24th September

Today had only 140 Km to do but they were really taxing... It rained throughout making it freezing cold... I had a woolen body warmer, a t-shirt, a sweater, a fleecy and a heavyduty jacket ontop yet was shivering all through the ride!! To top this my helmet visor would get totally fogged because of my breathing so had to leave it open and bear the cold wind and icy droplets and drive slow. I refused to take even a single break as I wanted this journey finished as fast as possible. There were many photo op moments but that meant getting the helmet off, the gloves off (which are nicely tucked and fastened into my sleeves)opening the rain cover on the side car, opening to the bag and then the getting to the camera... not today...perish the thought!

We had to pass over several ranges and on top of the last one (10 km away from today's destination Amdo.) it was so cold that the water was turning to ice. I was covered with what looked like crushed ice...  just wanted to get to a hotel room as fast as possible and immerse my numbing face, fingers and toes in hot water.

Finally we reached Amdo, a small town; found a hotel and changed out of my half wet socks and clothes. There was no running water as it had frozen in the pipes!  But they gave me a big thermos of hot water so freshened up with that.

Lunch was at a typical Tibetan restaurant. These are really cozy as they have a long stove in the middle of the room on which big pots of tea, water, soup etc are boiling making the whole room nice and warm. Sitting closest to the stove, had a wonderful meal- rice, soya noodles with yak meat, bamboo shoots with yak meat, and a big bowl of steaming soup.  I felt alive again and headed straight to a cyber cafe to shoot this off. As I mentioned ... no images today!
There is thunder, lightning and heavy showers out side...Tomorrow I have about 300 km and day after 400- I hope the weather gods are mercifull !