We woke up at dawn and Eric seems mentally ready for the nerve wrecking checkpoint south of Golmud
The checkpoint is straight ahead of us, and we have a bad feeling that something will fail. It they stop us, the expedition will probably end right here, due to lack of permits.
The policemen at the checkpoint didn't mind about 4 independent travellers, and we are free to continue towards Tibet without any kind of permits, at least for a while....
South of Golmud we passed plenty of gas stations clustered together in groups of 4 to 5 stations. Fuel for our stoves should not be a problem.
Jardar and a Chinese style jeep on the Golmud-Lhasa highway
A typical looking gas station in China, probably of a certain brand or company.
Lyngve is approaching the first village after Golmud
Industrial plants like this one are a rare sight along the Golmud-Lhasa highway
A small dam construction south of Golmud
Steve from China, explains us where he's going. He plans to cycle through entire China, including Tibet, in 80 days.
Jardar and Eric looks at Steve's computer. Notice how little luggage he carry on his bicycle, at least compared to us.
River and canyons along the Golmud-Lhasa highway
Steve on his long-distance journey with a Korean-made mountain bike
This was the last settlement for a while and we wondered if Steve would stay the night here, since he brought no camping gear whatsoever.
Jardar arrives camp in the afternoon, approx 100 km south of Golmud. The elevation here is 3810m and we decided that the gain of elevation would be too much, if we continued further up the valley.
Sigbjørn, Eric and Jardar are pitching the two tents, conviniently close to a peak that I decided to climb the following day.
We woke up to a rather depressing day. It was raining heavily outside, and the humid air inside the tent even fogged up Eric's glasses.
Due to heavy raining we are stuck in a camp west of Naij Tal. We have plenty of time to study maps, and we are happy to see that there is only some few kilometres left to the big mountains of China, one of them measuring 20367 feet according to the map (Yuzhu Feng).
Staying inside a small tent for 24 hours is a nightmare, but once the rain stopped I decided to take a hike in the mountains. On my way up I had to cross this pinacle, which was rather difficult due to the slippery rocks
My Suunto watch measured the summit to be 4350m, approx 550 hm above camp.
Lyngve on Peak 4350 in the eastern part of the Kunlun Shan
The Golmud-Lhasa Railway, can be seen far below. It will be in operation from 2006.
We woke up to a promising start of the day. It was partly cloudy but still plenty of sunshine.
We made sure to take it very slowly this morning, so the clammy sleeping bags at least would have 1 hour in the sunshine.
A truck in the Kunlun Shan mountains. The summit of Yuzhu Feng (6178m) is hidden in the clouds.
Jardar is chatting with the friendly owner of a truck stop. We probably spent more than 2 hours of eating, shopping and relaxing here, in order to tackle the increasing elevations better.
We decided to camp early this day and not continue towards the next pass. Sleep low, go high is a well known slogan, thus we decided to take a hike in the Kunlun Shan mountains during the afternoon. Yuzhu Feng (6178m) is the highest peak behind Sigbjørn and Jardar.
Lyngve and Sigbjørn at 4750m elevation. The snow covered peaks behind them reach more than 6000m into the sky.
Jardar and Sigbjørn continues further up the ridge, aiming for 5000m or so, which will be a new personal record for both of them.
Jardar and Lyngve has reached almost 5000m on the ridge. Our camp, next to the railway, is far below (in the center of the photo).
Jardar has set a new personal record at an elevation of 5000m. We decided to turn around here.
It was a spectacular evening at camp (4300m). The mountains behind reach 6000m or more, and forms the eastern part of the Kunlun Shan mountain range, which is the second longest mountain range in the world (3000km)
Moonrise in the Kunlun mountains on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
Jardar in camp, in front of the Kunlun Shan mountains.
A sunny and crystal clear morning at camp. Lyngve is replacing his worn out tyre with a new one.
Jardar has arrived Kunlun Shankou (4750), the only paved road across the Kunlun Shan mountain range. This is one of only two roads across the 3000km long chain of mountains.
A busload of Japanese and Taiwanese tourists arrived when we rested at the Kunlun Shankou Pass. Here Lyngve is being filmed by a Taiwanese guy. Some of the tourists really struggled in the thin air.
A girl from Taiwan borrows Jardar's bike. Just for the photo session of course....
A monument at the Kunlun Shankou Pass
South of Kunlun Shankou we are well aware that we'll be staying above 4500m for the next 2 weeks, and that there will be no quick escape to lower elevations in case of emergencies (altitude sickness). Thus we better take it easy the first few days...
Lyngve in front of the new Qinghai-Tibet Railway. It surely dominates and partly ruins the view along the Golmud-Lhasa highway.
Often we camped on the opposite side of the railway, simply to hide from the traffic along the highway. But we could not easily hide from an approaching thunderstorm like this one....
Almost on a daily basis we had column of army trucks passing us. The demand for army supplies towards Tibet and Lhasa must be enormeous judged by the heavy traffic of army vehicles.
Some of the young recruits were really crazy drivers, thus we often waited so the column of army trucks could bypass us.
A new milestone is reached - 3000 km southwest of Bejiing.
A small village, Wudaoliang, on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
Wudaoliang is a noisy truckstop village along the highway, but it was a perfect place to shop more food and bottled water.
Our campsite only 2 km outside of Wudaoliang
A really funny three-wheels bike on the Qinghai-Tibet highway
Sigbjørn and Jardar together with a Chinese adventurer
A short stretch of bad road on the Golmud-Lhasa highway
Chinese motorbikers at Fenghuoshan Pass (4958m)
A normal truck load in China. The vehicle hardly moved forward in the steep uphills to Fenghuoshan Pass.
Sigbjørn arrives Fenghuoshan Pass as the last member, mainly because of the heavy bob-trailer. For the first time in many days we cannot see any traces of the railway, because it's hidden in the ground beneath us, in the highest railway tunnel in the world (4900m).
Two kids in the village of Erdaogou, just sout of the Fenghuoshan Pass
Husband and wife in Erdaogou
