317 Cycling Tour, Day 26: Kongma Township-Nakqu

Because you can miss someone as much as you want without being disturbed.

The starry sky in Kongma Township is so beautiful. Of course I have this experience because there is no place to go to the toilet, so I can only seek help in the wild😝

Because the room we stayed in was too cold, the warrior and I requested to sleep on a bench in the hall with a warm cow dung stove, and the super tough host agreed. Therefore, it was more than ten degrees below zero outside the house, making people not want to set foot in it at all.

However, there are some things that can't be helped.

Fortunately, the starry sky is beautiful, and the starry sky on the plateau is particularly bright. Because there is no cloud or fog, I have never seen so many stars, like rare gems, dotted on the blue-black sky. I was a little dazed watching it.

If it weren't for the extremely cold weather, I would be a little reluctant to enter the house.

I only regretted that I had read so few books, and could barely describe it with just one sentence, "The stars hang down on the plains, and the fields are vast." Others are too petty. Because it is really beautiful and cannot evoke any emotions of separation and separation.

We overslept in the morning, and it was almost seven o'clock when Sister Luo woke us up. Fortunately, the schedule is not rushed. The host provides breakfast of tsampa powder + yogurt cubes, brewed with butter tea.

We all had the foresight to buy instant noodles in advance, fearing that we would not be used to them. Except for me who ate most of it, the other three people probably mainly ate instant noodles.

After packing up and setting off, Sister Luo left first.

I didn't know which tendon was touched, so I asked the warrior who was loading the pannier bag: Warrior, this time 317, it seems you haven't had a puncture yet, right?

He immediately said, no, no, no, don’t say that.

We all laughed. As a result, 2 minutes after he pushed the cart out, he found that the front tire was deflated🤣. He was so anxious that he posted on WeChat and said that I must have opened my mouth.

I feel really embarrassed 😅. It’s not an easy job to fix a car’s tires and look for punctures when the weather is more than ten degrees below zero.

Fortunately, little D helped him make up for it quickly. I couldn't bear the cold and couldn't help, so I left first.

At around 8 o'clock, it was already bright, but the temperature was still very low, about minus 10 degrees. My toes were very cold, and there was nothing I could do. I wanted to get down and walk in the cart.

There was a thin layer of ice on the inside of the hat brim, but I didn't notice it at first. Later I found something was wrong, because some of them fell off. In fact, the hot air from the breath froze when it met the brim of the hat.

My eyelashes also feel sticky, but it's actually the same reason: water vapor freezes.

We can only pedal as hard as we can, hoping that the sun will rise higher.

I guess it’s because the tsampa and butter tea are high in energy, so I’m in pretty good shape. Although the transmission cable still cannot be solved, I have given up, as long as one side can shift into gear.

I have been riding on the plateau these past few days. There are few cars in the morning and the sky is very blue and close.

The plateau is very close to the sky and connected with the grassland, as if you can reach out and touch it.

Such a situation is particularly suitable for missing you,

Those thoughts that usually have no time to place and collect, come like a tide, flowing freely, unable to be collected, and there is no need to collect them. In the vast world, they are completely let go, without any interruption, even if there are tears...

How are you doing in that world?

Tsangyang Gyatso’s poem is said by everyone to be about love, but I think it is a mourning poem:

…

That month I shook all the prayer wheels, not for salvation, just to touch your fingertips

That year, I kowtowed and prostrated on the mountain road, not to meet you, just to stay close to your warmth.

In that life, I walked around mountains, rivers, and pagodas, not to cultivate the next life, just to meet you on the way.

…

Today's journey to Nagqu is only 50 kilometers, so the task of crossing the pass is really not heavy.

About 2 kilometers away from the pass, Baidu Navigation tricked me again. Because the navigation is for cycling, it automatically avoided the highway and led to a small road. It was suggested that I take a shortcut 😂😂

I stopped at the fork in the road for a minute, feeling very confused. At an altitude of 4,800 meters, taking shortcuts would be very tiring. Just look at the steep slope and you can imagine it.

However, taking 317 requires taking such a big bend, and at the same time, there is such an opportunity to take a shortcut (roughly estimated to be 1/10 of the distance) to the pass, which is really tempting. In what the warrior later said, it was a big trap😂

I thought I'd give it a try, because I would definitely regret it if I didn't. So, just push. This was taken by the Warriors and Little D from behind. They hesitated for a moment, but chose to take the right path and ride the long way slowly.

I must say, I was really tired. When I pushed it back, I felt my heart beating so fast that it almost jumped out of my chest.

Every time you push forward, you squeeze the brakes and stop to take a breath. Sometimes I have to lean on my body and push the bicycle.

I saw them taking the highway, and I was secretly happy, because I could just calculate whether it was worth taking the shortcut.

The result was that the warriors were at the rendezvous point where I had arrived, and little D was lagging behind. This shows that if I were to ride, it would be more time-saving to take the shortcut.

However, this result is not important, what is important is the shortcut itself. It's like breaking an established rule, and there's a sense of accomplishment. The warrior originally wanted to help push me, but I refused and just let him take pictures.

It is said that the altitude label is wrong and should be more than 4800 meters.

Today's second pass, the road book says it's not difficult, it's a bit like an ups and downs road, without any obvious climbing feeling.

Because when pushing a stroller, the load on my heart is indeed very heavy, and I am also afraid of causing any hidden dangers to my body. After all, I don’t do cardiac angiography or anything like that during my usual physical examination, so I can’t tell.

So pay attention to your physical sensations later on, especially when you feel a little unclear about where the pain is.

As a result, when I reached the second pass, I actually had diarrhea. Wow, such a plateau is basically unobstructed.

Later, I reluctantly solved it. Alas, it was really a test and a rare experience.

After taking photos by myself, I quickly prepared to go down the mountain.

This pass is the easiest for me to climb downhill, because after only a few hundred meters (?), the high-rise buildings in the distance - the city of Nagqu are displayed. I was so impressed that I stopped to take photos on the way down.

Easily enter the bustling city, with various high-rise buildings, busy vehicles, pedestrians, and traffic lights one after another, it feels like another parallel time and space 😂

When I came to the Tibetan restaurant where everyone had Chinese food, I met up with the troops. They all told me about taking a shortcut at the pass.

After eating and drinking enough, it felt so good to go back to the hotel and lie down.

There are still 331 kilometers to Lhasa, a three-day trip. Starting from tomorrow, we will transfer from National Highway 317 to National Highway 109.

Previously, 317 ended at Nagqu, but now it extends to Ngari, and it still doesn’t go to Lhasa.

Tomorrow will be a 95-kilometer ride with an altitude of over 4,500 meters. However, Benben said that it is best to complete the 70-kilometer ride before 1:00 noon, so as to avoid headwinds. Alas, the head is big.