May 6, 2007
To Draksum Tso Camp site: Mile marker 50 alt 4386 m
Off and on throughout the night, the wind picks up and rattles our tent. Though the elevation is high, we are in arid country and we are warm inside the tent. It's nice not to be cold! We ration our drinking water and only have hot cereal, no coffee, and cereal bars for breakfast. We push back to the road (Patrick finds beautiful camp spots that usually require a bit of work) and the climbing and hairpin curves continue.
In one curve there is a stream coming down past ruins, Patrick filters the water and Rachel feeds him apples. The climbing and hairpins go on and on ticking off the meters we need to gain to Kompa-la pass (4700m). Along the way we are video taped by a Chinese couple who shout "I admire you" and give thumbs up. Later when we stop for a food break of peanut butter and blueberry jelly sandwich and a hard boiled egg, they are headed back down from the pass and stop again. This time taking their pictures with us. The woman asks for our email address and said she would send us the pictures. Then we see a cyclist with one rear pannier come up the hill, says hello, and kept on cycling around the hairpin shouting over his shoulder "German" to answer our question. What cyclist doesn't stop? The next cyclist does stop to talk with us, there are 5 Germans on a supported tour. Later we meet a Scottish couple who are also part of the tour--the German didn't mention them.
The hills and ridges are brown and barren, we see yaks grazing on the hillside. We can follow the road to see where we came from and follow the road up to where we are going and finally see prayer flags at the top of the ridge...must be the summit. After 20km and 875m gain (plus the 250m yesterday for a total 1100m) starting at 0815, we reach the summit at 1pm. And what a zoo of decorated yaks (for pictures for a fee) and souvenir stands and the many many prayer flags.
Well worth the view of Yamdrok Tso (4408m) named Scorpion lake because of it's scorpion-like shape, and what an awesome color of blue! It is one of the 4 holiest lakes in Tibet (The other 3 are Nam Tso, Manas arova near Kaliash and Lama Lhatso near Tsetang). We find a camp spot on a flat peninsula in an open plain by the lake a little way from the road but still visible. There is no one around or houses and the traffic is light. In one direction, we can see the switchback road we descended and in the other a view of Mt Noijin Kangsang (7190m).
Tomorrow we will get even better views of this mountain to the North and Mt. Jetsung Chusang (6235m) to the South East. Then the next of the 6 passes to Kathmandu, Karo La Pass (4960m) The best part about today is dinner. After so many yak steaks enough is enough and we finally had the instant noodles again.
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Today's ride: 34 km (21 miles)
Total: 8,768 km (5,445 miles)
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