It was cloudy this morning but I could see Mt. Everest in full view...what a way to send us off as we prepare to leave Rongbuk Monastery and the Everest region.
If I haven't said this before, I'll say it now - "I'm not a mountain biker, I'm road cyclist!". Today was our final day of riding on dirt road...and I still hate it. It's just more of the damn 'corrugated' bumpy dusty dirt road to Tingri, approximately 65km from Rongbuk Monastery. I was happy to learn that we would turn off from the 'corrugated' dirt road and go on to a different road...and of course, a dirt road. Mat just smiled and off he went, and I just screamed out - "I hate dirt roads!". Instead of being 'corrugated', the road became more rocky, sandy, pebbly, muddy and bumpy, but never smooth.
About 20km into our day, Mat and I come across our support car stuck in mud. It's pretty bad and looks like it could take some time get the car out. Yep, the car is not a 4-wheel drive (rear-wheel) and it's the rear left wheel that's stuck. After an hour of digging out the mud (with a jawbone or hipbone of a yak), adding traction with stones, trying to jack up the car, then removing our luggage and equipment/tent stuff, we finally got the car free and back on the firm road. It could have been worse but everything worked out ok, and our car went off to set up for lunch down the road. Whew!
After riding 30km, I called it quits...maybe it was the rocks, sand, pebbles, mud, ruts, bumps, hills or rain; I just couldn't stand riding on the damn dusty dirt road anymore. Mat continued on for almost 40km by himself in the rain, sleet, and on the damn dusty dirt road, but always with a smile!
BTW, I believe we went through some amazing semi-arid landscape with deep gorges and the Himalaya mountain range in the background...but I was in a car half asleep.
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