China part 4: Delingha to Linxia

We left the hotel after the worst buffet breakfast in history, soggy, cold and spicy vegetables and cold dumplings. We hit a couple of food shops, then I went to use the internet in a China Telecom shop - breaking the law by using the internet! More police found us after about half an hour because Phil was outside with the bikes. Anyway we were escorted out and then we had the pleasure of their company for lunch. We were eventually escorted out of the city and they waved goodbye to us from the outskirts! What a ridiculous experience! On the road out of Delingha, we noticed we were being followed by a guy on an electric scooter. We kept ahead of him for a while then tried slowing down, he did, then we went faster and he did. Very strange, so we stopped, waved at him and he came over. We swapped bikes and Phil and me both had a go on his electric scooter. It was very slow, eco-friendly, but I wouldn't want one. It was funny though, he wanted our autographs for some reason, we signed a piece of paper 'From Russia with love, Roger Moore and Shaun Connery. We found a nice campsite that night and had a coal fueled fire. Had a breakfast of jam, bread, biscuits, then followed the road and had a decent lunch in a Muslim restaurant. Got a bit fiery, a load of firecrackers went off across the road then the chef had a fight with a customer who wouldn't pay for the food! I bought a 'Red Oxen' energy drink! That evening we reached Ulan and bought an entire cooked duck in the market, very fatty but delicious. Camped in a wood on the outskirts that night. The next day, we were back in the mountains and we headed up a pass. We stopped at a shop with a lovely old couple who sat us down in their living room and gave us water to take with us. We climbed up a beautiful green valley all morning, saw a Buddhist Monastery, then reached a massive factory. It was so big, they had a massive town just for the workers on the factory sight. We had lunch in trucker's cafe, delicious chicken. Great descent that afternoon to a plateau with a strong tailwind. We had a wash in a freezing river then headed uphill, following a railway line. We found loads of coal and a big bundle of straw and made a massive pyromaniac fire in a dry river bed. The next morning disaster struck. I checked the spoke tension on my back wheel and found that my Rohloff hub was damaged. Major problem, one the eyelets where the spokes go through was snapped and another cracked. Two spokes weren't doing anything so my wheel was basically dead. It would last a big longer but it was a time bomb waiting to break. The hub has internal gears so replacing the wheel with one I can get here isn't an option, I have to fix it, which will involve getting a replacement hub body sent from home. We had a think what to do and decided to try to get to the next town. After about 1 hour my wheel was wobbling horribly so we did a bodge job. We wrapped a length of chain around the hub, connected it to itself and wedged a bit of metal cable between the spokes to hold it in place. Then we bent two new spokes into the chain and connected them to the rim. It seemed to be a descent bodge and I reckoned it would hold for a while. We continued on and got lunch in another trucker's cafe. I went to use the internet in a petrol station and emailed Rohloff and sent them some pictures of the damage. The rest of the day was fantastic. We climbed up to a new China record of 3817m and had an amazing switchbacked descent and the wheel held out OK. There were loads of Buddhist prayer flags on the top of the pass. We descended to Qinhai Hu, a huge high altitude lake and got to a town. After dinner, I searched for the internet again and was allowed to use it in a police station - massive irony compared to Delingha! Got a fantastic response from Rohloff, great company, they will replace parts for free and send me the tools I need to fix it. It's probably not even their fault it broke but the bike shop that built the wheel. We were offered food by a lovely Tibetan lady, delicious soupy stew with dumplings. We slept in a tunnel under the road that night just past a toll gate. The next morning it was pissing it down and we got going about 9. We did a very fast 17 miles and got invited into a monk's home to shelter from the rain. We were given noodle and yak meat soup, absolutely delicious and had 3 helpings! We had a second lunch in the town 10 miles further along the lake then spent 2 hours trying to find food. There was almost nothing in the town that wasn't 2 months or more past it's sell by date. We continued to the end of Qinhai Hu, arguing about how many points a broken Rohloff Hub was worth on the point accumulation game (you get different number of points depending on the scale of bike problem, most points buys beers in Beijing airport). We settled on 2, maybe raising to more if more problems occur. That put the score on 4 - 1.5, not looking good for me! That night we camped around the back of an English speaking shop owner's shop. Good place, with the view of a Buddhist monastry with a huge golden statue of the future Buddha. The next morning we battled 20 miles against a strong headwind, got noodles for lunch, sorted out postage for Rohloff bits, will get them sent to Xi'an (thanks Mum & Oli!) then spent another couple of hours looking for non-out- of-date food. After a frustrating shopping session, we climbed over a 3,500m pass and descended to a small town just off the motorway. We were offered food by a very friendly guy and went to his amazing house! He's a trucker, they must get paid well judging by his massive TV and sound system. After endless portions of fantastic noodles we climbed another beautiful valley to a brilliant campsite by a stream, it reminded me of the Highlands in Scotland! Having a bit of a gear crisis at the moment though, my tent ripped as a put it up, in one of the corners, where a ped strap attaches to the fly sheet. It took me an hour to sew it u again, using a strap to reinforce it. Should be as good as new I think. Phil made tea as I was doing that and then it started snowing.

In the morning the tents were covered by a couple of cm of snow, which started up again as we left the campsite and it was really cold. I was wearing everything I had except my overshoes, which I gave to Phil after a couple of hours when he was worried about his toes falling off! Phil's coat isn't very waterproof so he was wearing a plastic sheet tied around him like an apron, he looked hilarious but it seemed to keep the wind off! After a couple of hours we stopped to warm Phil's feet up. My Jamaican couloured walking socks were keeping mine warm but Phil's were freezing. We took it in turns to rub them and after about 20 mins the colour came back. He put my overboots on after that and was OK for the rest of the day.

We reached the top of a pass and did a clockwise lap of the Buddhist shrine, we needed good karma, no more broken equipment and good weather would be good please! We descended to a town and it started warming up, excellent! We stopped at a shop, had pot noodles there and watched Mongolian archery on the TV. We were doing well and were aiming to get to a town called Zebar in the evening, still about 90 km away so I could talk to Laura on Skype for what would be the first time in a month. We climbed another massive pass into the cold mist again then a fantastic descent into dream China. Massive tree covered peaks in the mist, monastries on the mountains and switchbacks down over a vertical km.

We cycled straight through the town at the bottom and started another massive climb up a series of switchbacks. We passed a squealing piglet in a bad on the back of a motorbike. A group of teenagers in a jeep stopped and showed us their huge bag of weed that they'd picked somewhere nearby! We continued up the pass, gobsmacking views! We got to the top then went up and down a series of smaller passes, got to a shop and gorged about 2,000 caleries each. More up and down on small passes until it got dark, fantastic scenery still. We climbed for over an hour in the dark it was confusing, no idea what we were cycling through or the gradiant. We reached the pass and cycled 10km downhill into the town arriving about 9.30. I got to Skype, had a nice chat, then back to the hotel absolutely shattered!

The next day was short. We were tired after the massive previous day and it was raining again. We sheltered under a bridge and decided to take the afternoon off. Phil went off to get wood, I spent time reinforcing the rip in my tent - only did 7 miles. In the morning my stove took 20 mins to get going, think its getting blocked, the gear crisis continues! We reached a reservoir at the top of an amazing gorge with huge sandstone formations that we followed down to a Muslim community. It was very different from the Buddhist monasteries. The road took us down to the Yellow River and a big town where we bought loads of dates! That night we camped in the Yellow River gorge and the stove packed up. Bread and dates for dinner then!

After a similar breakfast the next day, we followed the Yellow River in the rain. A Belgian guy stopped his Taxi, gave us directions and told us he was terrified by his driver's driving! We followed the track along an amazing gorge, through some tunnels. We had lunch in one and were passed by a digger with a terrible driver who kept nearly crashing into the tunnel walls! We had lunch in a cafe run by Muslim boys, which was very nice, then climbed in the rain, pass after pass all afternoon until dark. We did another massive night ride through terrible roads. Sloppy mud over hard packed mud made the riding pretty dangerous. I fell off twice as the road got slippier and Phil fell off once. We were covered in mud and the bikes were seriously dirty. Eventually we reached the city of Linxia, in a complete state. We arrived at a reasonably priced hotel, tried to find a cheaper one but were put off by the horrible assistant behind the reception and the naked man in the foyer! We went back to the first one and booked two nights. We put the bikes in their massive boiler room and had a much needed wash. We plan to visit Labrang Monastery tomorrow in a nearby town. It's the second most important Tibetan Buddhist monastery after the one in Lhasa, in Tibet. Really looking forward to it.