Tiger Leaping Gorge – Shangri-La

Tiger Leaping Gorge – Baishuitai – Shangri La
13th May 2014      174km        11′-30’C

The day started, as has been a recurring theme, with my kicking the bike off the stand, to find that the rear tyre was flat, again.  This despite repairing it the night before.  As a process of elimination, the only component that I had not changed was the valve, so I quickly swapped the valve for a new one, inflated the tyre as was on the way again.

Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the start of the trek to Tiger Leaping Gorge, climbing down a steep goat track to the river rapids and amazing views of the Yangtze river carving its way through solid rock.  Crossing the rickety bridge made of driftwood was nervewracking.  Then the climb directly back up to the road, 500M vertical ascent in the hot sun was sweaty work.

Back on the bike and we rode through brilliant mountain roads with views magnificent of the peaks in the distance, again passing through many small villages of Chinese minorities, who were always dressed in the most colourful traditional clothing. I’d like to be able to photograph them, but almost all respond with a firm “No” when asked if I can take their photo.

Riding into the small village of Haba, I noticed that the rear tyre was flat, yet again.  Much frustration.  We were planning to have lunch here, so I parked the bike and went to have lunch, returning to start the repair after a feed.  I pulled the rear wheel off, and found a small piece of wire had punctured the tube.  After applying a patch and reassembling the bike, to an audience of five guys who had pulled up chairs, we headed off again this time to visit the Baishuitai terraces, beautiful pools formed by calcified water following down from the mountains.

The next few hours ride were a real highlight, as a perfect road climbed into the mountains, reaching 3733M metres height as we crossed the range and headed down into Shangri La.  The temperature dropped to just 11’C and the sky darkened, it looked very much like rain and I was already very cold.

Riding into Shangri La was everything that I had expected, the architecture now very Tibetan, yaks roaming freely and beautiful temples and shrines by the road.   The different appearance of the people evident also.  As we entered the town and the first few drops of rain started to fall, I felt the rear tyre go flat again.  This is the strangest of all tube problems I’ve ever experienced.  The tyre was fine for hours, and then all of a sudden it deflates to nothing in a matter of minutes.   I stopped at a shop with a compressor out the front, put enough air in the tyre to ride the 2km to the guesthouse.  It was now 7:30pm, a very long day with now the third flat tyre of the day and a big hike in the morning.  I was cold and hungry.

Fortunately the guesthouse had piping hot water, and I indulged in the first hot showed for two days.  It was good to scrub the dirt, grease and sweat off my arms from working on the bike.

We then headed out for a dinner of traditional Tibetan hotpot, yak meat and vegetables.  After dinner I was invited to dance around an fire in the courtyard of a building with a group of inebriated people who were wrapping up a party.

Then a short stroll around the old town, before retiring to bed, and the luxury of an electric blanket for the night.

Tomorrow will be a ‘rest’ day, well a non-riding day, while I try to sort out this tyre for the last time and take in the sights of this fabulous, mystical town of Shangri La.