to the first floor and the lobby.  To our dismay, dinner was in the part of the hotel we had just left.  We’d come full circle.  It ended well, with another lazy-susan dinner of umpteen different dishes.  There was something for everyone, and more than enough to eat.

Tomorrow will feature the largest salt water lake in China.