China - A road too far?

Location:	Kashgar
Mileage:	6,475

So the day has arrived. The day when we should all cross into China. This is a momentous milestone for us all and, logistically, its significance to the trip is huge. Once in China, we have no more border crossings and a Chinese support vehicle to assist us across the Tibetan plateau (in addition to the GlobeBusters Support Van). I get the team up early. This pass is untested due to the late change with the Kyrgyz revolution and although it is much closer to Kashgar, I am worried about the weather and what conditions could be like. What I didn’t anticipate was this being the most difficult riding day I have done, let alone the team.

Over than the snow, it started off OK. There was even a bit of tarmac for a short while. When it disappears and the snow banks rise further, we are left with a track hacked out by bulldozers. It is treacherous and riders start falling like dominoes. Unbelievably we’re having to fight our way with trucks and then we get to the point of white out.

I’ve never encountered such severe conditions; but we have to cross the border today or all bets are off. Every rider is fighting their own personal battle, they’re picking each other up and clawing a hundred yards at a time. Finally the clouds lift and we see blue sky and the descent commences, but the surface is still evil – it’s completely chewed up and frozen. We get a bit lower and finally something resembling a road appears again. It’s taken 7 hours, 40 miles and between us we counted 40 bikes drops to get to the border. We’re all ecstatic at the achievement, not quite believing that we have all made it.

It’s our last lot of order border formalities to get into China and it takes hours but it who cares? We’re just bursting coz we’ve made it to China. By the time we get to Kashgar, it’s eleven at night – everyone is exhausted but riding high. We celebrate with our first (of many!) massive Chinese meals and some Great Wall red wine.