From Kodari
to
Zhangmu
altitude 2300m

Distance 11 Km

Slightly dazed by yesterday's chaos, we leave in a mild state of chaos, away up the ramshackle wooden hutted road of Kodari. It’s a simple affair to leave Nepal - and then we cross the symbolic Friendship Bridge, into the no mans land that extends between Political China and Nepal. This is it - the point of no return - everything is crossed - please, please let us in. The road switchbacks back and forth and climbs steeply immediately after the bridge - along a steadily deteriorating rocky trail. We have been told that the road is broken somewhere before Zhangmu - the first Tibetan town - and so we edge along not knowing where we shall be halted - if we are to be halted at all.

Its maybe 7km and we encounter a static line of trucks and a bunch of frenzied porters - eager to get their hands on our bags - the rock slide taking the road out is a godsend for these guys - a regular source of income - and 5 Western Cyclists and one support crew with gas canisters, cooker and a fortnight of food looks like easy pickings for them. We resist their onslaught and also their quotation of £1 per journey up the staircase - we don't even know how far it is - but as sure as eggs is eggs - the price offered to us is highly unreasonable - especially when we have so many trips to make.

Nick volunteers to be the first flight - and sets off up the staircase - with bike on back. In the mean while Andrew and Rich S have gone to explore the road outage - between the deafening blasts of dynamite being used to clear the road of the debris, they make their way through - but its hardly safe and so we opt for the staircase for the remainder of the gear. I figure that our best option for bringing the price of our porters down will be to show that we don't actually have to engage their support - we are quite capable of moving our mountain of gear ourselves - and so we begin more ferry journeys up and down. The porters see our pile of gear steadily disappear up the hill and sure enough their price drops dramatically and we end up sending just 4 porters up the hill - with gas canisters and food. At the top of the hill we come to a sad realisation. Although we have now negociate the road break successfully there are still no vehicles - and we are still at a distance of some 5km from Zhangmu. We are moving painfully slowly. Tim Andrew and Rich are dispatched as a forward party by bike again to try and bring down a taxi to collect our cooking equipment. The food and the stove are beginning to feel like a millstone - we can't move all the stuff by ourselves - and so we sit helpless. I can feel Chusang - our original goal for the day growing ever more distant. Finally when we can wait no more we decide to request the assistance of the porters once again - to walk the 5km up to Zhangmu. They hoist the bags and are away. To add to our fun and games though the party is a family and we have young men striding up the hill at a rate of knots followed by grandfather Tibetan who struggles labouriously. Our kit splits up before our eyes - and we struggle in the general melee to keep eyes on all 5 of our carriers. Before a loss occurs we decide to adopt a man to man marking strategy and we each follow one Tibetan porter, and then as we reach Chinese immigration we are able to bring them all back together again. Phew!

I am enormously tense at the immigration - after having heard stories of so many people being turned away - and having had first hand experience of the complexities of the Chinese authorities through fax communications 5 years ago when trying to organise a trip. Andrew gets the rough end of my tongue in the stress of the moment - but gladly we meet our guide and driver successfully and Sony our guide takes care of everything. We pass the border without a hitch - much to my amazement! Once inside we all collapse into a restaurant starving and tired with all the commotion of a crazy day. It seems foolish to set off now - and so we opt for a night stop in Zhangmu. The weather in the valley is clockwork and now at about 4pm the clouds are rolling in and the chill in the air is noticeable. We finally have time to take stock - and to look around us. This is certainly not the quaint and spiritual country that we had expected - the outward signs are all Chinese - modern glass fronted buildings and concrete all around us - even a concrete main road running through the town, complete with underground closed sewers running beneath. There has already though been a transition in the people - we begin to see a dramatic mix of smart dressed Chinese and traditional Tibetan - the Tibetans with the most amazing long hair - uncut since birth - and braided and tassled with red string and blue and orange beads. The faces are ruddy and weather worn and the kids run through the streets with snotty dribbling noses and chapped lips - we overuse our only Tibetan phrase - Tashi Delek - welcome and hello to all our new Tibetan and Chinese friends!