Tensing came for us at 9 am and we set off for Tibet. The road rose gradually through woodland and fields to Deqen where we had dinner and filled the van’s water tank. The public bog consisted of open cubicles without doors and I passed a number of ladies squatting down having blundered into the ladies section by mistake.
From Deqen the road rose in a number of hairpins to a pass at about 4,000 metres ASL and we could see the huge snow-capped Meilishan mountain range with an impressive glacier to the left. We crossed the pass through a series of tunnels totalling about 12 kms in length. The road then dropped sharply in a huge number of hairpins to run alongside the yellow-brown Jinshan (Yangtse) river which was cascading along between sheer cliffs rising thousands of feet. The rock was red, purple, grey, ochre, mauve and light green where the cliffs were less steep and were able to sustain some vegetation in the form of short shrubs with light green leaves. The cliffs had tracks leading diagonally upwards which were the routes by which the farmers lead their animals to pasture in the higher slopes during the summer.
The road then rose up from the river and, at one point, the rock was deep crimson which contrasted dramatically with the golden patches where the barley crop had been harvested. One of the small villages had vineyards and grapes were being harvested and packed into trucks.
Eventually we reached the Tibetan border at the small town of Taga which has traditionally produced salt for sale to the Tibetans. We were stopped at the border by the police who issued us with a permit and, despite all the warnings from Bing, Green and Tensing, showed no interest in our diesel cans and Camping Gaz bottle. The road then continued to rise with the most spectacular views in all directions until we reached a pass at a height of 4,300 metres ASL and strewn with Tibetan prayer flags. This was an area of coniferous forest with patches of grazing land.
After descending to about 1,500 metres the road then ran in a fairly straight line to the fairly large town of Markam. Tensing had to go to the police station to register us and came back in a few minutes with the necessary document saying that a friendly policemen was going to lead us to a hotel. We are obliged to stay in hotels in Tibet, but the policeman suggested we paid the hotel 30 yuan (£3) and camp in the car park. We then went for a delicious pork barbecue with Tensing after having a shower in his hotel room.
