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Yunnan Province; China

Mar
2004-09-14 15:37:29

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in a good condition. Our legs start to feel the elevation change and we are breathing more heavily. At 3700meters, where the road changes again into a Roman road, we do one more attempt to reach the summit by cycling 6-7km/h.

After 1 km (3800m) we see two mountain huts, were we decide to stop for the night and pitch our tent. 'Ni Hao', I say into the dark at the door opening. No need to pitch a tent today, we can choose between these two 'Swiss-mountain cabins'. The surface of the huts are approximately 5x4 meters with a fire place in the center and an open roof that looks like the chimney. One of the huts is next to the road; the other contains a thick layer of cattle shit. We choose for the shit. Raymond sweeps the (dried) shit to the other side of the hut while I get dry wood for a fire and pine wood needles for the floor. We eat noodle soup in front of the fire, but this is not a success. 50% of the smoke does not leave our cabin via the roof.

When we continue the next day we have to adjust our speed and slow down. We have viewed the summit from our hut and it seems close. The night was cold (less than 3C) and we start of with our gloves on. Just before we reach the summit, slowly a large mountain with white peaks shining in the sun arises over the top. 'Wow!' shouts Raymond at the moment he sees this mountain, and I wonder what is so astonishing.

We set-off our firecrackers that we bought in the supermarket two days ago to celebrate this victory at 4193meters. Our 'celebration' dance is so exhausting that we have to stop it. We laugh and scream out loud, but have to stop this as well. We dress up warm for the expected long decent to Deqin and start cycling. What we did not know at this time is that the real summit is at 4260meters and after two long descents.

Tibetan Feilai temple /Deqin.

'Want a Dali beer?' Raymond asks. 'Sure, ...